The parable of the Good Samaritan is universally known. It’s all about a man who is beaten by thieves, stripped of his clothes, and left half dead in the street – a not unfamiliar news headline for today. The parable was allegedly told by Jesus to a lawyer, as a way to illustrate how we should define ‘neighbour’ in the context of his idea that we should all ‘love your neighbour as yourself” – and to emphasise that it’s not just the law that matters, but also spirit feeding the action.
On the Compassion Course, we explore universal spiritual principles and no one particular faith .. but I have to say that this parable, and also The Prodigal Son are both so relevant to our themes.
When what we think, say, and do, align- we are then ready for the miracles of life; peace, forgiveness, and compassion. When not, we’re heading for conflict.
The real point of the parable was that the man beaten by thieves was a Jew, and yet a priest, followed by a temple assistant walked by him, without going to his help. The passer-by who eventually did stop to help, was none other than a Samaritan. (Samaritans and Jews despised and hated each other – they had different interpretations of the Torah).
In 1973, Princetown University psychologists John Darley and C.Daniel Batson devised an interesting experiment around (mis)alignment of our words and actions – as follows.
A group of trainee ministers at a world leading theological college were asked to prepare a sermon based on The Good Samaritan. When they had done this, they were then told that they were to deliver their sermons whilst being filmed in another building on the campus. The experimenters observed them walking between the buildings .. where a man (an actor) was slumped against a doorway, head down, eyes closed, and grunting quietly – clearly in need of assistance.
More than half of the participants walked straight past the man – with some of them even stepping over him! In a further experiment, when they were told to be as quick as possible, the level of help fell to just 10 percent!
I don’t mention this experiment to bash religion or the church – not at all! Let’s face it, ‘life’ for all of us takes over, gets in the way, and distracts us from the moment and from what deep down, we know is really important. Many of us have jobs/occupations/roles where we’re expected to perform ‘on and off duty’. I’m not just talking about doctors, nurses, midwives, paramedics, fire and police officers, social workers, counsellors .. but also parents, husbands, wives, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, friends, .. stand-up comedians, plumbers, electricians, financial advisors, .. and priests! What I’m meaning to say here is that whoever we are, we’re here to help and support others – and yet we don’t always. We slip in and out of role, without necessarily wishing to. And especially when it comes to compassion, we can get tired, weary, and disillusioned.
That’s where the compassion course can hopefully help, so that our boundaries can become nicely blurred enabling us to more frequently be in the compassionate zone – ready for ‘the moment’ – on or off duty, whilst at the same time staying compassionate with ourselves.
