Luke 10:25-37
Lead in: The Good Samaritan stopped and knelt beside the man who had fallen victim to robbers. To kneel at the side of one who lay helpless before you, it’s humbling to see a human life hanging in the balance between life and death. These are but some of the feelings we can experience when we arrive at the scene of an accident. Call it our “Good Samaritan moment”.
Prompt: Have you ever had a time when you were confronted with your own helplessness in the face of a tragedy that both frightened you and drew you to God? What did you learn from that
experience?
Lead in: Consider the student who just skims by in school by doing the minimum and still gets a passing grade or the employee who works no more than required, we can do the same thing with religion. Call it “loophole religion”. Looking for a loophole expecting to get off the hook, that’s what the scholar of the law has in mind when he asks Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
Prompt: When it comes to your religion, what are the loopholes that you have been tempted to take?
Lead in: The unfortunate traveler was beaten and left for dead at the side of the road. But a Samaritan, moved with compassion, stopped to help. Each day we have a choice. There’s the cloak of indifference and the cloak of compassion, which one do we put on?
Prompt: Reflect on the times you put on the cloak of compassion.
Prompt: Reflect on the times you were tempted to put on the cloak of indifference.
Lead in: The late Walter Burghardt, SJ, describes it well, “Much of the world has fallen among robbers. Look around you and you’ll see them. Who’s hurting? Who’s forgotten? Who’s wounded?”
Prompt: Who are the wounded you’ve seen laying by the side of the road this week?
Prompt: When were you tempted to pass by on the other side of the road?
Lead in: The scholar of the law asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” The parable of the Good Samaritan tells us that everyone is my neighbor. That includes those who are different, those we don’t understand, those we have reason to hate, from across the street to across the globe. The challenge Jesus offers us in the Parable of the Good Samaritan is to treat all as our neighbor with random kindness and senseless acts of beauty.
Prompt: What random kindness and senseless acts of beauty did you witness this week?