WITHOUT ROUNDABOUTS
It doesn’t take a very deep analysis to describe our attitudes about self-defense, resentment and evasion that we take on in the face of people who can disturb our tranquility. How many roundabouts we take to avoid those who end up bothering us or making us uncomfortable. How we hurry up to keep someone from catching up with us who weighs us down with their problems, pains and disappointments.
It could be said that we live in an attitude of permanent protection in the face of anyone who could threaten our happiness. And when we find no better way to justify our flight before people who need us, we can always use the excuse that «we’re very busy».
How telling the «parable of the Samaritan» is in this society of men and women who run back to their business, get all worked up about their own interests and each one cries out their own claims.
According to Jesus, there’s only one way to «be human». And it’s not that of the priest or the Levite, who see the one in need and «walked by on the other side» in order to continue his journey; but that of the Samaritan who walks through life with his eyes and his heart wide open to stop before whoever could need his help.
When we sincerely listen to Jesus’ words, we know that he is calling us – to pass from hostility to hospitality. We know that he is urging us to live a different way, creating in our life a bigger space for those who need us. We can’t hide ourselves behind «our busyness» or seek refuge in beautiful theories.
Whoever has understood Christian fraternity knows that we are all «companions on the journey» who share the same condition of fragile beings who need one another. Whoever goes about attentive to the brother or sister in need that we encounter on our path, discovers a new taste for life. According to Jesus, «he will inherit eternal life».
José Antonio Pagola
Translator: Fr. Jay VonHandorf
