187/365 The Unfinished Samaritan

Today's gospel was the Good Samaritan. As Fr. Miguel put it, it is pervasive in the linguistic environment. Everyone knows this parable: a man falls among thieves...lies dying by the side of the road. The Levite walks by. The priest walks by. The Samaritan doesn't walk by.

But instead of the usual homily, perhaps all the homilies I've heard on this, actually, discussing Samaria and the unclean nature of blood and the idea of neighbor, Miguel pointed out something I never noticed. The story is left with "tune in next week" and there's never a next week. It's like the last episode of Soap. Is Jessica killed by the firing squad? We don't know. We never learned the ending.

Ok, maybe not quite like the last episode of Soap. But Jesus leaves us hanging. The Samaritan, who has to go about the rest of his life, whatever he was setting out to do, leaves the man with the innkeeper, providing for his care until he returns. He promises reimbursement if expenses get out of hand. And then he leaves.

One thing before I go on--he leaves. The Samaritan doesn't derail his whole life, his family's life, his household's care, in order to be the martyr here. He doesn't take this man's life over and make his daughter marry him and be In Charge. He gets him past the brink of dying, knows he has other things he still has to do, and promises to return. I think this is a good lesson for all of caretaker types. Do what needs to be done but don't put yourself in the position of primary caregiver and neglect your own needs or those people who depend on you already. Especially don't do that if there is someone else to share the burden (even for pay like the innkeeper).

Miguel didn't dwell on that, though. He brought this around to the idea that life is a journey and there are many things and people we encounter. And we don't know the ending. We can't. We don't know if the Samaritan comes back. We don't know if the innkeeper cheats him. We don't know if the man fallen among thieves in the first place is a good guy or not. Is he thankful? Does he repay the Samaritan? Does he sneak away in the middle of the night?

I think Jesus leaves it open like that because it doesn't matter. What happens down the line, while interesting in retrospect, perhaps (how I came to be here kind of questions), doesn't have any bearing on the present. We live now. We have to act now. We can't fully follow Christ if we're worried about unintended consequences.