The
Parable of the Good Samaritan
[Luke 10.25-37]
…[A] Samaritan traveler who came upon
him was moved with compassion at the sight. He approached
the victim, poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them. Then he
lifted him up on his own animal, took him to an inn and cared for him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to
the innkeeper with the instruction, ‘Take care of him. If you spend more than
what I have given you, I shall repay you on my way back.’ Which
of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers’ victim?” He answered, “The one who treated him with mercy.” Jesus said
to him, “Go and do likewise.”
Pope Francis’s Commentary
The Samaritan behaved with true mercy: he dressed that man’s wounds, he
took him to the inn, took personal care of him and provided for his assistance.
All this teaches us that compassion…is not a vague feeling, but it means to
take care of the other, even to paying in person. It means to commit oneself,
taking all the necessary steps to “come close” to the other, to the point of
identifying oneself with him—“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Compassion is an essential characteristic of God’s mercy…. Each one of us should ask the question…,“Do I
believe that the Lord has compassion for me, just as I am, a sinner, with so
many problems and so many things?” …[T]he answer is: “Yes!” But each one must
look into their heart to see if they have faith in this compassion of God
(General Audience. April 27, 2016)
Examination of
Conscience
What
we perceive to be the law or custom, what is socially acceptable or required,
often stands in the way of mercy, as it did for the priest and the Levite in
this parable.
Can
you think of instances in which you withhold mercy because of the law or what
other people would say?
Today’s Prayer
Divine God of Mercy, help us always remember that you care for us as a
mother cares for her children, even when we least deserve it. Help us to be merciful to others even when it
violates social convention.
It's so fascinating how Jesus turns the question around, being asked Who is my neighbor (among those to whom the command of God obligates me) but asking after the story Who was a neighbor to the injured man (someone who met a large need with great largesse). Can we indulge in a linguistic 'trick' and make 'neighbor' operate as a verb? Who neighbored the injured man? Who did I neighbor today, and who did I fail to neighbor? Who neighbored me in times when my need seemed greatest? What social conventions leave me hesitant to neighbor a person or group in need? What calculations do I harbor in my heart against people who do X or Y or Z that can tempt me to suppose that neighboring them would not be necessary or (when I'm really full of myself) that neighboring them would make me evil by their guilt being a thing that somehow would rub off on me and/or being compounded by me neighboring as a response to them? What structures in our economy and our political world ("Justice" system, etc.) make me complicit in forces that actively anti-neighbor vulnerable persons and groups--the unborn and the very aged, the disabled and handicapped, immigrants who do not have those all-important documents but pick my tomatoes, the insanely over-policed African Americans, victims of gun violence in poor and hope-deprived communities and across our land, people whose heartache is no less for their being outside our Catholic expectations of how to live one's gender and/or one's feelings as to which gender is sexually attractive, and on and on and on? How can I neighbor those people on a structure transforming level, and how can I neighbor them while the time that structural change takes grinds slowly on? How can I contribute to nurturing a cultural climate that says I need to be neighbored and I need to neighbor people and we all need to neighbor each other enthusiastically instead of imagining we are lone rangers owing nothing to anyone and utterly mesmerized by our supposed autonomy?
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