Reflection for 10/9/17

“Jesus asked, ‘Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers' victim?’  He answered, ‘The one who treated him with mercy.’  Jesus said to him, ‘Go and do likewise.’”  

 

We speak of the mercy of God often.  God’s mercy is beyond our comprehension.  God has mercy on the sinner.  God’s mercy is inexhaustible.  God is a merciful and loving God.  But do we ever sit to reflect on what God’s mercy actually looks like in our lives?  We are convinced that God has mercy on us and on all sinners, but what does that mercy entail?

 

Jesus gives us a glimpse of the mercy of God in today’s parable of the Good Samaritan.  God’s mercy is not a cute and fluffy thing.  God’s mercy enters into the very pit of our sinfulness to pull us out of the death and decay of our state in life.  Think about what was happening on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho.  A man was beaten and left half dead.  First of all, the question should be posed, “Why was he on his way to Jericho in the first place?”  Jericho was a city in the old testament that was condemned to destruction by God.  Jericho was a sort of forsaken city.  One could infer that Jericho was a place of sin while Jerusalem was the place of God.  Therefore, this man was on his way away from the place of God toward the place of sin, and he was caught by a band of robbers who beat him and left him for dead.

 

How long was he left for dead?  We do not know.  It could have been minutes or hours or days.  This man was passed by many on the road including a priest and a levite, those who were supposed to uphold the law of Moses and treat the man with compassion, but they did not.  They simply passed on the opposite side of the street.  But then, a man from Samaria passes along the road.  Was he headed from Jerusalem to Jericho or from Jericho to Jerusalem?  I’d like to think he was headed away from the place of sin toward the city of God.  When we are leaving sin behind us, then and only then are we able to see Christ in others.  Then and only then are we able to have true compassion on our fellow man.

 

The Samaritan man represents God and the beaten man represents humanity.  As we sit, wallowing in our sins, our wounds foul and festering, God comes to us and gets off of his animal—comes down from heaven—and cares for us as a Father cares for a child.  He pours oil and wine over our wounds in the sacraments of the Church, and he places us on his very one animal by lifting us to a level higher than we were before—in Baptism.  God’s mercy is not something cute and fluffy because sin is not something cute and fluffy.  Sin is DEATH.  Sin kills the soul and leaves it for dead, but the mercy of God enters into our sin, into our state of death and decay, and bandages our wounds to heal us and bring us back to life.

 

Now, we having been healed of our sins, are called out by Christ to “Go and do likewise.”  If we have experienced the mercy of God in our lives, then how much more are we expected to show that mercy to all those we meet?  Be merciful as your heavenly Father is merciful.  Enter into the very dirt and decay of sin to help someone overcome his or her sinfulness.