Being a Good Samaritan
On thinking about, hearing or seeing afflicted, distressed, tormented persons, worn out and weighed down with work or heavy loads … I will try to excite in myself a vivid compassion for them … I will try to console them in their afflictions, to exhort them to patience and resignation, and to make them see that suffering is brief, enjoyment is eternal. (OOCC, X., pp. 19 - 20; STA, 34)
The everyday life of a person has its own demands and challenges. A person is often caught up in them and as a result, he tends to ignore the needs and troubles of the other afflicted and distressed persons. He passes through life without ever being aware of what is happening to them. A Good Samaritan, despite his own problems, is able to recognize the predicament of the other person. He feels for the other in his need and does what is within his power to alleviate the grief of the other. Thus, recognition of the need of the other, feeling sympathetic towards the one who is in trouble, and giving the needed relief are the significant characteristics of a Good Samaritan. St. Vincent Pallotti was, indeed, a true Good Samaritan in his lifetime. He never missed a person in trouble. Whether he was on a journey, at the university teaching, at the confessional hearing confession, guiding the person who has come to him for help, or ministering in the Church as a priest, he always identified the poor and the one in need. St. Vincent had a tender heart that always felt for the one in need. He had a ready mind that would plan and execute a course of action to give immediate, as well as remote relief to the one who was distressed and troubled. In this manner, St. Vincent always attempted to be a Good Samaritan in his life.
Am I caught up with my own daily troubles? Am I able to move beyond my problems and see the need of the other? Do I have the sensitivity of the heart to feel with the other? Do I concretely do something to bring relief to the poor I encounter?
A despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw him [the man attacked by the bandits], he felt pity. Kneeling beside him the Samaritan soothed his wounds with medicine and bandaged them. (Lk. 10: 33-34)