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FIRST IMPRESSIONS |
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Dear Preachers: A personal note: after 56 years I am reducing my preaching missions and retreats — my "roadwork."
But I am continuing the preaching I do through the Internet. I write these weekly reflections on the Scriptures for preachers, catechists, and laity preparing for Sunday worship. This bilingual resource is free to email subscribers and to those who read them on our webpage (Cf below). Sixteen friars, sisters and lay people also write for this webpage. This past year our page received 11 million "hits."
I need your help to continue providing this free preaching and worship resource.
Please send tax deductible donations to Dominican Friars, 3150 Vince Hagan Drive, Irving, TX 75062.
Or, for an online donation, go to: https://www.PreacherExchange.com/donations.htm
I promise you will be remembered by our friars here at the Priory when we offer daily prayers for family, friends, and benefactors.
Thank you, Fr. Jude
Jesus is a wonderful storyteller. The parable of the Good Samaritan is a classic story that has drama and unforgettable characters. It’s crafted by a master storyteller. One of its literary features of the parable is the repetition of the phrase that describes the priest and the Levite. Luke says that they not only did not stop to help the man, but that they "passed by on the opposite side." Both did the same thing: "They passed by on the opposite side."
People hearing this story would have made excuses for them. The victim was left half dead we are told. If they touched the man and he were dead they would have become ritually unclean and not allowed to officiate, or participate in Temple worship, which their positions required. Others will defend the two religious men saying they were alone on a notoriously dangerous road. This could have been a set up, a trap for a solitary traveler.
Jesus does not condemn the two who passed by. But he refocuses our attention and tells about one person, a foreigner, who crossed over to the other side and took a chance to help the victim. What is it that makes people do such things? Is it only people of extraordinary courage who are willing to risk everything, even their own lives to help another?
A while back I read a story in Time magazine entitled, "A Conspiracy of Goodness." Johtje and Art Vos were a Dutch couple who risked their lives during the Holocaust to hide Jews from the Nazis. They were part of a group called "Rescuers" that saved nearly 500,000 lives. When Johtje and Art were asked what made them take such risks they and others responded in a similar way, a way that sounded quite ordinary, "We didn’t think about it." One of the Rescuers put it this way, "You started off storing a suitcase for a friend and before you knew it, you are in over your head. We did what any human being would do." Well, not any human being!
A study was done of these "Rescuers." It was found that they came from all classes of people, educated and uneducated, rich and poor, believers and even atheists. They were individualists. While people follow the demands of society and their peers, these people weren’t constrained by what others expected them to do. Family, friends and society can exert pressures that restrain good deeds. The Samaritan did not say to himself, "Well that man is a Jew. My people would never help a Jew."
These "Rescuers" had a history of good deeds. They visited people in hospitals, collected books for poor students, cared for stray animals. Little good deeds were like training for the big deeds that came their way. Many of the "Rescuers" had a sense of universalism; they did not see Jews as "Jews" first, but as human beings.
The Samaritan did not see a Jew by the side of the road, he saw an injured person. Draw your own parallels to our day.
The article was entitled a "Conspiracy of Goodness." Conspiracy is not always a threatening notion, it means "to breathe with."
That is who we are as a church; we are a Conspiracy of Goodness. We breathe together the same breath of God’s Spirit to do good, regardless of who peoples’ origins, marital status, race, sexual orientation, or religion. The Spirit breathes in us to make the instinct to help others a natural response; as natural as breathing in and breathing out.
Note in the parable that the Samaritan carried with him the "healing ointments" of the day; wine for cleansing, oil to promote healing. The parable suggests to us that with God’s Spirit we have the necessary elements for healing and helping. We draw on our natural skills, gifts from God and take the necessary steps to cross the road to the side of the needy and dress their wounds.
