[Pearls Ep 127: Monday motivation]
On Friday we looked at “being an even better Samaritan” – the idea is to look out for our neighbor – to not let them be alone – so that we help keep them from the robbers in the first place.
There’s a little more to it that bears some reflection.
We all start out life as the nameless Traveler, courtesy of original sin. Christ comes to us first in our baptism and tends to our wounds. He continues to care for us, placing us on his pack animal and bringing us to the Inn and caring for us until, good Lord willing, we come fully into our faith in our adulthood with a deep conversion of heart – many times with additional bumps and bruises along the way.
Here’s the thing – for most of us, when we have that conversion of heart, there is tremendous fire and passion, but it can grow cold over time if we don’t tend it.
Especially in our current militantly secular age, we need to stay intimately close to Christ. A well-regarded approach to this is “practicing the presence of God” – particularly as articulated and exemplified by Brother Lawrence. The idea is simple enough (Brother Lawrence was a divinely simple man) – in all things we look for God and turn to Him. But the goal is to transcend the practice; to live a sacramental life, a life of virtue, a life of meditation, a life of service, and to practice the presence of God – for our relationship with God to deepen to the point where seeking His presence is not an awkward and forced activity, but rather as natural as breathing. This is, to be sure, the work of a lifetime – but isn’t that why we are given a lifetime?
I (Steve) recall working alongside my dad – both of us quietly enjoying working outdoors, with our hands, and on a shared project. Often our time was very quiet – few words, but I just enjoyed the presence of my father on our shared endeavor. There was no mechanistic thought from moment to moment, “there’s my dad” – I was just naturally aware of him and how we were working together.
That’s a hint of what we’re meant to have with God. The more we’re operating from the place of the presence with God, the more available we are to be Samaritans and Inn Keepers to the wounded people around us – and to help them avoid falling further into harm’s way in the first place. But we’re never able to be the Samaritan or Inn Keeper on our own – in the words of St. Paul, “it is not I, but Christ within me” who enables us to move beyond our own woundedness to assist our neighbor.
Praying the Lord reveals something to you about your own place in the Good Samaritan story in the week ahead –
Steve and Karen Smith – Interior Life
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