15th sunday-c

Good Samaritan...

Good evening every one, I am so happy to welcome you all for today's Holy Mass. Our special welcome to all our summer parishioners, cottagers, visitors, parishioners and every one here today.
Good evening/morning every one, we are happy to welcome all our visitors to this beautiful church of St. Jean de Brebeuf/St. Paul the Apostle/ Our Lady of Good Counsel.
Last week I visited a family and their three boys were so curious to know what I was doing before becoming a priest. I know if I say to them, I went to school until I became a priest, they won't be interested to hear my story. So I had to make up some good interesting stories. So I said, "Before becoming a priest, since I come from India, I used to be a monkey-trainer. After quitting my monkey-trainer job, they got mad because I quit my job...I said, I was a snake-charmer. Children are more interested to know about snakes and monkeys. So they asked me to bring a lion or tiger from India.
Once a man as he was driving, saw a woman in a pouring rain trying to change a flat tyre. So he thought to himself, 'I should be a good samaritan' and right away went over and helped her. After an hour of hard work in the pouring rain, he said, "Everything is good and your tires are changed..." She looked at him and said, "sh..sh..sh...talk low". "why?" he said. she said, "My husband is taking a nap in the back seat".
In today's gospel, a famous scribe or lawyer of Moses' teachings comes to Christ and asks, "Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?" What should I do to go to paradise?
Once a teacher looked at children and said, "Children, what should I do to go to heaven? If I give money to the poor, will I go to heaven? Children said, "No". If I sell all my property and give to the needy, will I go to heaven? they all said, "No". Then what should I do to go to heaven? One little boy said, "To go to heaven, you have to die".
Once someone said, "Everybody wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die". Yes, one has to die of himself to go to heaven. Dying of oneself demands to keep God first and that is why to the scribe, Christ our Lord says,  "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, body and soul..."
Once a teacher said,  "So we are all descended from Adam and Eve. And one boy said, "But my dad says we came from Apes. Then the teacher said, "That is probably true for your family James".
What happens when we love the Lord our God with all of who we are and with all of what we have... the purpose and meaning of our existence  will be known to us. We will never be depressed or anxious of things that are happening around us. As we love the Lord our God, we extend that love towards us because we know that we are the temple of the Holy Spirit, the living God. We know per sure that we are all children of God.
Christ our Lord then gives the second commandment saying, " love your neighbour as yourself" Once a man put a big sign on his property saying, "Trespassers will be shot and survivors will be shot again". someone said, "good fences make good neighbour. Now they say, "Good neighbor is one who does not put a password on his wifi"
Once a man was awakened at two o'clock in the morning by a loud pounding on the door. He got up and went to the door where a drunken stranger, standing in the pouring rain, was asking for a push. It is two o'clock in the morning and you need a push, no way... thus he went to bed closing the door behind. "who was that?" asked the wife. Some drunken guy asking for a push. The wife said, "When we had trouble once , someone else helped and why don't you be a good samaritan and help him. So the husband got up and dressed and went in the rain saying, "Are you still out there?" "Yes"..do you still need a push? yes came the answer."Where are you?" asks the husband. The man said, "Over here on the swing,"
Today's good samaritan parable gives three philosophies that inspire us to know what is going on around us.
1. The philosophy of theives who robbed the traveller: What is yours is mine; I will take it by force: that is we see today, Terrorists and others, for their own sake and advantage, they take from others by force.
2. The philosophy of the Jewish priests and levite: What is mine is mine and I will not part with it. Because of their utter selfishness, the priest and the levite did not pay any attention to the wounded traveller. It was all about them...the Me..myself and I philosophy. What is mine is mine and I will not part with it.
Once a group of students who prepared to become ministers and pastors were given the assignment of preaching on Good Samaritan parable. They were asked to go from one building to another to preach and in between they put a sick man to find out how the students were going to react. The sad thing was everyone was so into their preparation and preaching and not even a single one helped the sick man. What is mine is mine and I will not part with it,
3. The philosophy of the samaritan: What is mine is yours as well, too and I will share with you. Kindness is the only language that the deaf can hear and the blind can read. We need more kindness and compassion today.
Conclusion: Anyone who is in need is our neighbor. Anything we do to the least of our brothers and sisters, we do to Christ our Lord.
It's always the story of our redemption: St. Origen said... sin, fall and redemption. The man who was half-dead is Adam, the priest and Levite are laws and prophets and the good samaritan is Christ the Savior. Not our good work, not our following the religion and prophets will save us but only Christ the redeemer.