Fifteenth Sunday

The Good Samaritan

Isn't it interesting that you can come back to a familiar story and see a detail you never saw before? The detail that challenges me - and in the Year of Mercy too - is the fact that the Samaritan made a commitment which we can assume (despite it being a parable) that he would be sure to follow up on. He knew he could not do everything at that moment of crisis though he did more than enough. The poor man overcome by brigands was injured and stripped of everything. Yet healing and recovery still had to happen, but would be an ongoing process. Not all the recovery could happen that day. And so the Good Samaritan would come back and make good any expense the innkeeper might have. But we can't imagine him forgetting about the victim of the assault on his return.

So the challenge to me is how many promises have I made that I have failed to live up to? And how many people have I promised to pray for that I quickly forgot? How many people need an ongoing visit or care after bereavement or a hospital visit or sickness that they or a family member underwent? There is a critical time frame of the aftermath of a funeral in which family need support and a time when the sick themselves or others accompanying them through the illness need a visit. The time I repeat is critical, and if delayed too long may betray or be perceived to be a lack of genuine concern.

In this Year of Mercy – the merciful Good Samaritan – who represents God’s mercy as well as the call to ‘do likewise’ calls me and challenges me to follow up and follow through on my verbal promises of aftercare. It is then that the bereaved and the sick need us more because the world moves on and we quickly forget them when a crisis abates. The acute problem becomes a chronic need that requires long-term care, concern and charity. In a word, mercy.