Homily for the Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

The parable of the Good Samaritan: the priest walks by, the Levite does the

same (and we aren’t told their reasons), but the Samaritan goes out of his way

to help someone who is “half dead”. He stops. He investigates. He does what

he can with the resources he has – the oil he is carrying, his wine, his

knowledge of how to bind up wounds, and his animal. And also his time and

his financial resources. But most of all, his care and compassion for a fellow

human being. And we are told: “You go, and do likewise”.

Now it is not everyday that we see someone lying by the side of the road in

need of an ambulance. But there are other ways in which we can be called on

to help people. The Church identifies fourteen different works of mercy, sub-

divided into the corporal ones, i.e. to do with the body, and those that are

spiritual, to do with the salvation of one’s soul. The corporal works of mercy

are to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, to clothe the naked, to shelter

the homeless, to visit the sick, to visit the imprisoned and to bury the dead.

Perhaps we might in some way have helped people in one of these ways. But

what about the spiritual works of mercy? These are: to convert the sinner, to

instruct the ignorant, to counsel the doubtful, to bear wrongs patiently, to

forgive injuries, and to pray for the living and the dead.

If you look carefully, you will see that Our Lord performs five or six out of

seven of the spiritual works of mercy in today’s Gospel. The lawyer decides to

make life difficult for Him and ask what he thinks is a complicated question.

He doesn’t respond with “How dare you!” or “What a stupid idiot you are for

asking that question”, but He first leads him to Scripture for the answer, and

when the lawyer asks for more detail, Our Lord gives us the parable of the

Good Samaritan. This chimes well with the collect of today’s Mass, which

began “O God, who show the light of your truth to those who go astray, so that

they may return to the right path”.

One of the problems we have in society is that people have things upside down,

and even their principles are back-to-front. It is not wrong to correct someone

and point out the right path. It is not judging, but rather love, having concern

for the other person’s well-being, rather than being happy to leave him or her in

error and ignorance.

But some people just don’t want to listen. And others attack you for trying to

correct them. We’re at a point where evil is sometimes labelled as

“compassion”, whilst doing good can be treated as if it were a crime. I don’t

promise you it will always be easy following the Lord. There’s a poem that

Mother Theresa, also known now as St Theresa of Calcutta, put up on the wall

of her home, which gives us some food for thought:

People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centred;

Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;

Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true

enemies;

Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;

Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;

Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;

Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;

Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;

Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God;

It was never between you and them anyway.

Isn’t it consoling to know that all the good we do is remembered by God, even

though others might have forgotten it, and we might also not recall it ourselves

either? And that also includes the times when we tried to do good but it failed

to have the intended result. What if the Samaritan had tried his best, but the

man had still died? Or what if the passers-by had made fun of him? God

would still have looked favourably on his effort. As Mother Theresa said,we

are not called to be successful, but faithful.

“You go, and do likewise.”

Curious about exploring things further?  If you would like to ask further questions about the topics raised in these homilies (or maybe think it wasn’t explained too well!), please feel free to e-mail Fr Michael at stjoseph.thame@rcaob.org.uk