LK 10:25-37
Dear Friends, The Jewish lawyer in today’s gospel passage was not interested in Jesus’ answer to the question, who is my neighbor? He had his own agenda. He was trying to draw Jesus into some kind of violation of Jewish law and tradition that would lead to his humiliation and punishment.
Meanwhile, Jesus uses the deceitful context to give us one of the great messages of God’s love and involvement in our human brokenness. It is an invitation into the wonder of Jesus’ redeeming love for all of us. Jesus is inviting us to participate in the great act of salvation by our serving and healing presence to our neighbor.
In the parable of the Good Samaritan Jesus reveals the depth and breadth of God’s presence to all human beings. This story of the Good Samaritan shatters any configuration of the narrow definition that prejudice continually spawns. Indeed, history has shown the incredible length we can go in isolating, dehumanizing, discriminating and simply hating our neighbor.
“Good Samaritan” is easily understood in our day. It even is defined in a dictionary as “an exceptionally charitable or helpful person”. It is quite problematic for us to grasp the power of the contradiction that Jesus set up in the parable for the Jewish community in his day. Depending on your personal sensitivities, the label “Good Samaritan” today might be a militant Al Qaeda or white supremist or a hateful anti-Semite or another far out contradiction of your creative imagination.
Jesus explodes all expressions of normality with the Samaritan individual, the most despicable of Jewish enemies. This explosive choice is followed up with a sense of grandiosity in service that continued the pattern of shock and awe. When the enemy benefactor pays the bill and promises more, we are well beyond any sense of generous decency. This all flows from Jesus’ new definition of neighbor as one in need.
The love Jesus unveils knows no limits. The human heart is capable and works constantly at drawing limits of this gospel love. Phrases like “Charity begins at home” are transcended by the message of Jesus: love begins with our concrete response to the suffering person in our midst.
We can easily identify three qualities of the Samaritan love in Jesus’ parable. First, it transcends all prejudice and is totally inclusive. All it saw was the pain and urgent need of the person. Secondly, the situation was seen as an opportunity not a burden and gross aggravation. Thirdly, Samaritan love does not count the cost, the inconvenience and the shattering of one’s schedule and comfort. It des not seek recompense or recognition.
We all have a challenge to embrace these three simple characteristics in our daily life with all of its demanding relationships and responsibilities. It is not so much that charity begins at home but charity begins wherever we encounter pain and suffering and all its variations in the human scene.
Today’s parable challenges us to see the problematic situations in our life from the vision of the gospel. We are called to share the extravagant hospitality of the Samaritan. Like the Samaritan, we are invited to see our goods as a means of assistance not exclusively an assurance of our personal security. This is only possible by a continual withdrawal from a narrow, fenced-in world-view. The flow of our daily life and responsibilities offers countless opportunities to reach out in loving service. Jesus’ words always remain the same. Our task is to “go and do the same” (Lk 10:37).