The Good Samaritan
Scripture Luke 10:25-37
Reading
But a Samaritan while travelling came near him;
and when he saw him, he was moved with pity.
He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having
poured oil and wine on them
Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”
Reflection
Once again, we see Jesus, as the master story-teller, guiding this young lawyer to the essential core of the Gospel message: love God and love one’s neighbor as oneself. Since the inquirer already knew how to speak the right words to say in response to Jesus’ question, Jesus knew that if he told him a story it would be an even more powerful communication in helping him (and us) understand and remember the deep truths about life. Stories always come closer to real life than mere ideas. Jesus, the Master Teacher, knew this and told us some of the most beautiful and unforgettable stories in the history of the world. Today’s parable of the Good Samaritan in one of my favorites.
One way I have understood this parable is to see it as an example of the revitalization of one’s whole personality. A good and necessary place for all of us to start on our journey of learning how to love our neighbour like this - with the ‘great love’ - is to see ourselves first of all, as that “person/victim in the ditch”.
Before we can love others with any genuine compassion, we need to experience being loved by God, the most loving and good Samaritan. Since we all belong to the family of humanity we all need to be in touch with our reality and our pain. At some point in our adult years, we face a situation where we are “in the ditch”, hurting, struggling and desperate for some help and longing for restoration and wholeness. This often unwelcomed intrusion into our lives – is like ‘being robbed and thrown in the ditch’. This situation can be what God uses to awaken that inner desire for deep healing and comfort for our wounded inner self. We can allow the “Good Samaritan” within us and those safe and caring other ‘good Samaritans’ that come along our pathway to assist us on this important healing journey.
There is a great temptation to flee from the reality of our human condition. The priest and the Levite pass by on the other side of the road. Yes, they may have become unclean and unable to perform their liturgical service if they stopped to help an ‘outcast’ person. But, I sense we can all pull up in our minds a similar excuse, or even a law, to protect ourselves from getting too close to our own pain and brokenness. Denial and avoidance are our unconscious ‘priest’ and ‘Levite’. Try to be gentle and yet courteous enough to accept and face up to the ‘woundedness’ deep within our psyche and spirit rather than pretend it does not exist and attempt to rearrange our lives in such a way that this darkness remains hidden. There it will fester and govern our lives at an unconscious level - until it eventually surfaces in another form.
Jean Vanier writes in The Broken Body ...
Running away from pain can never bring joy.
to hide from it, to pretend it does not exist,
perhaps drowning our memory of it in front of too much TV,
or to spend too much times theorizing about an ideal world
where pain is eliminated: ALL this is ILLUSION.
So do not shrink from suffering, but enter into it
and discover there the mystery of the presence of the Risen Jesus.
He is hidden there, in the sacrament of the poor.
And do not turn aside from your own pain, your anguish and your
brokenness, your loneliness and emptiness,
by pretending you are strong.
Go within yourself. Go down the ladder of your being until you discover-
like a seed buried in the broken, ploughed earth of your own vulnerability –
the presence of JESUS, the light shining in the darkness.
At first it can be truly humbling to look after and take care of this deep awareness of our own brokenness. We experience what it is like to be ‘off our pedestal’ - in our own eyes and in the eyes of others. We face our inner truth and admit that we are in need of some healing, time, care, attention and compassion. It is the time for a ‘Good Samaritan’ to find us. Notice in today’s parable, Jesus tells us the role of these special caregivers: they bandage wounds, pour oil and wine on them, get the person to receive some medical attention and leave money in excess to care for their every need. This “being neighbor” is a two-way street: it is binding both the wounded Jew and the helpful Samaritan. In Jesus’ day this was a putting together of two seemingly irreconcilables. This parable overcomes the hostility on both sides and reaches a harmonious congruency. The triangle of LOVE is restored - that is, neighbour with neighbour with God!
The 'first neighbor' that we must love is our self! In our restoration process we will hopefully find ourselves blessed and graced by some “wounded healers” themselves who are willing to accompany us all the way through our journey – from the ditch to the throne of glory! Then you too, can become a ‘good Samaritan’ to others in your circle of influence. The Divine Love now flowing through the ‘new’ you will not run away from persons in pain or who are broken emotionally or psychologically. You will be free to move towards them, bend down to assist them, touch them, listen to them. You will find rising up from within you a ‘well of pure love’ springing forth from your own restoration and wholeness. May this wonderful parable speak to you and challenge you to 'the more'.
Carrying Grace I will pray for some neighbor-neighbor relationship in my life that calls for this quality of reconciliation and restoration.
Comments
God calls us to search for that inner love that lives without fences. A love that does not distinguish between rich or poor, black or white, Jew or Gentile, teacher or student. It's a love that sees with a universal vision -- telling us ... that we're all part of the same One Eternal Love. And this is the love .. that Jesus wants us all to know
When we put limits around our love, we build a fence that allows only "our friends", or "our family", into our space of compassion. It's a comfortable and easy way to love ... as the relationships are already in place. We risk little .. because, for the most part, we know what to expect from those who are close to us. But what happens when our love is stretched to reach into the shelters of the homeless, or the foodbanks for the poor, or the counselling centers for abused women?. As the envelope of love expands ever wider ... we begin to experience those moments of true, authentic compassion ... the compassion that follows in the footsteps of Jesus. And yet, even though the footprints mark-out the pathway, the journey is never easy.
God calls us to search for that inner love that lives without fences. A love that does not distinguish between rich or poor, black or white, Jew or Gentile, teacher or student. It's a love that sees with a universal vision -- telling us ... that we're all part of the same One Eternal Love. And this is the love .. that Jesus wants us all to know.