Image Credit – Lee Porter: The Good Samaritan 1, 1993
Deacon Tom Writes,
“Habitual Excellence!”
Today’s gospel tells the story of the Good Samaritan in which Jesus gives us a graphic example on how we must act to fulfill the greatest of the commandments. The Samaritan is a virtuous man; he acts with compassion, gentleness, generosity, humility, self-sacrifice, self-discipline, justice, courage, respect, and patience. His actions are unlike those of the priest and the Levite who ignore the victim on the side of the road and go on their merry way.
Why do we do the things that we do? The simple answer is that we get in the habit behaving in a certain way. Habits are our way of responding to certain situations. I suspect helping others came naturally to the Samaritan. He had, as we say, a habit of lending a helping hand. We acquire habits through our repeated action. We start out behaving a certain way and, as we repeat those same actions, they become habits. Habits can be for the good or, as we perhaps know too well, for the bad. Throughout our childhood, hopefully, we are taught to act with kindness so we can develop the habit of being kind. The same goes for being polite, courteous, friendly, and compassionate, etc. As we grow to maturity, again hopefully, we have acquired greater capacity to act more virtuously. Our life’s activities reflect the qualities of our interior moral life – we are either acting according to the good virtues we have stored up or the vices that oppose them.
The Greek word for virtue means “habitual excellence” which suggests that virtues need to be practiced constantly. St. Thomas Aquinas, the foremost proponent of an ethics of virtue, said that through repetition virtues bring about a “modification of a subject.” In other words, practicing virtue makes us virtuous.
The power of the virtues is that through their possession and exercise we reach the intended purpose of our lives which happens to be the very question the scholar of the law asks Jesus today, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
To help us in our efforts to inherit eternal life, the Fathers of the Church have handed down some very good tools to help guide us. We have three “Theological” Virtues – Faith, Hope, and Charity and four “Cardinal” Virtues of Prudence, Fortitude, Justice, and Temperance.
There is much suffering in our world today that cries out for an increase in the practice of these virtues by people of all faiths. May the story of the good Samaritan motivate us to live more virtuous lives so we can be Good Samaritans to our brothers and sisters who suffer as they wait for help to arrive.
Enjoy the Day!
Deacon Tom
Visit my blog at: www.deacontomwrites.blogspot.com
Recommended Reading: Faith for the Heart by Thomas H. Groom who invites us to enter more deeply into the rich treasury of the spiritual resources of the Church's faith, practice, and tradition
Recommended Podcast: In the Company of Charity discussions about the Catholic Church, society and service to others by the Daughters of Charity.
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