Wednesday, July 18, 2007

The B-side to Good Sam

"We are the beggars at the foot of God's door
We have known the pain of loving in a dying world
And our lies have made us angry at the truth
But Cinderella's slipper fits us perfectly
And somehow we are made royalty with You,
Oh we of little faith,
Oh You of stubborn grace
And You have welcomed us in"
We are the beggars at the foot of God's door - The Normals

We all know the parable of the Good Samaritan, and through it have hopefully learned who "our neighbor" is . I have often seen, or put, myself in the place of the priest, the Levite, as well as the Good Sam; but on reading fellow blogger Charles of New Haven's Sunday homily, I have for the first time been able to see myself from the viewpoint of the poor victim.

We all truly are the helpless innocent, beaten to near death by our own selfish thoughts and desires, while stripped naked and left for dead by a world that is just as broken and scared as we are. Only the risen Christ can truly care for us, for if we let the world try (however good their intentions), I think we will just end up in that same ditch, more battered than before.

Lord, I am not worthy to receive You,
but say the Word and I shall be healed
.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Those two lines of the mass are my all-time favorites!

Arkanabar Ilarsadin said...

My mom studied at seminary many years ago, and one of the things I can still remember from the dinner table conversations her studies sparked was this statement about the Parable of the Good Samaritan: "You're the guy in the ditch."

I read a similar homily on this earlier today, and it did indeed greatly deepen my appreciation of the parable.