Neighbour

You could have heard a pin drop as the man in dirty, dishevelled clothes arose from the heap at the church entrance.  He moved away from the discarded bottle and changed into his vestments and celebrated Mass.  

No homily was needed.

“I had my children with me, I had to protect them,” one mother exclaimed.

“I didn’t know if he was dangerous so I walked around him,” an elderly gentleman said.

“I thought he was best to sleep it off,” whispered another just loud enough for those around her to hear.

These were some of the comments made by the parishioners that morning, each trying to justify their actions or lack thereof.  In today’s world, much like the lawyer in Jesus’ time as he listened to the Parable of the Good Samaritan, we are left to wonder how many of us would do the same as this parish community?  Would we ignore him?  Pretend he wasn’t there or even see him in the first place?  

That morning, the community all saw him, but no one treated him like they did. They looked through him and justified their actions. You could also almost guarantee that they will also never forget that day. 

In Mark’s gospel, Jesus taught us to love our neighbour as ourselves. It is not for us to decide which neighbour we will reach out to in love, we are asked to love and to treat all as our neighbour because as Pope Francis said “In the face of every brother, especially the smallest, the most vulnerable, defenceless and needy is the unique image of God.”