Though there are almost no Samaritans left in the world today, there are many people we may be tempted to despise and reject. I am thinking of people of another race, color, or culture; homosexual persons who are victims of homophobia; or people of another faith, such as Muslims. Jesus's parable challenges us to overcome all such racial, social, sexual, and religious prejudices. I am not suggesting that we compromise our Christian beliefs and morals, but rather that we do not allow these to impede our active love for our neighbor. That is what "go and do likewise'" (v. 37) will mean for us.
-Stott, "The Parable of the Good Samaritan," which Jesus tells in Luke 10: 30 through 37, and is today's reading in Through the Bible Through the Year.
All of this catches my attention, together with the whole of Stott's little essay and, of course, the Parable itself. But what snags me most deeply during this reading is the phrase "active love."
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