July 15, 2007
Pentecost VII

Eyes of Compassion

We live in a world where the "needs of others" is the order of the day. We realize that these needs need to be addressed, but how? The parable of the Samaritan provides us with a pattern to follow. The first step is to recognize the wounded stranger, the one in need; we ;rust, in a real way, recognize this suffering one. This is not easy, especially in today's world, where we are bombarded by far too many images of all kinds, so that it becomes hard to take them seriously.

If we truly see the wounded of this world, then we will be moved, we will feel their situation in our gut. We cannot fix the entire planet on our own, not helping everybody, but we can help somebody. We need to be clear that our response does not come only out of our obligation, guilt, or compulsion, but instead out of compassion. Our response, our action, will have to do with our relationship with God, for this is the way that God is moved.

The other part of this parable also calls us to put our resources to intelligent use and recognizing that we have more to offer than we realized at first. We may discover ourselves to be someone who's the right person at the right place at the right time, an agent of divine compassion. When Jesus closes the parable of the Good Samaritan with "Go and do likewise," he is not imposing a single strict way to respond to travelers who have ended up in trouble; His intention is far larger and more practical, something that applies to countless circumstances.

The answer to the question "who is our neighbor?" will come to us in a living way when we can see with eyes of compassion and our determination to use the resources that we have to respond to the needs that are presented or that we encounter. Let us truly "Go and do likewise"

Silito

Take a look at some of the previous messages from the Rector