St John’s Cathedral

Sunday 14 October 2007

28 th Sunday in Ordinary Time

We all know the Gospel story of the Good Samaritan ( Lk 10: 25-37 ). When Jesus first told the story, the listeners must have been shocked. It described how people who were looked up to, people who would be expected to know better – priests and Levites – left an injured man at the side of the road and passed by on the other side. The Samaritan was looked upon as an outsider. But it was he who saw that the man needed help and who stopped and gave him practical assistance and support.

Samaritans were looked down on and so it would be particularly surprising that he would have been the hero of the story. In today’s Gospel the same things happens: we meet another Samaritan. Once again he is the one who stands out. Ten people were cured but only the Samaritan returns to express his appreciation of the help he has received – “he praised God at the top of his voice and threw himself at the feet of Jesus and thanked him”.

These two Samaritans teach us something essential about the relationships which are at the heart of genuine care. If they are not relationships of love, then they are not really care at all. That was the lesson that Canon Peter Joseph Triest, the founder of the Brothers of Charity taught: “Nothing is stronger than love; love is the wellspring of all things”.

The person who came back to give thanks shows us that care is not something to be taken for granted. It is not just a duty so that one could simply regard a carer as carrying out something that is just a job. The person who is genuinely cared for knows that he or she has been treated as a person, that the care has been given out of love, that the carer is acting out of a deep respect for the dignity of the person in need. In the first reading Naaman is ready to do anything to show his gratitude, giving gifts, promising the worship only the God of Israel, who has cured him.

Even when people who have a disability cannot express that thanks eloquently or in any verbal way, their appreciation can often be very clearly sensed. And that gratitude, however it is expressed, is important for the person who is being cared for. It is an enrichment of that person’s relationship with the carer; it brings them into a circle of kindness and friendship which enhances their life. As Canon Triest expressed it, the aim of care is “to create sunshine for them” – sunshine that brings light and warmth to their lives.

For two hundred years the Brothers of Charity Services have set out to treat people who have an intellectual disability with love, with respect, and in a way that recognises and fosters their dignity. And that loving care is recognised both by the people they serve and by their families and by all of us who have come here to celebrate it.

But everybody involved with the Brothers of Charity Services knows that the care they give is not just a benefit to the people they care for. The giving of genuine love benefits the person who gives it.

One of the texts of the II Vatican Council which Pope John Paul most frequently used was the one which said that human beings “can fully discover their true selves only in sincere self-giving” ( Gaudium et Spes, 24 ). What we are celebrating today is not just what those who work in the Brothers of Charity Services have done for those entrusted to their care; we are also celebrating what they have received from those entrusted to their care, what they have received from those to whom they have respectfully and generously given themselves.

Jesus told the Parable of the Good Samaritan because he was being questioned about the meaning of the commandment, “You must love your neighbour as yourself”. The questioner asked, “Who is my neighbour?” But Jesus responded by asking a different question; “Which of the three was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of robbers? ... Go and do likewise”. In other words, he asked, “How does a neighbour behave?” The Good Samaritan was a real neighbour, someone who was ready to stop, to take the time to understand the needs of the severely wounded man, to treat him as his brother. He did a lot more than the minimum. One might have said that he had done his duty if he called for help and left the rest to other people. Instead, he dressed the man’s wounds; he brought him to an inn and he provided for his comfort and his needs, not just his immediate needs but into the future: The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, 'Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend” ( Lk 10:35 ).

No doubt the man who had been attacked benefited greatly from the generous care he received, but it is also true that the Samaritan grew as a human being by the giving.

Every time we welcome and recognise another human being as a brother or sister, we are seeing something new about the great variety of ways in which God’s image is present in our fellow human beings. When we recognise another human being as a brother or sister in Christ we are opening up the Good News to them and to ourselves: “If we have died with him, then we shall live with him.”

That is the most profound meaning of care. That is why it is right that we come to celebrate the work of the Brothers of Charity Services with a celebration of the Eucharist. To keep before our mind the dignity of those we relate to requires that we reflect on that dignity, that we allow God’s message to become part of our whole being and our whole lives, that we thank God for what he has given to us and to those we serve. Canon Triest put it bluntly: “Take time out to pray regularly: a person without prayer is like a soldier without weapons”.

God’s message cannot be chained up but we know that we have to persevere “for the sake of those who are chosen, so that in the end they may have the salvation that is in Christ Jesus.

That is our prayer in this Mass. The words of Canon Triest remind us of what we are doing here:

Many of the people we meet are brought to their knees by misery and distress. We want to be brought to our knees in prayer for them. Only when you have received love can you pass on love.

+Donal Murray