{"id":1043,"date":"2016-07-09T13:31:52","date_gmt":"2016-07-09T11:31:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jp2doc.pl\/en\/?p=1043"},"modified":"2017-04-01T13:33:55","modified_gmt":"2017-04-01T11:33:55","slug":"god-tests-our-hearts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jp2doc.pl\/en\/2016\/07\/09\/god-tests-our-hearts\/","title":{"rendered":"God tests our hearts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Say, we are driving along an empty road, in the middle of nowhere, and a lone woman hitchhiker tries to get a ride from us. Even from the distance it is obvious that she is intoxicated \u2013 or ill, or both. Should we stop and pick her up or should we pretend we have not noticed her?<br \/>\nOr at work, tired to the bone, just about to leave office for the day \u2013 and a mentally challenged person comes in. I know the man \u2013 he has been here before &#8211; and I realize that he is desperate for some friendly ear to pour his frustration into. Such visits usually take a long time and it is so late in the day\u2026 It is tempting to let him know that I have no time \u2013 and I do, really.<br \/>\nAn old grand-aunt was taken to the hospital. Should I visit her there? A little voice whispers within \u201cso many people go to see her, do you really have to become part of the crowd? You have so much to do at home? Surely she does not need you by her bedside now \u2013 you can do it tomorrow or later on\u201d.<br \/>\nHow many times I have passed the God\u2019s test and how often have I failed only He knows. I usually remember those situations in which I failed rather miserably \u2013 they sting even after years.<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"560\" height=\"211\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1044\" src=\"http:\/\/jp2doc.pl\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/04\/5780b3546733e_entry_homeless_01282253.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Each situation of the \u201cgood Samaritan type\u201d requires swift action and that means that decisions made reflect our priorities. For the priest and levi from today\u2019s Gospel priority was probably ritual purity. The man lying by the road looked and was half-dead. Lots of blood all over him. Had he died (which was quite likely) the priest and levi would have become ritually polluted through the contact with dead body and blood. In such case they would have been banned from their service in the Temple.\u00a0 What could be the thoughts of these two men?\u00a0 \u201cSurely, my service to God is more important than this poor man here. I must not touch him. Maybe someone else will come and help him \u2013 it is a busy road. And if he dies, well, he will not be the first and the last. We humans, are like leaves on trees \u2013 here today and gone tomorrow \u2013 and Adonai is forever\u201d.<br \/>\nSo even our desire to serve God can serve as smoke screen for lack of mercy.<br \/>\nJesus cuts through meanders of our thinking and says that first and foremost we must alleviate the suffering, whoever he or she the sufferer may be. Do what you can, He tells us through the good Samaritan\u2019s story, and go your way in peace.<\/p>\n<p>The worst type of situations which require acts of mercy are those permanent ones. We easily become used to someone else\u2019s misery. \u201cIt always has been like that. Why change it?\u201d.<br \/>\nIn a little village I know, right across from an impressive, well attended church and only a few houses down from the local CEO\u2019s modern house, there stands a half-ruined wooden cottage in which live three people \u2013 two mentally ill women and a disturbed man. The cottage lacks decent furniture, smells terribly and has no plumbing, therefore also a bathroom. It\u00a0 is freezing in winter. The area around it is overgrown with weeds. The women survive on small state subsidies (750 zlotys each) and for years had to beg various friends to buy coal for winter and get some cloths. The man who shares the small bedroom with them is a son of an elder of the women and a brother on another. He works pumping gas at the station and refuses to contribute to the costs of living. He practically vegetates seeking a bit of joy in watching movies on TV and his old laptop. Yes, in this utterly poor and dreadfully neglected place there is a laptop and an internet hook up \u2013 maintained by the man with countless psychological problems.<br \/>\nThe whole family has been branded \u201ccrazies\u201d by the locals long ago, have been subject of century long ridicule \u2013 wasn\u2019t the grandmother and grandad likewise poor and deranged? The schizophrenic younger woman living in this decrepit dwelling remembers nothing but ridicule at school.\u00a0 She was always \u201cdifferent\u201d. Stupid.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"560\" height=\"312\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1045\" src=\"http:\/\/jp2doc.pl\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/04\/5780b44f9133c2015-05-29_new_9955884_I1.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<div>The government has checked them out and decided that since the man works at the gas station, they do not qualify for assistance. The situation has lasted for so long that everyone is used to it \u2013 except, of course, the destitute family. I sit on half-broken bit of a chair, beside the two silent and resigned women. Friday Mass is being said in the church, so close from here. The parking lot is filled with cars \u2013 people are quite religious in these parts. Holy words of Mass, amplified by modern technology reach us here&#8230; Sometimes God tests our hearts without warning&#8230;<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: right;\"><strong>Maria Kozakiewicz<\/strong><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Say, we are driving along an empty road, in the middle of nowhere, and a lone woman hitchhiker tries to get a ride from us. Even from the distance it is obvious that she is intoxicated \u2013 or ill, or both. Should we stop and pick her up or should we pretend we have not [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>God tests our hearts - Center for Documentation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jp2doc.pl\/en\/2016\/07\/09\/god-tests-our-hearts\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"God tests our hearts - Center for Documentation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Say, we are driving along an empty road, in the middle of nowhere, and a lone woman hitchhiker tries to get a ride from us. 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