A month has passed since the intensive and emotional experience of Palestine and Israel. This Holy Land pilgrimage was a walk in the steps of the

living Jesus encountered in the lives of Palestinians and Israelis: Jews, Christians and Muslims. The pain and sadness of being bombarded by new realities has passed. The question of how to deal with a totally new experience of violence and injustice lingers on.

My earlier pilgrimage to the Holy Land seventeen years ago was a more traditional spiritual experience of walking in the steps of Jesus. Then the Hebrew and Greek scriptures came alive by following in the steps of the historical Jesus. Ever since, the Holy Scriptures have called up the heat and glare of the desert sun, the hustle and bustle of Jerusalem, and the beauty of the verdant Galilee. The burden laid on my soul by that pilgrimage has stayed with me: to be faithful to the experience of the spiritual reality of Jesus and his disciples in Roman times.

In Luke’s gospel the Parable of the Good Samaritan appears as Jesus’ answer to a lawyer’s question “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus tells him that to inherit eternal life, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” In the parable a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho when he fell into the hands of robbers who stripped him, beat him and left him on the side of the road half dead. A priest was going down the road and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise a Levite saw him and passed by on the other side. Was the priest in a hurry to make an important appointment? Was the Levite fearful of a foreigner in dire straits? The parable is silent. But a Samaritan, someone from a different country and religion, came near, saw the beaten man, and was moved with pity. The story goes on to relate the care given the victim by the Samaritan. Jesus concludes the story by asking the lawyer who of these three was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers? The lawyer responds, “The one who showed him mercy.”  Jesus concludes, “Go and do likewise.”

Why does this parable accompany my reflections upon the recent experience of listening to the simple stories of Christians, Jews and

Muslims working for justice in Israel/Palestine? Put most simply, it seems to hold the key to discerning what responsibility has been laid upon me by being there as an active listener. Just as the priest and Levite passed by on the other side, so too I could go on with my life unmoved and unchanged. There is so much to do . . . work, family and personal life . . . there is no time to add one more cause. This could remain a special experience in which the suffering of the Palestinians and the domination of the Israelis enriches my understanding of the historical rule of the Romans over the Jews at the time of Jesus. But what am I called to do if, like the Samaritan, I am moved. . . both figuratively and literally. . . by this experience?