By Jenna Ebener
A reflection
The other day, I was reflecting on the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10: 25-37). I started getting curious about what happened when the parable ended. Here is a story of a man helped by someone whom he had been taught to believe was an enemy. What did the victim think upon recovering? What did he think when he learned that his enemy, a Samaritan, helped him? Did he know that a priest, one of God’s chosen people, had passed him by? Did he feel rejected by people who should have loved him as their own?
I like to think that the man’s compassion for others increased. I like to imagine that his eyes were opened so that he could view all people in a new light. Could he look at the group of people he belonged to and feel good about how he was treating them? Did he look at those outside of his group with a new sense of love, wanting to treat them with the love with which he treated those closest to him? How did his concept of neighbor change?
I yearn for my speculations to be true and to apply them to our world today. We are a world divided that seems to be growing more polarized each day. Topics such as religion and politics seem to be ways to decide instantly whether someone is your “neighbor” or not. Our sense of neighbor seems to be decreasing. It seems as if society is telling us to look out only for those closest to us and ourselves. I feel deep pain over how hard it is for us to love those who are “different.”
However, I have reason for hope. I have been working on growing my relationship with our mother Mary, through my reading and prayers. I have been reminded that she is the Mother of the Prince of Peace. Mary had to watch her Son suffer horribly and die in an excruciating way. She may have recognized people who played a part in that tragedy. While we do not know how Mary reacted, I think it is safe to believe and hope that, even in her pain, she still reacted with love. We know she was assumed into heaven and so surely continued to be an example of how to live in love. We can look to Mary as an example of how to treat others. We can treat each person as a neighbor and as a child of God.
God will always be there to help us but we are his tool here on earth in helping others. Are we allowing God to work through us so that we can be that Good Samaritan to others? “Jesus told him, ‘Go and do likewise’” (Luke 10:37).
(Jenna Ebener, a graduate of St. Ambrose University in Davenport, is a social worker at a school in Colorado for students with a combination of medical, cognitive and behavior disabilities. She relies on God every day to aid her on this wonderful, yet intense journey.)