We frequently get into talks on religion – all well and good. But the parable is calling for response. The focus of the parable isn’t even on loving God; but on loving neighbor. Fred Craddock, who was a noted scripture scholar and homiletician, points out that to ask, "Who is my neighbor?" is to ask for definition of the object and extent of love. Jesus’ question to the scholar of the law asks, "Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers’ victim?" This question shifts the attention to the kind of person one is to be, rather than about who are, or are not, one’s neighbor.
Jesus’ question at the end of the passage is outside the parable, it is his corrective to an improper question. We are a people of another kingdom, we live by another standard. We are to be people who act in love, love that has not drawn boundaries to include some and exclude others, love that expects no "return on the dollar." The Law of God (referenced in the first reading) is no mere code, yet we believers are always tempted to legalism. So we have all these legal questions, for example, "Does this Mass count for my Sunday obligation?" The first reading suggests God’s Law requires true interiorization, not merely strict conformity to statutes.
I like the symbols in the parable, especially that the Samaritan "poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them." I am struck that he had these healing elements with him as he traveled. We don’t always get the chance to go get the supplies, skills, education, or even another person, to help. We travel with what we need, thanks to the Holy Spirit we are already equipped for healing. We draw upon the Spirit that was given us at Baptism and we trust its presence as we attend to the wounded.
Something in the Samaritan was moved, like those "Rescuers" in the magazine article were. He did not go through a long debate about the merits of this wounded person. Unlike the Samaritan, these days our nation seems less "moved with pity." Even some Christians have turned their backs upon the wounded, abandoned and sick at our borders. Do we pass hard judgment on them or, like the Samaritan, do we have compassion and respond to the wounded by the side of the road?
Click here for a link to this Sunday’s readings: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/071325.cfm
ONE GOOD BOOK FOR THE PREACHER:
"PARABLES FOR PREACHERS: YEAR C," by Barbara E. Reid. Collegeville: The Liturgical Press, 2000. Paper, 351 pages, $11.95.
This excellent commentary on the parables is one of a series of three that addresses the parables as they appear in the liturgical year. Written for preachers, the first part discusses the challenge of preaching parables, methods for interpreting them and provides an overview of Luke’s gospel – the gospel for this liturgical year. Then each parable is analyzed along with suggestions for how to preach from the parable under study. The reviews of this series have been excellent and preachers can welcome these commentaries as helps in our preaching ministry.
People often puzzle over what motivates a person to act as the Samaritan did. An important clue as to how such an action is possible emerges when we take into account how the first hearers of Jesus’ story would have responded to it. Usually when Christians retell the parable we hear the story as one that advises us to act as the Samaritan did. The point appears to be: do good to your neighbor, even if the one in need is a hated enemy. But the original audience for Jesus’’ story would have been Jews, presumably Galilean peasants. And in the narrative the one to whom the story is directed is a Jewish scholar of the law. No Jew who enters into this story would have identified with the hated Samaritan. The character with whom a lay audience would have identified would be the man victimized by the robbers and left for dead. It is from this "view from the ditch" that the parable invites one to see a hated enemy as the merciful face of God. The parable advances that for some it is only possible to accept this message after having reached the depths of need, having been stripped of all of one’s own resources. Accepting godly mercy from one once regarded as a hated enemy opens the wellsprings of compassion so that one may come to regard every person as neighbor and in turn be a doer of mercy across boundaries. ----from PARABLES FOR PREACHERS: YEAR C, pages 117-118.
