Homily for the 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Your faith has saved you. (Luke 17:19)

 

I have to confess being slightly puzzled by this miracle. What exactly are we meant to learnt from it? 

 

Is it perhaps about the importance of saying thank you and expressing our gratitude to God? 

 

Or is it rather about the faith of the outsider, the Samaritan, and the lack of faith of those who should have known better? 

 

Or it perhaps about the importance of faith in the miracles of Jesus?

 

Or is it even, perhaps about the unity of different races and ethnic groups? 

 

But there’s a problem with all these ideas. Though Jesus told the faithful, grateful Samaritan, “your faith has saved you”, the other 9, who showed little gratitude either to Jesus or by visiting priests, who seemed have less faith than the foreigner, who appear to turn their backs on the Samaritan, these nine are healed too. Any point we might want to draw from the story seems contradicted by this fact. 

 

So perhaps the message actually is this: God gives to good and bad, rich and poor, Jew and Samaritan alike. He deserves our gratitude, but gives whether he receives it or not. And so should we. It the fundamental principle of Christian charity. As Christians we do not care for others because they are good, or faithful. We do not care for other people because they too are Christians and overlook those who are not. We care because God cares, and our charity is for Christian and atheist, Mulsim and Hindu, European and Asian. We do not seek faith or conversion as the fruit of our charity - because our charity is already the fruit of God’s infinite love. 

Homily for the 15th Sunday of the Year

Go and do the same (Luke 10:37)

Here’s the odd and interesting thing about what must be the most famous parable - perhaps even the most famous story - in the whole of Scripture.
I think when we hear the story we understand that Jesus is saying to us we should help everyone, even those we might not be disposed to like. Samaritans and Jews are, well, like Black and White, Catholics and Protestants, Israeli and Palestinian - all the Montagues and Capulets of the world. So, this parable says just the same as “Love your enemy”.
But it says a lot more. Remember, Jesus is speaking to a Jewish audience. So what does he tell them to do? To help others, even Samaritans?
Look again. He says to the Jews - “Go and do as he did”. He doesn’t tell them to help Samaritans - he tells them to imagine themselves as Samaritans.
And its the only way.
Helping those in need is good. But it can be self-serving, patronising. We feel good because we have helped those less fortunate than ourselves.
No, Jesus says. Don’t just help them. Be them. Put yourselves in their place. Imagine yourselves in their situation. See things with their eyes.
If not, however kind we are, it will always be US and THEM.