Having good intentions is irrelevant and misleading. All evil that has ever been done in the universe was done with good intentions. You must measure effect, impact, and consequence, not intentions.

“We instinctively tend to limit for whom we exert ourselves. We do it for people like us, and for people whom we like. Jesus will have none of that. By depicting a Samaritan helping a Jew, Jesus could not have found a more forceful way to say that anyone at all in need - regardless of race, politics, class, and religion - is your neighbor. Not everyone is your brother or sister in faith, but everyone is your neighbor, and you must love your neighbor. ― Timothy J. Keller, Excerpt from the book “Generous Justice: How God's Grace Makes Us Just”

Gospel Text: (LK 10:25-37)

There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test Jesus and said,

“Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

Jesus said to him, “What is written in the law?

How do you read it?”

He said in reply,

“You shall love the Lord, your God,

with all your heart,

with all your being,

with all your strength,

and with all your mind,

and your neighbor as yourself.”

He replied to him, “You have answered correctly;

do this and you will live.”

But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus,

“And who is my neighbor?”

Jesus replied,

“A man fell victim to robbers

as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho.

They stripped and beat him and went off leaving him half-dead.

A priest happened to be going down that road,

but when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.

Likewise a Levite came to the place,

and when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.

But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him

was moved with compassion at the sight.

He approached the victim,

poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them.

Then he lifted him up on his own animal,

took him to an inn, and cared for him.

The next day he took out two silver coins

and gave them to the innkeeper with the instruction,

‘Take care of him.

If you spend more than what I have given you,

I shall repay you on my way back.’

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.”

Luke’s story is powerful, for it speaks of the power of love that transcends all creeds and cultures and "creates" a neighbor out of a complete stranger.  The parable is personal, for it describes with profound simplicity the birth of a human relationship that has a personal, physical touch, transcending social and cultural taboos, as one person binds the wounds of another.  The parable is a pastoral, for it is filled with the mystery of care and concern that is at the heart of what is best in human beings.  The story is primarily practical, for it urges us to cross all barriers of culture and community and to go and do likewise!

Compassion demands that we get out of ourselves as we reach out to others in need.  It means that we get our hands and even our reputations dirty.  Indifference is worse than hostility.  The hostile person at least acknowledges the presence of the other while reacting violently to him or her; the indifferent person, on the other hand, ignores the other and treats him / her as if they do not exist.  That was the kind of indifference and insensitivity shown by the priest and the Levite who passed by on the other side in today’s gospel story, leaving the wounded and waylaid traveler completely alone.

Loving means acting like the Good Samaritan. We know that Jesus, himself is the Good Samaritan par excellence; although he was God, he did not hesitate to humble himself to the point of becoming a man and giving his life for us.  More than two thousand years after this story was first told, it continues to move people deeply.