The Good Samaritan

Jesus sums up the Gospel reading on the Good Samaritan when He answers the question: “Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers victim?” “ The one who treated him with mercy.” This is about how we are all called to live. This is about: Love, Compassion and Mercy. Jesus tells us in this Gospel: “ You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself.” True compassion is not a feeling, but an action that results in caring for the other.

True compassion leads a person to be merciful in doing good on behalf of the one who is helped. St. Ambrose says it well: “Mercy, not kinship, makes someone a neighbor.”

Matthew Kelly reminds us that Jesus wants to turn our lives upside down, which as it turns out will be right-side up. But are we complacent in who we are and do we hesitate in allowing God to transform our lives into the very best version of ourselves? Do we settle for tweaking in our Spirituality and in the mercy of how we live our lives? Do we pray for tweaking or do we pray for transformation? God is not in the business of tweaking, God is in the business of transforming our lives. Do we give our all, do we make ourselves 100% available to God? What would it take for us to make ourselves 100% available to God? Do we hold out on God? Resisting God is to resist happiness.

The parable of the Good Samaritan gives meaning to our lives. We become a neighbor to each other because God transforms us and through Christ we are concerned about our human wounds. That kind of reversal draws the Good Samaritan in and obliges him to change his mind. It is not a question of choosing between love for God and love for our neighbor but of recognizing that people who love a brother or sister also love God. However, it is a bitter reality in our lives that the reverse is not always the case: love of God does not automatically imply love of neighbor. True Love for God, however, is always operative in love for the other.

What does this love look like? St. Augustine tells us that this love has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has the eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of others. That is what love that leads to mercy looks like.

Like the good Samaritan, we daily see the needs of others in our lives. Let’s challenge ourselves to be 100% available to God. Let’s pray that our Lord will transform each of us. The wisdom of this world says that past performance is the best indicator of future performance. It’s usually true. The exception is when God gets involved. So let God get involved in your life. Continue to invite Him into your life with your prayer for transformation.

In a sermon by Martin Luther King, Jr., on this parable of the Good Samaritan, he concludes: “ The first question which the priest and Levite asked was: If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me? But the Good Samaritan reversed the question: “ If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?”

At the conclusion of today’s Parable, Jesus asks the lawyer, “Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers victim? The lawyer answered, “The one who treated him with mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

Vincentians, in our daily interactions with our neighbors, as we encounter their needs, let’s us be the Good Samaritan to others. Let us always treat others with mercy as Jesus tells us,“ Go and do likewise.”