15th Sunday Good Samaritan (Baby on the Sidewalk)

 

  

In the Gospel today, we have the parable of the man going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, who was robbed, attacked and left half dead. As a result, he must have lost confidence in humanity. None of his fellow Jews, not a priest or Levite stopped to help him. However, a non-Jew, a Samaritan, stopped to help.

Jews and Samaritans had nothing to do with each other. So for a Samaritan to stop and help an injured Jew, rather than a fellow Jew, to help would have been a surprise to him.

The Good Samaritan brought healing not only to his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them, but even more importantly the Good Samaritan poured love on the injured man’s psychological and emotional wound, of feeling rejected by those who should have helped him.

Love is just as important for healing, as bandages, oil and wine. The best medicine of all is love. If we don’t love those who need help, they remain wounded and hurt.

When I was a Seminarian, I went on a mission trip to Calcutta, India for a month during the summer. It was an amazing experience.

One day, in the hot weather, over a 100 degrees, I was walking down a busy sidewalk, when I ran across baby, about 6 months old, laying on the ground. The baby was laying on his back and crying. Everyone just kept walking past the baby, as though the child was not there. I wondered, “Where’s the mother of this baby?”. And, “Why is the baby just lying on the sidewalk?”

Mother Teresa’s sisters, the Missionaries of Charity, received abandoned babies from parents. They had a house for abandoned children, where they took care of them.

I didn’t know how to speak Hindi, the language of most of the people in the area. I didn’t know if I should pick up the baby and take it to the Missionaries of Charity.

Rather than picking up the baby, I decided to grab the attention of people walking by. So I waved at people and pointed to the baby. Some stopped, but nobody understood what I was trying to say. I kept saying, “There’s an abandoned baby on the sidewalk. The baby looks sick, he needs to be taken to Mother Teresa’s sisters. Can you help me?” Before long more and more people were gathered around me and the baby. I desperately tried to explain I found the baby alone on the sidewalk and the child looked sick and needed medical care.

Finally, a Hindu man, spoke English, said, “What’s going on here?” I told him, “I found the baby laying on the sidewalk and there was no mother to help the baby. He’s skinny and look like he needs medical care”. I suggested, we take the baby to the sisters for help. The man said, “You don’t realize what commotion you just caused. The people here thought you were trying to steal the baby and they were just about ready to attack you and beat you up.” He explained to the people my concern, and one by one, they all walked away.

Finally, about a half a block away, a woman with a water jug came. It was the baby’s mother. She had laid the baby on the sidewalk and walked half of a block to get some water from the hand pump well. I had no idea why she left the baby so far from where she went. The Hindu man who spoke English told the mother of the baby, that I suggested she take her child to the sisters for medical care, and she did.

When the scholar of the law tested Jesus by asking him, “Teacher, what must I do to gain eternal life?” Jesus responded, saying, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” But to justify himself, the man asked, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied with the parable of the Good Samaritan.

Jesus knew the Jewish scholar of the law had nothing to do with Samaritans, but the Lord wanted to open his heart to love them, because everyone is to love their neighbor as themselves by helping anyone who may be injured, including Jews and Samaritans.

What are you doing to help pass the Value them Both Amendment?

We get busy with our every day life, we forget about some very important things going on around us. Everyday we should pray a Rosary and Chaplet of Divine Mercy for the passing of the amendment. Are you daily praying the Fr. Kapaun prayer? Or are we like the Levite and priest and aren’t paying attention to those in need? If this amendment fails Kansas will become an abortion center for all of the United States and for a very long time. The Guttmacher Institute says that there will be a 1000% increase of abortions in Kansas if the amendment fails. The rural areas of Kansas are more pro-life than the larger cities like Kansas City, Lawrence and Wichita. Its going to be up to pray and out vote them.

Most certainly you care, if children in our state, are dying everyday by abortion. To help you understand the reality of abortion. A couple days ago, I received a text from a woman. She told me about a coordinator of Eucharistic Adoration in her parish, whose daughter is thinking about having an abortion. She’s 3 months pregnant. We need to be aware this happening now. The unborn child and her mother need your prayers now.

Allow the love within your heart, to motivate you to do something about it. Our prayers make a big difference. Let’s not allow unborn children to be abandoned, to abortionists. Let’s help pregnant mothers in crisis, to get the help they need. Let’s pour the wine and oil of your prayers on the hearts of those who are tempted to have an abortion, on those who support abortion and support unborn babies in danger of death. Offer the graces you receive from being at Mass, offer your Holy Communion, offer the graces from your Holy Hour to help them.

Pray for all these injured souls, for by doing so, love will flow from your heart. Jesus said we are to love our neighbor as yourself. And, if we love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength, we will see Jesus in the disguise of the unborn and do something to help them. Voting is important, but it is much more important to love them all, by praying for them and by financially supporting crisis pregnancy centers. O Blessed Mother, Our Lady of Guadalupe, inspire us to love, as You love all Your children.