Ridley Lent Book Reflection

At Ridley we were all asked to write a piece for the yearly Lent book. I chose the reading from Luke 10:29-37, the parable of the 'Godd Samaritan', this is my humble reflection:

Have you ever been ‘moved with pity’? If you’re anything like me, you may have felt sorry for a poor small furry creature, bewildered by your car headlights, so you swerve to miss it and let it live to dice with death another day. Or maybe you’ve felt a pang of guilt when images depicting starving kiddies in a far off country crept up on you during the ad break of your favourite sit-com, so you ring the number, give a few quid, feel good about yourself and get back to your show.

But what about real pity, the kind of loving-pity that grabs you and moves you with compassion? The pity of the Samaritan that the Worldwide English New Testament describes as wanting, ‘to share in his troubles.’

One summer I was in Malawi with my fiancée and her mother. Speeding along an empty highway we came across a horrific accident, an overcrowded minibus had driven off the road and flipped over into a ditch. It was chaos. My mother-in-law-to-be leapt into action and began to organise and attend to victims, but I froze with fear. All I could think about was the blood and the prevalence of HIV, Aids, Malaria and Hepatitis. Pity was the furthest thing from my mind.

Jesus teaches us that to be a neighbour is to be moved with pity and into action. To see the battered bloodied individual as not just a problem; cross barriers of prejudice and fear; get our hands dirty; allow the stranger into our personal space; and give generously of our time and money.

Lord,

Help us to be true neighbours.