Two Life Lessons from the Great Teachers

Father Juan stood before the group speaking from the heart in a heavy but understandable Guatemalan accent. The topic was love and by the end of his homily, tears were rolling down my cheeks.

A traveler was walking from Jerusalem to Jericho and was attacked by robbers who stripped him and left him half+dead in the street. A priest and a Hebrew man passed by without helping him. But a Samaritan (at the time Samaritans were seen as society’s outcasts) stopped and cared for him, by taking him to an inn where he paid for the beaten man’s care and stay.

This is of course, the story of the Good Samaritan. Father Juan had an interesting interpretation. Everywhere we look, he said, there are those who represent the half+dead man in this parable. He pointed to the marginalized of society.

He encouraged us to consider suicidal individuals, racial minorities, women considering abortions, and orphans. There are people that need our help. Help them. Show love to the marginalized members of society without regard for the differences that may exist between you and them.

When Jesus told this parable, his message was simple: “Go and do as the Samaritan did.” Father Juan’s message in his homily, “We are all human beings. People need our help. Look into your heart. Go help.”

As I sat with my eyes tearing up and a smile across my face, I came to a conclusion: the more we study the great ancient teachers…. Jesus, Buddha, or the more recent greats…. Gandhi, Dalai Lama, and Nelson Mandela, the more we see that they are preaching two of the same lessons:

1. Love.

2. We are all one.

Has a spiritual passage, a homily, a teaching, or a simple conversation ever touched you in a similar way?