In this Sunday’s Gospel a scholar is quick to drag Jesus into a debate on particulars of the Mosaic Law. Jesus shows little interest. He is more interested in moving the man’s heart toward compassionate living. Jesus’ responses to the man’s questions are therefore slow and thoughtful and centered on love. Jesus speaks of God as loving and tells a parable of a ‘neighbor’ who is loving. The irony of Jesus’ parable is that the loving ‘neighbor’ he characterizes is a Samaritan, an ‘enemy’ according to that very Mosaic Law. The Samaritan is a stranger to a man in need of his help and, as he reaches out, the Samaritan becomes a neighbor.
In part our compassionate witness can be helped by slowness. The slowness in this particular Gospel encounter intrigued researchers who crafted a Good Samaritan experiment. It was conducted at a seminary. Pastors in training filled out questionnaires and prepared sermons on the Good Samaritan parable. They were then taken to another building to give a radio broadcast on it. On the way they encountered a man in need – the point of the experiment. The shocking discovery was that only 40% of the seminarians offered the man some type of help. Researchers then added the element of being hurried and the results were doubly shocking – only 10% percent of the seminarians on the way to giving a sermon on the Good Samaritan acted as a Good Samaritan. 90% failed to help a person in need! It turns out hurriedness is more influential on our behavior than religious beliefs and training. Perhaps we can start a Slow Love movement. The movement could join other endeavors in the world-wide Slow Movement community. The movement is designed toward helping us connect person to person on a meaningful level. The Slow Movement community values genuine encounters between human beings as exemplified by the neighborly Samaritan with the man in need. The movement recognizes our desire to be in touch with one another. The Slow Movement includes; Slow Travel – encourages us to bypass tours and immerse ourselves in a culture, living with locals and experiencing daily life in another country; Slow Cities – is all about assessing and changing our environment, our infrastructure, our social fabric to ensure “a sense of relaxation” in people’s lives; Slow Food – “aims to preserve cultural cuisine and in so doing to preserve the food, plants, seeds, domestic animals, and farming within an ecoregion.” Slow Living asks us to listen to our bodies, to our intuition; to live simply and in the present moment so as to be available to our neighbor.
“The busyness fools me with no time to feel, To make me question in my heart what’s real, I step back in order not to lose heart, To recapture the love distraction pulls apart. (Busy – Cortney Bartholomew)
Prayer: Spirit of Love, we trust in slow movement through our lives
Question: What can I do more slowly to be more genuinely in touch with people?
July 10, 2016 Gospel Luke 10:25-37 Fifteenth Sunday In Ordinary Time