03
Oct
Oct
Reflection: Luke 10: 25-37
Today we celebrate the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi. In 1979, Saint Pope John Paul II declared St. Francis the patron saint of ecology. Today is also the concluding day of the annual observation of month-long Season of Creation. The Season of Creation is an ecumenical celebration of prayer and action for caring for the nature where we live in. The season and specially this day calls on us to care for our neighbour and care for the nature that surrounds us. Caring for our neighbour is the theme of Gospel today. The scholar of the law in the Gospel asks Jesus that famous question: “Who is my neighbour?” Jesus’ answer results in the famous parable of the Good Samaritan. The robbers beat the man up and left him half dead. Explaining the passage, Pope Francis spoke of the attitude of being a “passer-by.” We live in a society where people tend to pass-by their neighbours without noticing their needs. The priest of the temple and the Levite who came across the half-dead man on the road-side, but preferred to pass by. The Gospel does not say the reasons for such a heartless behaviour, but we can think of some valid reasons. The Priest and the Levite are temple officials, and if they were to touch this wounded man on the road-side, they would become unclean. It would require them to go through the purification rituals before they could get into the temple. They might be hurrying for their liturgy. On the contrary, the Samaritan does not simply pass by. He doesn’t seem to be in a hurry. He attends to this wounded man. He got his hands dirty, got his clothes dirty. Took time to dress his wounds and take him to safety and entrusted someone to take care of him. Our responses to the needs of our neighbour is often that of passing by. We are aware that there are neighbours around us who are wounded and in distress. But we have a lot of other things to attend to. But the parable of the Good Samaritan presents a picture of a God who does not leave his wounded child on the roadside to die. Pope Francis explains that each of us is the man there, wounded, and the Samaritan is Jesus. And he healed our wounds. He drew near to us. He took care of us. He paid for us. And he said to his Church: “But if you need more, you pay, I will come back and I will pay”. Think about this: in this passage there is the whole Gospel. Let us learn from St. Francis of Assisi to imitate Christ the Good Samaritan.