Monday, October 7, 2024: Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary
Readings: Galatians 1:6-12, Luke 1:46-55, Luke 10:25-37.
Theme: THE GENUINE CHARITY OF THE GOOD SAMARITAN, A CHALLENGE TO MODERN CHRISTIANS.
Whatever his intentions, thanks to the lawyer for questioning the Lord about our neighbor because the answer came in a most touching and instructive parable-the good Samaritan. The parable brings to our minds very well what real Christian charity is. It confronts us with the question whether we, too, are good Samaritans.
Many so-called “good Catholics”, when listening to a homily on our Lord’s passion and cross, feel compassion and say to our Lord that they would do anything to relieve His suffering. Our Lord gives them the test of their sincerity when he says to us, “as long as you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do it for me” (Matthew 25:45).
One of the ways human beings evade a situation is to keep quiet or do nothing even when we can do or say something, especially when our interests and ourselves are not directly affected. We feign ignorance, indifference and apathy.
His “least” ones, His hungry, His poor are all around us within easy reach of any sincere Catholic today. It is not the amount you give or the time you devote to the help and comfort of the afflicted that count most. It is the sacrifice you make out of the blessings God gave you. Even the poorest and busiest among us can find occasions when we can be of help to someone in need.
What has happened to us? Jesus will condemn you and me for doing nothing.
Martin Luther King Jr was right when he observed: “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter”. Albert Einstein also puts it differently: “the world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing”.
- Are we usually good Samaritans to our neighbors, the aged, the sick, the poor? Or we do pass by them quickly as though we didn’t notice they need help?
- Do I pay my workers just wages?
- Have I refused to pay my debts?
- Do I have feelings of jealousy?
- Have I made restitution for anything that I may have acquired unjustly?
Let us like the good Samaritan go down to the street corners and the Jericho roads of the world and do the same. It is more profitable to help the dying or suffering person you see on your road to the church than safeguard offertory money for offerings in the church. We can and should all be good Samaritans.
We can not succeed in anything good without the intercession of mother Mary. Today we celebrate the feast of our Lady of the Rosary. The feast of the Rosary was instituted by Pope Pius V to celebrate the anniversary of the defeat of the Turkish fleet at the battle of Lepanto which ended the threat of the Muslim domination of the Mediterranean and was ascribed in part to the players and processions of the Rosary confraternity in Rome. This in fact confirms what Blessed Pope Pius IX said; “Give me an army saying the Rosary and I will conquer the World”. May we together from our families, small Christian community and personal level, say the Rosary this month to conquer the trials that limit our close relationship with God, one another and spiritual and physical hindrances of our integral development.
Lord, give us the power of the Holy Spirit to guide us to know and love our neighbors. Amen!