The Love That Empties Itself

Sunday, July 13, 2025

Homily by Fr. Dan

This week, Fr. Dan reflects on the Good Samaritan and the radical shift from self-focus to self-giving love. Through the lens of kenosis—Christ’s total self-emptying on the cross—we're invited to see and love others not as interruptions or risks, but as opportunities to live the Gospel. This homily asks us: What happens if I don’t stop to help?

Reflection & Discussion Questions

• When have you asked, “What will happen to me if I get involved?” instead of, “What will happen to them if I don’t?”
• Accompaniment Connection: Walking with others means shifting from self-preservation to self-giving. Accompaniment begins when we ask how someone else will be affected if we hold back our care.

• Fr. Dan said Christ’s love is kenotic—self-emptying and sacrificial. Who in your life needs a love that doesn’t count the cost?
• Accompaniment Connection: Accompaniment invites us to love without expecting return. It means staying with others in their suffering, not rushing to fix or flee.

• What holds you back from stopping to help others—fear, busyness, uncertainty, judgment?
• Accompaniment Connection: We often resist entering someone’s pain because it feels risky. But accompaniment asks us to be present anyway, trusting that God works in our discomfort.

• Fr. Dan asked us to discern how Jesus is inviting us to act with mercy in real-life encounters. What simple act of generosity or attention is God prompting in your daily life?
• Accompaniment Connection: Often, accompaniment is small and tangible—a meal, a kind word, shared time. It doesn’t require perfection, only presence.

• The heart of the homily is this: If I do not stop to help, what will happen to them?
• Accompaniment Connection: This is the heart of Christian accompaniment: we don't walk past; we walk with. To follow Jesus is to let someone else's need move our heart to action.