Choosing Choice: The Samaritan

This morning, I had the opportunity to participate in a meditation as part of an International Buddhist-Christian Conference taking place at Union this week. During the meditation, we were asked to sit with the parable of the Good Samaritan, which was spoken aloud by Roger Haight, and place ourselves into the story based on wherever we were at that moment. I found myself sitting with the robbers this morning. I could not help wondering where they were before the story, what had caused them to engage in behavior that ran counter to their potential for good. I wondered if they felt remorse for their actions, if they were driven by pain or desperation in that moment. Did they value the life they were destroying? Did they experience hardship that drove them to a state of separation from the joy of being? As the story continued on, my mind remained in part with the robbers as I listened to an act of compassion that came from an oppressed segment of society. In a system where pain was ignored and unaddressed by those in places of privilege and power, an individual who was also a likely victim of pain put someone else’s life before his own. Rather than remaining indifferent to another’s experience and allowing for the continuation of a cycle of violence and suffering, this person started a new cycle of care and love. This person started a new narrative that allowed the victim of violence to experience both the very worst and the very best of humanity. This person gave those around him a choice: to move forward in love of or in fear of our imperfect potential for good. As I contemplated the risk and beauty involved in the Samaritan’s actions, I could not help but wonder if the robbers had been given that choice. I could not help but wonder if they were given the opportunity to act with love for our imperfect potential or with fear. As the story finished, I held out hope for the robbers that they somehow learned of the actions of the Samaritan, that they were given the choice, possibly for the first time, to see our potential for good in a new light.

When I mentioned that my meditation centered on the robbers to a friend later that morning, I was asked if I had seen the latest about the events in Boston. When I said I had, it was clear that my meditation had been motivated by a sadness for the fear that permeated through all parts of the city, including the men who engaged in this horrifically violent act. But the sadness was also paired with a hope, a hope that was justified and validated by the beautiful humanity that has been present since and during these terrible events. That hope is the hope that we continue to create and face a choice. Do we love our imperfect potential for good, knowing that the only way to fulfill it is by engaging in dangerous acts of kindness despite (or even because of) the pain we ourselves experience? Or do we fear our imperfect potential for good, believing that it will never be fully achieved, and that our pain will only be healed when we inflict it on others? What choice do we make; what choice have we made? I believe we have the potential to make a choice to love, and I see it already being made by many who are willing to give of themselves to show kindness and compassion to all who are experiencing pain. They are choosing to break the cycle of violence, they are choosing to show the wholeness of humanity so that we are not left with only the brokenness. And they are choosing to give others the choice to do the same.

The parable of the Good Samaritan is framed in the context of understanding what it means to love one’s neighbor, and in particular, who constitutes one’s neighbor. The one who “showed mercy” is the one who is identified as the neighbor to the victim in the story. The Samaritan, the one who broke the cycle of violence and showed compassion despite being a victim of oppression himself, is the one whose example we are invited to follow. The Samaritan, the person who did not act out of fear but out of love for our imperfect potential, the person who gave others the choice to see both possibilities and engage one, is a model that we can follow when we consider how we relate to one another. The Samaritan was given a choice, and in his actions of love, gave another the same opportunity. We now have the chance to do the same. I choose love. And I know others will too.