"And who is my neighbor?" Luke10:29 Just in case you need to know, your neighbor is:
· The family that does not have enough food to make it to the end of the month and finds our neighborly help at Catholic Parish Outreach · The people that come to the Door Fund/Ministry desperately trying to keep a roof over their head and avoid eviction and are helped by our financial donations · The farmers and their families of the Third World who are helped by our participation in CRS Rice Bowl at Lent · The young expectant mothers who come to us through Walking with Moms in Need · Those who receive scarves, hats, booties, and other handmade items by our Crafters for Christ Ministry · The homeless women who get fed nourishing lunches at the Women’s Center Sixteen families of neighbors now have simple, decent homes thanks to our labors through Habitat for Humanity Catholic Coalition · Through Share the Blessings, we help those who live in Uganda with wells and children’s education · In the Helen Wright Shelter Ministry, we help our homeless women neighbors with delicious dinners · Our immigrant neighbors for whom we advocate for and assist through the Justice for Immigrants Program · The homeless and the underfed neighbors who, without the Oak City Cares Meals Ministry, would not have meals on the weekends · Our incarcerated neighbors who see a light at the end of the tunnel because of our Prison Ministry · Our care for our natural world neighbors through the Laudato Si Circle and NC Catholics Caring for Our Common Home We make Christmas so much brighter for neighbors who lack financial resources by providing gifts though our AngelShare Tree Ministry · Approved refugee families that we accompany through our Refugee Resettlement Ministry
To find the face of God, you have only to reach out and touch one of these neighbors. For more information, contact: socialconcern@hnojnc.org
Barbara Molinari Quinby, MPS, Director Office of Human Life, Dignity, and Justice Ministries Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral, Raleigh, NC
Mini-reflections on the Sunday scripture readings designed for persons on the run. "Faith Book" is also brief enough to be posted in the Sunday parish bulletins people take home. From today’s Gospel reading:
But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him was moved with compassion at the sight.
Reflection:
The Samaritan would have known from his own experience what it felt like to be "beaten up" and left behind. His was a member of a despised group, an outsider to the religious and national thinking of the Jew. Which may have stirred him to respond to the victim by the side of the road. He knew what it was like to be victimized.
So we ask ourselves:
POSTCARDS TO DEATH ROW INMATES
"One has to strongly affirm that condemnation to the death penalty is an inhuman measure that humiliates personal dignity, in whatever form it is carried out." ---Pope Francis
Inmates on death row are the most forgotten people in the prison system. Each week I am posting in this space several inmates’ names and locations. I invite you to write a postcard to one or more of them to let them know that: we have not forgotten them; are praying for them and their families; or, whatever personal encouragement you might like to give them. If the inmate responds, you might consider becoming pen pals.
Please write to: George Buckner #0054499 (On death row since 10/8/1993) Martin Richardson #0343075 (11/22/1993) Randy Atkins #0012311 (12/8/1993) ----Central Prison, P.O. 247, Phoenix, MD 21131
Please note: Central Prison is in Raleigh, NC., but for security purposes, mail to inmates is processed through a clearing house at the above address in Maryland.
For more information on the Catholic position on the death penalty go to the Catholic Mobilizing Network: http://catholicsmobilizing.org/resources/cacp/
On this page you can sign "The National Catholic Pledge to End the Death Penalty." Also, check the interfaith page for People of Faith Against the Death Penalty: http://www.pfadp.org/
"First Impressions" is a service to preachers and those wishing to prepare for Sunday worship. It is sponsored by the Dominican Friars. If you would like "First Impressions" sent weekly to a friend, send a note to Fr. John Boll, OP at jboll@opsouth.org.If you would like to support this ministry, please send tax deductible contributions to fr. Jude Siciliano, OP.
St. Albert Priory, 3150 Vince Hagan Drive, Irving, Texas 75062-4736
Make checks payable to: Dominican Friars.
Or, go to our webpage to make an online donation: https://www.PreacherExchange.com/donations.htm
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We have compiled Four CDs for sale:
If you are a preacher, lead a Lectionary-based scripture group, or are a member of a liturgical team, these CDs will be helpful in your preparation process. Individual worshipers report they also use these reflections as they prepare for Sunday liturgy.
You can order the CDs by going to our webpage:
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2. "VOLUME 2" is an opportunity for you to hear from the readers of First Impressions. To subscribe or Send your own reflections: Send them to "Fr. John J. Boll, OP." <preacherexchange@att.net > Your contributions to Volume 2 are welcome.
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