When I reflect back on hearing my first bible stories, I remember my mother or grandmother rocking me on their lap and painting a simple picture of God, Jesus, the apostles and the great prophets  from the Old Testament. I remember some of the epic stories about Moses and his involvement with the Israelites. I remember David and Goliath, Noah and his family and many others. In these stories I learned that God was a good father and he provided for his children in a loving way with his gifts, his protection, and his healing.

Like Moses and the Israelites, we too receive all we have from God as a gift, not as a right. It is our choice then to receive these gifts as blessings or curses, depending on whether or not we respond in gratitude by serving God with these gifts.

When we were baptized, we too were given a special gift. That gift was the Holy Spirit and the awareness of God and his laws dwelling within us. Baptism, in a miraculous way, has written God's laws in our human heart. We are to: love God, and love our neighbor as ourselves.

Another story which I remember well and I appreciated as being most influential on my life was the Good Samaritan. My grandmother told that story so well. She explained that when we are not like the Good Samaritan to others who are in need, that we disobey Jesus' law and put a wound on his body as well as put a wound on our own bodies. This made me look at the sins of disobedience in a new way. It influenced me to stop wounding Jesus and myself and try to heal others instead of hurting them. The story of the Good Samaritan is not only a beautiful story to entertain little children, but a story to encourage each and every one of us to bring out the Good Samaritan in ourselves.

In many other bible stories we see how God uses ordinary people to fulfill his plans. God chooses people who are no different than you and I. We read stories of those who lead lives of sin against God and against their neighbors. Scripture tells stories of men who were wounded by their sinfulness yet used by God to perform powerful and great miracles of healing. It is only through God’s grace that we can be wounded and still able to be healers of our neighbors.

In this parable, Jesus chose a Samaritan, a member of a group hated by the Jews, as the hero of the story. Samaritans were considered sinful because of their religious beliefs and their impurities. To a Jew, a Samaritan was the lowest in society and must be avoided at all costs. Yet, in the Samaritan’s brokenness he was able to choose charity above all, recognize that the poor victim was indeed his neighbor, and give the poor dying victim everything necessary to heal him and bring him back to health.

Jesus tells his listeners that everyone is a potential neighbor. Each of the three who passed by the wounded man had the choice of whether or not to form a relationship with him. The Samaritan made the radical choice to be neighbor, to love, to care, and to heal. The choice to love your neighbor is not a law from a government. Our freedom of will allows us to choose. It is our baptism that calls us to just do it! If we fail as Good Samaritans, we betray our own dignity as human beings. We need to open our heart and let it fly!

Today there is a lot of indifference toward and hatred for the poor and destitute. We say that by helping them we will create dependency in them. We tend to judge that they will use the money and aid we give them to purchase something unnecessary like alcohol, drugs or may be even use it to gamble. The Christian way is to avoid this judgment and not allow our prejudices to betray our compassion for our fellow human beings because of their race or status or ethnicity.

The Good Samaritan is not a special breed. He acted from the grace of God, which is already there in our hearts. No one is too broken, too weak or too small to perform acts of love.  We are all wounded healers when we act with mercy and generosity towards our neighbor; we have no guarantee of success. Maybe we will receive no thanks. But if you have the opportunity, just do it! Perhaps it will help you more, and make you a better man or woman or a better son or daughter of God.

Like the Good Samaritan, we too are on a journey. We travel our way and sometimes we come across someone in need. Christ is the original Good Samaritan. He traveled into this world to seek out sinners, the wounded, the needy, the poor, the oppressed, and the lonely. He is the original wounded healer and his wounds are still borne on his glorified body. Jesus is the one who helps the poor, the sick, the destitute, the deprived, and broken. Today we continue to share his mission as wounded healers also.

The poor will always be here. They need our compassion and love. The face of Jesus is found in those whom we touch. We are given a great witness by our former Pope John Paul II when he touched all those who became part of his life, such as forgiving the man who tried to assassinate him. The simple act of loving someone in spite of the near-death dealing harm that was inflicted, of letting go of the hurt and fear and anger to embrace the perpetrator of it all, was testimony to his desire to imitate Jesus. What a lesson there is in that for all of us in our more self-righteous moments when withholding forgiveness seems so understandable and even justifiable. This act should remind us that we have the ability to heal each other with just our offer of forgiveness.

And this great pope, John Paul II, continued in his physical brokenness as he traveled the world while still in pain, the most traveled pope in history to create unity and solidarity, as in Poland to bring down the iron curtain. He stood up and apologized to other faiths for grievances which the church had with them for centuries and sought forgiveness from the Jewish people at the wailing wall. He was broken and wounded and stooped over from his disease, walking with a cane, and leading the church to heal centuries of prejudice. Granted, he was the pope, but the depth of his life of prayer gave witness to his holiness. He was still the wounded man, but through his actions became the wounded healer. Aren’t we all called to become the same?

How can such simple acts become so powerful? So literally “earth shaking”? They became so because he believed in the power of the love of God which breaks the bonds of death and sin. He let the world see his suffering in order to give it witness that he believed in God’s abiding presence in Jesus Christ as well as the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist he celebrated every day. He believed that sharing in the Eucharist was the way to eternal life and true healing. He believed that we are called to be Eucharist to each other, to be broken and poured out for others. He believed that this Holy Spirit of love and wisdom and truth was at work in his own life, at work in the church, and at work in the world when we use our gifts of generosity and charity for our neighbor.

Each time he appeared to the public he blessed the world from his wheel chair silently but with a faith that shouted to the world a message that went beyond what any words could capture. He truly knew that Jesus Christ and all who would follow and believe in him will be wounded, including himself. He knew that all of us are called, even if we are hurt and wounded and far less than perfect. He knew that we must be healers of one another and to be wounded healers in our family and our extended families.

Our true love of neighbor calls us to share our faith, to reach out to our neighbor in need, to make this a better church and to make this a better world.

Lord Jesus, each time we approach the table of the Eucharist, help us to believe that, in receiving your body and blood we are filled with your love and are empowered to live and love as you lived and loved on earth. Help us to allow the suffering, broken, poor and wounded Christ in us, reach out and touch the suffering, broken, poor and wounded Christ in others.

Lord, we are confident in your grace, love and forgiveness, and that you have risen to be glorified in us, in our church and in all of your beautiful creation.  Hold us close to you just as our mother and grandmother did in our youth, and continue to enlighten us in you ways through the power of the Holy Spirit. May we all be Good Samaritans in this modern world. Amen.