Just a Word before we go...Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time...July 10, 2022

I remember when I was teaching a course in Christian Spirituality at Fairfield University, I would ask the students to write about how they perceived God and how God might be working in their lives.  Their answers never failed to surprise me, for even some students who behaved as though God played no role in their immediate circumstances, would acknowledge the presence of a benevolent force in the universe, though not necessarily one who was accessible or who desired a relationship with them.  Knowing the power of language and experiences to influence thoughts and eventually actions, I introduced scripture, literature, poetry and art to the class to enhance their image of God into one that might better serve them in the future. I had learned that one’s image of God, one’s spirituality, profoundly influences one’s thoughts and actions, and I hoped to make true for my students what I had found to be true for myself. 

In today’s Gospel of the Good Samaritan, we are given a person who saw clearly his responsibility to extend compassion to another in great need. This Samaritan understood the command to love others as yourself, in delaying his personal journey and employing his own resources, in order to tend to the wounded and abandoned.  These were the actions of one who recognized, even if subconsciously, that the world did not revolve around him and his priorities, but that he was part of a greater community, the community of humanity, to which he had obligations as well as enjoying its benefits. 

The Gospel writer doesn’t tell us much about this person’s background, but we can surmise that his image of God, formed through his life experiences, was one of a merciful God, One who loves, and is in relationship with, all creation.  The compassion the Samaritan showed to the wounded traveler not only reflected, but actually shared in the mercy of God, as theologian Walter Burghardt would say. Such is the power of our God to move the human heart into action.

Perhaps in this troubled time of ours, we might take some time to think about our image of God, for the way we imagine God influences the way we think and live our lives.

Whether we see an old man in the sky, recording our every mistake in a big book, or as the very face of mercy, desirous of and inviting us into relationship, we will live accordingly. The Samaritan championed justice, displayed mercy and risked his own life for another, a stranger.  How can we go and do likewise as the Gospel enjoins us? Perhaps the answer lies in our first reading from Deuteronomy...the answer “is something very near to you, already in your mouths and in your hearts; you have only to carry it out.”