You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself. – Luke 10:27
Have you ever prayed the Litany of Trust? It is a lovely but challenging prayer that can help open us up to God’s deliverance and love. It focuses on asking God to free us from things that hold us back from trusting Him. It also empowers us to trust Him in all circumstances, especially times of suffering or uncertainty. I believe that trusting in God expands our hearts and allows us to love Him and others more fully. Perhaps one day we might even be able to love with everything we have, all our heart, being, strength and mind, as this Sunday’s Gospel reading on the Good Samaritan commands.
What kept the priest and the Levite from stopping to help the man in need? They both passed to the other side of the road when they saw the victim. For one, as Jesus points out, they didn’t see the man as their neighbor. They didn’t regard him as someone worthy of their help. Maybe they were afraid that they would also be robbed and beaten. Or perhaps they simply felt too busy to stop. The Gospel doesn’t say exactly why they failed to love their neighbor in need of help.
There is one line in this litany that stands out to me as particularly meaningful when considering the parable of the Good Samaritan: “From the fear of what love demands, Deliver me, Jesus.” Whatever the reason the priest and the Levite didn’t help, you could say that they were afraid of the cost of their love. Stopping to help the man would have cost them time, energy, money, and possibly their personal safety.
The Samaritan was unafraid of what love demanded in that moment. He gave his time, strength, wine, oil, money, and risked even himself to help this man in need. It didn’t matter that the man was a stranger from a hostile land. What mattered is he needed to be shown mercy. He is the true hero of the story. Pause on that for a moment: loving another in need makes him a hero.
This causes me to pause and consider when I am afraid of what love demands of me. Do I only love when it’s convenient for me? When I don’t have anything to lose? When I expect to be loved or compensated in some way? When is God calling me to put what I have on the line in order to show another person mercy? What specific thing is holding me back from loving more? What am I holding on to (time, energy, money, fear of suffering) that I could let go of in order to love more freely?
Jesus, I trust in You to deliver me from the pride of life that leads to selfishness. Help me to be ready to love another by being unafraid of what love demands. Help me to trust that You will provide everything I need to respond to Your call of mercy.