THOUGHTS OF A NUN

The question is always, "Who is my neighbor?"

November 28, 2004

In this era of the “global village”, this is a particularly pertinent question. On the one hand, today’s ease of travel and communication brings us closer to everyone, around the world.  Within the 518 area code, I can place a call to someone’s cell phone, hear an answer after a few rings and be informed that the person is in China, and it is the middle of the night.  On the other hand, anyone living in a large city can find themselves more and more isolated even from the people living in the same apartment building, or on the same block. Traditional definitions of “neighborhood” are generally physical, and focus on boundaries – a line defining a closed space. Those inside the space are in the “hood”, neighborhood, those outside are not.  A different criterion –such as social status, or tribal affiliation are also ways to limit the number of people required by law or conviction to love.

Jesus offers us a very different way of approaching the issue.  The traveler in today’s Gospel story is far outside any “neighborhood”.  He is traveling between two cities on a road that was notoriously rough and dangerous, a route where many were often beset by robbers.  Interestingly, the other travelers were also alone.  Perhaps a reminder that on one level, we are always alone on the journey we make through this life.  When we are alone, we feel vulnerable.  A traveler may hesitate to help another for fear that it is a trap.  In the case of the priest and the Levite, there was the additional concern of defiling oneself and losing one’s honored position in the society.  At the end of the story, Jesus throws the lawyer’s question back at him, but with an interesting twist.   He asks which of the three passers-by acts as a neighbor.  By showing mercy, the Samaritan has created the neighborly relationship.  He has expanded the domain, brought the hapless traveler, as it were, within the boundaries of the “hood”.

This new approach has the potential to set off a chain reaction. Instead of passing love and mercy back and forth within the boundaries of a specified domain, Jesus invites us to expand and even remove the boundaries. It is like the project invented by a schoolboy in the movie “Pay it Forward” that came out a few years ago. By helping out a stranger – and asking him to respond in kind or pay back by helping out three more people, and having each of them do the same etc. – the boy seeks to set off a chain reaction that will change the world.  He sets something in motion that goes far beyond his immediate surroundings.  But much of what he hoped to change does not happen.  The chain gets broken – just as the boundary walls defining a city may be breached. What breaks this new chain, though, is not siege equipment.  What breaks the chain is fear. In most cases, what keeps us from reaching out in mercy to another is fear. It may be fear of ambush, if we literally stop to help someone by the roadside, but more often, it is a more subtle fear. Perhaps, like the priest and the Levite, we fear jeopardizing a hard-won position by siding with an underdog. In the movie about the boy’s project, one of the most poignant scenes is of an alcoholic daughter seeking out her alcoholic mother in the dark alleyways of the inner city, to say, “I forgive you”.  She clearly struggles to get the words out. The daughter is letting go of her need to blame the mother for her own situation. The “steadfast love” and “knowledge of God” that Hosea tells us God wants from us lies in just such letting-go’s. 

I have heard that when the physicists in Chicago set off the first nuclear chain reaction – the experiment that ultimately led to the development of modern nuclear energy (including the bomb), they did not know for certain that the chain reaction could be stopped. They set it off with the awareness that there was at least a chance that it might go out of control, igniting the atmosphere and wiping out the planet. They had calculated the probability of this as very small, but it was still there. Taking that risk was an awesome responsibility. Opinions differ on whether it was the right course of action but we can’t deny their courage. 

Let’s pray that each of us may find the courage to risk setting off the kind of chain reaction the boy in the movie envisioned. Let us not be afraid to stand up for a classmate or a friend being bullied. Or reaching out to help a co-worker who has just been downsized, even though it might invite the axe to fall on ourselves. Let us not be afraid that we might reveal a weakness in ourselves by speaking words of forgiveness to a brother or sister. Let us not be afraid of setting off a chain reaction that could usher in the Kingdom of God.