In labelling this section (paragraphs 69-71) “A story constantly retold” Pope Francis suggests we encounter this situation again and again. I might term it “constantly relived,” as we find ourselves often in the role of the injured, the perpetrator, the helper, the disinterested bystanders, or even the innkeeper.
First, the Holy Father points out the “interior struggle” this situation produces in us. Even those who would jump at the opportunity to assist someone in need.
69. The parable is clear and straightforward, yet it also evokes the interior struggle that each of us experiences as we gradually come to know ourselves through our relationships with our brothers and sisters. Sooner or later, we will all encounter a person who is suffering. Today there are more and more of them. The decision to include or exclude those lying wounded along the roadside can serve as a criterion for judging every economic, political, social and religious project. Each day we have to decide whether to be Good Samaritans or indifferent bystanders. And if we extend our gaze to the history of our own lives and that of the entire world, all of us are, or have been, like each of the characters in the parable. All of us have in ourselves something of the wounded man, something of the robber, something of the passers-by, and something of the Good Samaritan.
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