Are You A Bad Samaritan?
April 13, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
We all know the story of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:29-37. But have you ever considered what it means to be a bad samaritan?
A bad Samaritan is one who sees the needs of others and, whether because of laziness, greed, prejudice, pride or some other failing, refuses to help. A bad Samaritan recognizes that he can and should act to help someone out of a predicament but he stifles the voice of his conscience, that’s telling him to do something. A bad Samaritan is the embodiment of one who, by his refusal to act on behalf of another, commits sins of omission. In the Confiteor prayer at Mass, we tell publicly proclaim:
I confess to Almighty God,
and to you, my brothers and sisters,
that I have sinned through my own fault.
In my thoughts and in my words,
Have we all not been a bad Samaritan at one time or another? But isn’t it wonderful that when we reflect on our sinfulness and are truly sorry for what we have not done when we should have, that we have the sacrament of reconciliation and the forgiveness of a loving God to turn to?
Michele