We saw in last week’s post, The Good Father, that in his role of father, God takes care of us, he has compassion for us and he disciplines us.
Without going back to the definition of compassion that you can always consult in last week’s post, let’s see how it manifests itself concretely. And for that, I’m going to use a parable that we all know, the parable of the good Samaritan.
Jesus told this parable in a conversation he had with a lawyer who wanted to put him to the test. Here’s the conversation between Jesus and the Lawyer prior to the parable.
- The lawyer: “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?
- Jesus: “What is written in the Law? How do you read it ?”
- The lawyer: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”
- Jesus said: You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.”
- The Lawyer : And who is my neighbor ?
Then, Jesus told the parable of the good Samaritan that you can read in Luc 10: 30-35:
“A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. 32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 And the next day he took out two denarii[a] and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’
In this parable, the priest, the Levite and the Samaritan were all on their way to their business. They all saw the wounded man, but the priest and the Levite weren’t concerned enough to help the man. They continued on their way as if nothing happened. What they saw didn’t move them. The bible doesn’t say where they were going or how urgent it was for them to get there, because it didn’t matter. But when the Samaritan saw the wounded man, he had compassion. He stopped and put everything else on hold to take care of him first. He delayed his travel and made sure the man would be taken care of even in his absence, and he planned to pay for every care he would need.
The difference between the three travelers in the parable is compassion. Jesus gives an illustration of compassion to teach us what it means to love our neighbor. Compassion is an expression of love. There’s no love without compassion.
Compassion takes selflessness. It’s about raising your eyes from yourself, your own issues, to look at someone else’s sufferings. It’s more and more difficult to do so. We are so busy taking care of ourselves that people are dying not far from us because they are too weak to take care of themselves. They need us but we are too busy to care, our own world is too noisy to let us hear anyone else but ourselves. The priest and the Levite surely had other urgent matters to go to, which kept them from helping the wounded man. Like them, we are always in a hurry to get somewhere or to get things done, and we suffer no interruption. We don’t take the time to look around us and to listen to people who may need help. Today, I want to encourage us to be more selfless and care enough for people in need. Let’s learn to really love, not only in words, but in acts.
Prayer: Lord, help me to see who needs help, create in me that compassionate heart that I may see who needs help and help them. Amen.
Blog posts 