The Jericho Road Moment

My wife and I attended Mass at Noon last Sunday and it was celebrated by a new priest who just joined our parish, Father Jordan. In his homily Father Jordan spoke about the Gospel which details the account of “the Good Samaritan”. He explained that he had visited the Holy Land and that during the trip they stopped at the Inn of the Good Samaritan along the Jericho road which is still a dangerous place today.

Father Jordan explained that the road to Jericho is still a desolate place similar to the way it was back in the time of Jesus. The Gospel story refers to the two other men who passed the man who was beaten and injured without stopping. This was not unusual at the time because quite often the “injured” man was used as a ruse by robbers to lure people in and attack them.

However the main message of the Gospel passage from last Sunday was to show mercy to those in need as the Good Samaritan did in this account. In the wake of the violence and terrible acts of disrespect toward human life that we have seen take place in our nation and the world in the past week, this message takes on added significance.

Father Jordan continued his homily by positing a question that really made me think and it is essentially paraphrased as this: in your life how many times have you gone on your own Jericho road and gone from point A to B focused on your own needs, and how many times have you stopped for someone in need?

My own life has been riddled with “Jericho road moments” and I started to process through them in the course of deciding to write this article. The moments from many years ago in my past where I may have walked past someone in need for whatever reason, to moments where I have stepped up to help, and the most recent Jericho road moment which took place just a few days before that homily last week.

I had finished a workout at the gym and had just parked my car to run into Target to get a few things before going back to work on a feature article and then going to my night job later that day. I got out of my car and still had the door open when a young man in his early twenties rode up to me on a bicycle which had several plastic grocery bags straddled on the handlebars.

He politely asked me for a quarter showing me he had some change in his hand because he needed a dollar to buy an iced tea to drink. I began to rifle through collecting change that is in the side pocket of my front car door when he began to explain that he had just biked five miles from a local motel.

It was a very hot day and he told me that he had been living at the motel and could not afford to stay there anymore, so he had to pay $300 to the manager that was owed on his account in order to get his belongings out of the room there. I saw the despair on his face and believed him. I felt it was a moment for me to do something to help this person in need. I gave him some money, he did not want to accept it. Then he told me that money was all he had left in his account. I gave him some more money. He tried to give it back to me.

Then I saw a van pull around, he mentioned to me earlier he had just stopped into Target to use the rest room. He met a lady in the front of the store and she pulled around and rolled down the window and handed him two bottles of iced tea. The young man smiled and then turned and told me that since he had a drink he was going to return my money. I declined and told him to keep it, we went back and forth until I insisted he keep the money. I also offered to go into Target and buy him some food, but it was around Noon time, and he told me he had to get to his friend’s home in the next town over because his friend was coming on his lunch break to let him in so he could stay there.

I felt relieved he had a place to stay and directed him to go to a local non-profit run by nuns for further assistance. He remarked that nobody had ever helped him that way before, that he had done things to help others but it never happened for him. He thanked me and I remember him saying that he could now get something to eat tonight and tomorrow. It was a “Jericho road moment”, and I was filled with mercy for this person in front of me and felt that The Holy Spirit meant for me to be there.

I went into the Target rest room and wept because I felt so powerless to help him further or to help the countless others out there like this young man. I felt ashamed that I complain about my own life at times instead of focusing on all the many blessings that I do have in my life.

I went into the aisles of Target and felt horrible because of all these items on the shelves I could buy and others have nothing. I recalled the day before where I was having a “bad day” and got upset about something at work that, in the context of my interaction with this young man, now seemed so small and insignificant.

I recalled the reflection that I use often during The Stations of the Cross when I meditate on the 8^th Station: Jesus Meets the Women of Jerusalem. Our Lord was in extreme agony and distress, he was bleeding profusely from the wounds of the scourging and yet He reached out and gave to the women of Jerusalem. Jesus gave of Himself even when in distress. My reflection and prayer is to not let my own suffering and distress distract me from the needs of my neighbor. It is a hard lesson to live by sometimes, but in the Target parking lot that day I was successful at doing so.

In returning to the Gospel message, Jesus asks the expert in the law: “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” The expert replied: “The one who had mercy on him”. Jesus told him: “Go and do likewise”. (Luke 10: 36-37)

In this Jubilee Year of Mercy in the Church and in this time of great chaos in our nation and world with the recent violent shootings, we need to all connect back to The Great Commandment and love our neighbor. We all have “Jericho Road moments” where someone is in need, or a car is disabled, or someone is walking alone carrying grocery bags. In those times we need to try our best to show mercy as Our Lord and Master taught us to do.

In those moments the question posed by Father Jordan returns: will you just go from Point A to Point B and get where you want to go without concern for others, or will you put on the eyes of Christ and stop to offer assistance to a neighbor in need?

I pray that you and I will respond to the Lord’s call in these “Jericho Road moments” that come along in our daily lives. I pray for mercy, love and peace to overcome the violence of recent days. I pray that the Merciful Lord Jesus be with you all and bless all of you and your families.