A Samaritan traveler who came upon him was moved with compassion
The phrase that caught my attention in the story of the Good Samaritan was: “But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him was moved with compassion at the sight.” It was this movement to compassion that let him to do all that he did for the stranger. Professionally and culturally, he was the least to be expected to help. You would have expected a priest and the Levite who were dedicated to the service of God, to have helped the robbed man, but they passed on. The Samaritan found himself on Jewish soil, at the very heart of Judaism, near Jerusalem, where he would have expected to encounter the greatest disdain. He could have passed on equally contemptuous of the Jews.
Like the Priest and the Levite, he too had other things to do. He had not travelled purposely to rescue victims to robbery. Like them, he too had other things to spend his money on. Likely spending on the stranger was not part of his budget. But unlike the other two, he was moved to compassion, and this movement let him forget self, and place the needs of the unfortunate man first.
The Samaritan could have feared for his life as well. Suppose the robbers who had maltreated the man came back while he was preoccupied with bandaging his wounds, would they not have treated him the same way, especially since he was a Samaritan. The prudent thing to do would have been to pass on as quickly as possible. But the man was moved with compassion and forgot about personal danger, to consider the need of the other.
In the face of other people’s need, our spontaneous reaction might be to consider our own needs. Their needs require time from us; time we did not schedule, yet we have many other urgent things to do. We can argue that it is none of our business if these people are not close to us. Or in the face of financial constraints of our own, we can consider it prudent not to spend on others. All this can appear to be the right thing to do, as long as we do not allow ourselves to be moved with compassion. But when we see the other people’s situation from their point of view, then we are moved to compassion, and can forget our own needs.
When we let ourselves be moved with compassion, we can be sure that God who urges us to do this will take charge of our needs, for the amount we give is the amount we will be given back (Luke 6:38). Compassion for others makes us a little like our heavenly Father who is compassionate (cf. Luke 6:36). Love for the neighbor whom we see also helps us to learn to love God whom we cannot see (cf. 1John 4:20).
