On this 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time, we celebrate the God who is close to us in our neighbor. As the image of the unseen God, and as the Good Samaritan, Christ is near us in every circumstance of life, especially when we reach out in selfless love to our neighbor. Reflections by Saint Teresa of Calcutta and Pope Leo XIV enrich our minds and hearts with the spiritual depth that Jesus conveys in this parable.
“Every person is Jesus,” said Mother Teresa. The Samaritan finds a man beat up and bloody, and sees Jesus lying in the gutter. He treats him with mercy and compassion. To those who do not show mercy God is invisible. As St. Paul writes in the second reading: Christ Jesus is the image of the invisible God. Saint Teresa of Calcutta adds: “The poor person is the image of the invisible Jesus. Jesus comes to us in every person we encounter and He reveals the face of God to us in them.” Can we see Jesus in the poor, the troublesome, the annoying person?
One time Mother Teresa was talking to a group of American professionals. “Smile at each other,” she said. Smile at your wife, smile at your husband, smile at your children, smile at each other – it doesn’t matter who it is – and that will help you grow in greater love for each other. One of the women asked her, “Mother, are you married?” She responded: “Yes, I am, and sometimes Jesus asks a great deal of me, and it is hard to smile at Him!” In spite of the difficulty, Mother Teresa kept on smiling. Can we do the same, even in times of trial and suffering?
In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells the parable of a priest and a Levite. We would imagine that each would have stopped and cared for the hurt man but they simply chose to ignore him. This, Pope Leo highlights, shows that “religious practice alone does not automatically lead to compassion.” Compassion is not necessarily a characteristic of religion but is characteristic of being human. Human beings are called to be compassionate, no matter what their religion is. The priest and the Levite represent all of us – in a hurry to get somewhere. This hurry can keep us from reaching out, being compassionate. Pope Leo warns, “People who believe their journey takes priority are not willing to stop for others.”
Only a Samaritan, “someone from a people traditionally despised,” stops to assist the wounded man. The Samaritan helps, not out of a religious requirement, but because “he is one human being in need in front of another human being.” Compassion, Pope Leo stressed, takes form through concrete actions, because in order to help someone, “you cannot stay at a distance.” To be compassionate, one has to get involved and be prepared to “even get dirty, and perhaps take risks.”
The Samaritan is an example of compassion because he physically takes care of the wounded man. The Pope underlines that truly helping someone “means being willing to feel the weight of another’s pain.” He points out that only when we recognize that we ourselves are the wounded man can we truly feel compassion.
Let us pray for the grace to always respond with heartfelt mercy and compassion to relieve the suffering of others!
May God bless you!
Sr. Kathleen