Scripture scholars remind us that the parables of Jesus are meant to jolt us out of the ordinary, everyday view of life—they are meant to shock us into another reality—to change our perspective on things. Once such scholar is Sr . Barbara E. Reid, O.P., and Ph.D., who is Vice President, Academic Dean, and Professor of New Testament Studies at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. She is a Dominican sister of Grand Rapids, and holds a Ph.D. in Biblical Studies from The Catholic University of America, as well as an M.A. in Religious Studies and a B.A. from Aquinas College.

In today’s gospel, Sr. Barbara looks to the scholar of the law in this Lukan reading who asks Jesus the question, “Who is my neighbor? “To find the answer to that question in our own lives— who is our neighbor?— Sr. Barbara asks us to look at the situation at hand from a “view from the ditch.” Meaning, to step outside of our comfort zone—our normal reality—and to see the situation from the point of view of the other-in the case of the victim of the robber. He has no choice. He has been beaten and left for dead. Samaritans and Jews didn’t get along, they wouldn’t even associate with each other and if one was able to, they wouldn’t accept help from the other. They were an earlier version of the “Hatfield’s and the McCoy’s.” Sr. Barbara asks us to see the world from another’s viewpoint—especially from the poor, the weak and the sick. When we can do that and recognize the predicament someone might be in, the world not only looks differently from how “I” may see it—with all of my comfort and ability—but perhaps I may see the other side of “the story.” When that happens, both my viewpoint and I am changed