The Parable of the Good Samaritan (new version)

Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus, saying:  

– ‘Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’.

Jesus replied:

– ‘What is written in the law? What do you read there?’

In response quotes the man:

– ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbour as yourself.’

– ‘You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.’

But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus:

– ‘And who is my neighbour?’

Jesus replied:

– ‘A man was going down from Lagos to Nador, and fell into the hands of robbers and smugglers. He embarked on a boat with others to reach Motril halfway and the boat sank and were half dead drift. As he could swim he tried to stay afloat and help their teammates. He exhausted lost consciousness and woke up lying on a Spanish beach. It turns out that walking on the beach a priest who saw him and see that not profess the same religion, he passed by. So also he came to the place a specialist agent in shelter, and looked at him and asked a few questions:

– Where are you from?

The young man replied:

– From Nigeria.

– Oops, an irregular immigrant. It doesn’t sound good.

– I need help. My family suffers great need, my mother is very ill and needs an operation, and we have no means to my brothers to go to school. In addition, there are many problems of violence in the area and want my brothers to get out of there.

– I’m sorry, but now if you’re not from Syria or Afghanistan, you will not receive international protection or refugee status.

– But if you knew everything I’ve been through to get here, if you saw how my family lives…

– I feel sorry.

At the end after apologizing, he followed swerved and long.

It also passed through that place a group of businessmen, and seeing that he was badly injured and could not take it any advantage, they deviated and continued his walk. It was a crowded beach. There a woman who was on vacation sunbathing and approached the sea to cool off also approached, and seeing that he was a black man and dressed in rags, feared for his life and thought to justify first had to help their compatriots Spanish though certainly not move even a finger, he swerved and passed. But a young woman who was looking starfish and shells with their children in a nearby rocks, came where the man was and saw him, he took pity on him. He walked, covered him with his towel because she was shivering and healed their wounds. Meanwhile, he sent one of his sons to find her husband, took him home and cared for him until he regained strength. The next day, they asked for help from the authorities and a support center for migrants. Please, «Take care of him you he told them, and what you need, we are ready to lend a hand in whatever.» Which of these five, do you think, was a neighbor to this man?

– The young woman with her family sympathized with him said the expert in the law.

– Go and do likewise concluded Jesus.

Alberto Ares, sj