Helping others is closer than it seems. It can be within the fingertips. To practice what the commandments teach it’s not necessary to go far but to get out of a legalistic mindset. The commandments are given to help each other out not to place restrictions.  The scholar of the law presented in the Gospel may have known his laws but lacked compassion. There are many who may know their canons, maybe learned but when the time to help others happens, they fail the test.  They may know a lot with the brain, but their heart is cold as dead.  In this Gospel there were two people who were trying to follow the precepts of the law. Both the Levite and the priest were just trying to make it to holy place without getting defiled.  A dead body would surely render them impure, so they decided to take another alternative route to not be made impure.  But the man on the road was not dead. If only they would have looked closer!  But they wanted to create a safe distance.  It was a foreigner, one deemed a pagan, who showed compassion. How many times are we in a hurry to get to church do we create a distance and avoid getting into complications by helping others? How many times has it happened that the one who does not go to church gives an example of what it means to help another? How many times have we avoided getting involved where the help can even be at the tip of the fingers? Dialing a number. Helping push. Give CPR. Help direct the traffic. Just stop to make sure everything is fine.  Going to church should not prevent anyone from helping. If one does not help on the way to church by even lifting a finger it defeats the purpose of going in the first place.  To fulfill the commandments which are of mercy, one does not need to go to a remote village, high in rocky terrain or over the seas for a mission.  To fulfill the commandments, it just takes a kind acknowledgement.  This is my brother. This is my sister. I am encountering them along the way to salvation.