Central Park Zoo, Quote by RumiI love this quote from the Sufi Mystic Rumi...."Let the beauty we love be what we do." Reminds me of the all too often quoted (and too little practiced!) quote attributed to St. Francis, "Preach the Gospel at all times, when necessary use words." It also resonates with me today after yesterday's reading from the Gospel on the Good Samaritan, for it was that he "showed mercy" and DID SOMETHING to help that was of vital importance.
The term "Good Samaritan" used by Jesus was probably nearly a distasteful joke and at least a gross example for some of the listenters when he told the story. His audience probably could not believe that a Samaritan could be "Good" in the way that God and the People of the Covenant were Good. Perhaps we would hear this incongruity in a "Good Terrorist?," "Good Enemy?," or even, (do I dare say it,...) "Good Al Quaeda?" Jesus was making it plain that it was the action of love that is of the vital importance. Jesus points out that our savior would perhaps be the last person we could ever dream of our savior being. In the case of the parable, the savior is the Good Samaritan, and Jesus calls us to "Go and Do Likewise," but He also lays out the Christ-Like nature of the Good Samaritan, who was willing to cross ethnic and cultural boundaries to help a person in need. Also, Jesus paints in the margins of this image of the Good Samaritan that HE is the Good Samaritan, the one who comes to save, yet is the unexpected one, and who comes in a way and a manner and in a mode that is not what the religious authorities and protectors of doctrine in his day would expect.
When Jesus calls us to "go and do likewise," he calls us to act lovingly, to even, "let the beauty we love be what we do."
