Lk. 10: 25-37
Teenage prostitutes, during interviews in a San Francisco study, were asked: “Is there anything you needed most and couldn’t get?” Their response, invariably preceded by sadness and tears, was unanimous: “What I needed most was someone to listen to me.” Someone who cared enough to listen to me. ”
The synod on synodality, which is going to take place in 2023, is in its full swing. One of the sincere exhortations by Pope Francis is that by partaking in this process, all should develop the virtue of listening. Most of us have a lot to share with others: our worries, sorrows, dreams, happiness, and achievements, but we don’t have much patience to listen to others. If at all we are listening, we tend to listen with our ears rather than our heart. As they share, we may appear to be listening, but we are often thinking about something else or preoccupied with the answer to their problem or how we can defend their argument, etc.
Today’s gospel presents to us how attentively Jesus listened to others. When the scribe asked the question, even though Jesus knew that he posed this question to test him, he listened to him. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbour as yourself.” (Lk. 10:27). To love God and our neighbour first and foremost, we should listen to them. The well-known theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer says: “Just as love to God begins with listening to his Word, so the beginning of love for the brethren is learning to listen to them.” Loving God with all your heart implies listening to him with all your heart.
We see immediately that the scribe asks Jesus, who is my neighbour? Then Jesus gives the parable of the Good Samaritan and makes it clear the importance of listening to one’s fellow brothers. The man who was robbed and dumbed by the robbers on the roadside was crying for help. The priest and Levite who passed by had a reason to claim ritual purity. However, they forget the fact that God desires mercy and not sacrifice. In fact, worrying too much about the violation of ritual purity by touching the corpse, they remained indifferent and failed to listen to the cry of the needy brethren whereas the Samaritans, considered outcasts by Jewish society, came to the aid of this wounded man, listening to his heart-breaking cry for life. He listened to his cry, his heart moved with compassion for him; he reached out to him with his caring and healing love. He offers all his possible resources, such as oil and wine, to dress his wounds. He carries the wounded man on his donkey, which means he might have walked all the way to the inn by foot. Then he entrusted all his care to the innkeeper, even promising that he would see to the future expenses.
Jesus asks the scribe, “Which of these three do you think was a neighbour to the man who was robbed?”(Lk. 10:36). The scribe did not say ‘the Samaritan’ purposefully because of his pride and prejudice against the Samaritans. He tells Jesus that the one who showed mercy He expressed his mercy by listening to his cry with his heart. He could not pass by. Instead, he took him to his heart and listened to his heartfelt cry.
As we reflect on this passage, let us make a conscious effort to listen to our brothers. At times, people don’t need any solutions to the problems that they face. They are searching for someone who can listen to them with their hearts. If only we listened, our presence in their lives could heal their emotional and physical wounds; we could carry these brethren to green pastures and provide for their needs; and we could entrust these brethren to the safe hands for their well-being.Let us be attentive listeners and good samaritans who care and nurture others.