During the second general audience of his pontificate, Pope Leo XIV delivered a stirring reflection on the Parable of the Good Samaritan, calling Catholics to rediscover the heart of compassion in a world often ruled by speed, indifference, and distance.
Addressing the faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square on May 28, 2025, the Holy Father reminded the crowd that the parables in the Gospel are meant “to change perspective and open ourselves up to hope.” According to the Pope, “The lack of hope is sometimes due to the fact that we fixate on a certain rigid and closed way of seeing things,” but the parables “help us to look at them from another point of view.”
In unpacking the parable from Luke 10:25–37, Pope Leo XIV noted that Jesus originally told this story to a “doctor of the law” who asked, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus’ response—to love God and neighbor—becomes the foundation of Christian living. But this love, Pope Leo warned, cannot remain theoretical.
The pontiff explained that the road the beaten man travels is “as difficult and harsh as life itself.” He pointed to the reality that many people are spiritually or emotionally “attacked, beaten, robbed, and left half dead.” In these moments, even people we trusted can leave us wounded and abandoned. But it is precisely here—on the side of this road—where we must decide whether we will embody Christ’s mercy or pass by like the priest and the Levite.
According to Pope Leo XIV, “The practice of worship does not automatically lead to being compassionate. Indeed, before being a religious matter, compassion is a question of humanity! Before being believers, we are called to be human.”
He drew special attention to one major obstacle in modern life: haste. “Haste, so present in our lives, very often impedes us from feeling compassion. One who thinks his or her journey must be the priority is not willing to stop for another,” he said.
The Pope held up the Samaritan as a model—not because of his religious affiliation, but because of his human response. “Religiosity does not enter into this. This Samaritan simply stops because he is a man faced with another man in need of help,” the Pope explained.
True compassion, Leo XIV stressed, is not sentimental but sacrificial. “It is expressed through practical gestures,” he said. “You cannot think of keeping your distance; you have to get involved, get dirty yourself, perhaps be contaminated. One truly helps if one is willing to feel the weight of the other’s pain.”
Pope Leo XIV then invited his listeners to look inward: “When will we, too, be capable of interrupting our journey and having compassion? When we understand that the wounded man in the street represents each one of us. And then the memory of all the times that Jesus stopped to take care of us will make us more capable of compassion.”
Concluding his catechesis, he prayed that all may “grow in humanity, so that our relationships may be truer and richer in compassion,” and asked the faithful to “ask the heart of Jesus for the grace to increasingly have the same feelings he does.”
The audience concluded with the Pope leading the Our Father in Latin and imparting his apostolic blessing, while pilgrims, despite the intense spring heat, listened intently to the successor of Peter call them to a more radical love—one that stops, sees, and embraces the wounded Christ in others.
Amen !