You have the choice to accept or reject
September 21, 2026
My wife misplaced her new glasses a week ago. Ever since, I hear the refrain, “Have you seen my glasses?” broadcast to the whole household. After a few days, I asked, “Do you remember where you would have kept them?” Dumb and dumber! “If I knew where I kept them, I would not be asking”. Lesson in intelligent communication for the future.
This morning, I was an altar boy (aged 67) of sorts. There is no age bar to serve. I was helping the celebrant prepare the altar for the Eucharistic Celebration. In the sacristy of the chapel, the priest pointed to a pair of glasses and ‘Refresh’ eye lubricant, which was kept at the foot of the statue of St. Joseph. Our parish has the unique distinction of being named Our Lady of Sacred Heart Church. Our Lady was also there at the preparation table in the sacristy.
Father too was in a jocular mood. He said, how will this person find her glasses without her glasses? I offered. Have two of them. Precisely, my wife’s strategy. He said, “If both are misplaced?” I said, it will be like the blind leading the blind. We could have continued chit-chatting, but the congregation was getting restless.
There is divinity in waiting. Then we praise God when we find it. Otherwise, we attribute it to luck, not a blessing.
The Good Samaritan in the eponymous Parable (Lk 10:25-37) was waiting. He wanted to serve. Not his own, but one who had disowned him and his community.
The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” (Jn 4: 9-10)
Today, we live in a highly divisive world, accentuated by social media, capable of uniting ‘hordes’ behind an idea, no matter its genuineness, as long as it strikes a chord, surfaces latent grievances, and gives voice, with the comfort of numbers to fuel a revolution.
Relationships have been annulled; family dinner chats have become contentious. We have taken sides and are unwilling to yield to another. Jesus prophesied that families will be divided over Him:
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household.” (Mt 10:34-36)
The Good Samaritan wanted to serve. God allowed him to bridge the gap between the two nations. We know the Good Samaritan helped one rejected by his own. He had a purpose in life. To literally bind and heal. He comforted his Jewish brother. He promised to return to settle with the innkeeper.
What happened thereafter is left to our imagination. When the Samaritan returned to check on his Jewish brother, did he greet him with open arms? Or was he assaulted by, “How dare you touch me?” You have made me unclean.
The Samaritan would have replied, “No, my brother, I took care of that.
The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’ (Lk 10:35). “Wash him up, for I am unclean. My brother should not feel I have desecrated him with my touch.” I want to help. I respect the Jewish faith. I wish my brother would look kindly on me.
Today, notwithstanding the imagined dialogue above, the Good Samaritan is protected by Law. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has published rules for the protection of Good Samaritans vide GSR 594 (E) dated 29th September 2020. The law prohibits harassment by police, seeking identification or discrimination on the grounds of religion, nationality, caste or sex. The Good Samaritan (or Jesus) thought through all of the travails of helping an abandoned roadside victim in the Parable.
Imagine an injured Jewish settler helped by a Palestinian whose house was razed to the ground, driven out of his house, and made stateless. In our own country, rabid animosity exists between followers of different faiths.
Only in Kerala, God’s Own Country, grace and harmony prevail among people of different faiths - largely Hindus, Muslims, and Christians- benefiting from centuries of living together, trading for mutual benefit, sharing spaces and resources during calamities and festivals that may need adjustments by other faith members - notwithstanding forces bent on upsetting this balance.
Perhaps the root of this cooperative culture was Kerala rulers’ welcoming attitude to foreigners. They came to trade, not to conquer, unlike the North, invaded by the Mughals. The British seized power, defeating the Mughals, the French and the Dutch.
How much of the Good Samaritan blood is in us? Do we feel threatened by other faiths in our community? Do we take protective actions? Or are we open to them? Would we be Good Samaritans to other community members or be open to being helped by them?
- Mathew Anthony
P.S. My wife disowned the glasses. They weren’t hers. But the incident gave me a start for the reflection - the hardest part of writing. Where to start? How to maintain tempo for 900-odd words to follow? How to end with the start so the narration does not skid into unknown territory and get lost? Like careers that start well but lose focus, meandering into uncharted territory, losing steam, and failing to grow into something purposeful, remunerative and fulfilling.
