I
asked the Lord what to say this week, and the first thing I heard was “it’s
hot, it’s summer, keep it short!”
If
you’re like me, with this Gospel passage, so familiar to all of us, I have to
resist the temptation to shut down my ears and heart, saying “I’ve heard this
one before.” It’s hard, I think, to
listen to such familiar passages with new ears and hearts. To say to the Lord, “what would you have me
hear and learn today that I’ve never heard before?”
For
it’s important, no, it’s critically important, no it’s eternally important,
that we understand and integrate, take into our lives, what the Lord is telling
us today, commanding us, in fact, this day.
For this Gospel is the very heart of the message of Jesus – it’s the very
answer to the lawyer’s question “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
Indeed,
isn’t it the answer to the question, “what does it mean to be a follower, a
disciple, a believer in Jesus Christ?”
And
the answer boils down to this, I think – in compassion, in mercy, we go out
of our way to help our neighbor.
A
man is left half dead by bandits and three people pass by. A priest.
A Levite. A Samaritan. Each, Our Lord tells us, and this is an important
detail, sees the man. The priest and
Levite, “saw him and passed by on the opposite side.”
Why?
Perhaps
frightened that the same thing would happen to them if they were to stop to
help.
Maybe
late for a meeting or family gathering.
Not
allowed to touch a corpse, for to do so would make one ritually impure.
Whatever
the reason, each was presented with a decision – stop and help or pass by on
the other side.
The
real reason the two pass by, Our Lord tells us, is this – both lack
compassion. The emotion, the
motivation, to “suffer with” another.
Another word for it is empathy – the ability to put oneself in another’s
shoes. How would I want to be treated if
it were me left half dead?
It
was the hated Samaritan, Our Lord tells us, who was compassionate. The Samaritan who transcends what he’s been
taught about whom to love and whom to hate.
Transcends whom he’d probably been taught who his neighbor was and who
wasn’t.
Who
might have been late for a meeting himself, who might have been equally
repulsed to touch someone who looked like a corpse.
Who
stopped, cleaned and bandaged the injured man.
Put him on his beast. Took him to
an inn. Provided for his care.
Went
out of his way to help.
That,
I think, is the message for me and you, and as a parish and Church, for all of
us this weekend. The message for you and
me and us – who as disciples of Him who is the image of the invisible God, are
called to be images of Him.
Our
Blessed Lord commands us, and this is no lofty command, He commands us as His
followers to be people who go out of our way to help. A people who are always open to encountering
others, always making ourselves available, to help our neighbor.
And
the second thing Our Lord is teaching us is that anyone, friend or foe,
everyone is our neighbor.
Everyone
- male, female, black, white, Latino, Asian, believer, unbeliever, Christian,
Jew, Muslim, young, old, born, unborn, gay, straight, resident, immigrant, all
are our neighbor. Luke Timothy Johnson
writes that Jesus demands that we become people who “treat everyone we
encounter – however frightening, alien, naked or defenseless – with compassion.” “You go and do the same” is His command.
Sisters
and brothers, you and I are presented many times each day with such decision
points, such opportunities for encounter – walk by on the opposite side or stop
to help. Decisions which place demands
on us - demands on our time, our talents, our treasure. Demands perhaps on our leisure, our comfort,
on our convenience.
Checking
email a couple days ago, I saw an email for my wife from the Red Cross saying
there’s a critical shortage of blood. I
opened the email and saw that there was a blood drive right here at St. Kateri
today(yesterday). Decision point. I haven’t given blood in a couple years, I
thought. Time to go out of my way. Plus the chance to practice what I was
planning to preach.
In
our bulletin most weeks, there is an entire page of ways in which we, too, can
be compassionate Samaritans. Here at St.
Kateri we’re blessed that we have so many people who follow this command of
Jesus to love neighbor as self – to be merciful and compassionate as we would
want to be shown mercy and compassion.
In scores of ways our parishioners going out of their way to reach out
to neighbor, visiting the homebound, caring for the sick and dying,
transporting the elderly, teaching, coaching, catechizing our youth, singing
and serving at funerals, feeding the hungry, and I could go on.
By
being open to encountering neighbor in all sorts of ways. By exercising mercy – the corporal works and
the spiritual works of mercy.
Sisters and brothers,
we are all called this week, I believe, to examine our lives, our priorities,
and how we choose when we are faced with that decision, that eternal decision,
one that defines us as disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do we cross look the other way and cross over
to the opposite side? Or with compassion, do we take the risk to stop to help?
