Passing By...

I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.    John 13:34-35

Earlier this spring, a surveillance video showed an unidentified woman, walking down 144th Street in Queens with her cell phone in hand until, as she walks under a protective scaffolding next to a building, a man is seen following her. At 5:40 a.m. that man accosted the woman under the scaffolding. He might have killed her if not for a Good Samaritan, Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax broke it up, and got stabbed in the torso several times in the process. Bleeding, her rescuer continued chasing the assailant up the street until he collapsed, face-down, on the sidewalk. The woman ran off in the opposite direction. Mr. Tale-Yax lay on the sidewalk almost two hours before someone called 911, but, it was too late. Mr. Tale-Yax was a 31 year old immigrant from Guatemala, who had fallen on hard times. He had been eking out a living working odd jobs, but he was recently out of work and lost his home in Queens.
 
Nonetheless, he died a hero. No one even thanked him, and that is sad enough. Worse yet, the video revealed a parade of people passing him by as he lay there dying. Some didn't even give him a second look. Some stopped and gawked, then walked on. One man shook him before walking away. One man started to roll him over, but when he saw the blood, also walked away. One person even took a picture with his cell phone before walking away.
 
Mr. Tale-Yax was certainly a Good Samaritan, but to me, this story is more about those who passed him by, especially as these devotions are intended to explore ways of living out our faith day to day, out there on the sidewalks of our lives.
 
In the unlikely scenario that we would encounter a homeless man lying face-down on our suburban sidewalks, bleeding to death, I have no doubt that at the very least, we would call 911. But, before we pat ourselves on the back, I ponder, "Who am I passing by?" I pass by Mexican immigrants in the Acme lot looking for work. I pass by people laden with grocery bags walking home because they don't have a car. I pass by who knows how many people who are grieving the loss of a loved one, unemployed, battling cancer, going through a painful divorce or custody battle. They may not be lying face-down on the sidewalk, but there they are, the walking wounded. Their minds are really somewhere else. We're surrounded by them at work, at church, and in our neighborhoods. Sometimes God places one of them right in our own little circle, and we get the chance to share the healing and hope of Christ Jesus with them. But if they don't land in our own little circle, we tend to see them in the stores or on the street and dismiss them as cranky, or rude, or bad drivers, when maybe, their wounds, like Mr.Tale-Yaxs', are hidden to us as we are passing by.

Lord, You command us to love one another, even as you have first loved us. Teach us how to love all our neighbors, especially those we find hardest to love. Give us your vision to see one another's wounds and grant us the courage to offer your healing and hope, in deed and in prayer. Amen.

Contributed by Linda
Sunday June 13, 2010
Week 29 of Liturgical Year C
Sunday Gospel reading:
Lectionary 11 (Proper 6)
Third Sunday after Pentecost