The Gospel today is a Gospel about compassion. A wonderful word. The word compassion means to travel, to journey with those who are hurting in life, to walk with those who are suffering. A beautiful Gospel about compassion. Actually in Saint Louis Gospel, it’s one of the most beautiful stories that Jesus tells, but the story only makes sense if indeed you understand the cultural context. In a nutshell, the Jewish people and the Super Samaritans didn’t like each other. In fact, the truth be told they despised each other and so, there was this terrible conflict over hundreds of years between Jews and Samaritans and so, here Jesus uses the example of talking about a good Samaritan, talking to his own people. You can only imagine the shock when they heard Jesus talking about a good Samaritan and the three others or the two others who walked by where Jews. We all tend to think in terms of categories.

We’re tribal people. Who’s in the tribe and who’s out of the tribe? It causes all sorts of conflict in this world of ours. Who belongs and who doesn’t belong and why? Why do we exclude and why do we include at times? Jesus says in another Gospel, he says, “Whoever hears the word of God and puts it into action, is brother and sister and mother to me.” He talks about a universal language of who is included. All are included because we’re all the children of God. We all belong to this family of humanity and we have an obligation to care for one another. One of the greatest privileges I’ve had over the past 27 years being here at Mercy Home for Boys & Girls is to better understand who it is that belongs and about inclusiveness. This community that takes care of over 760 young people, come from a variety of backgrounds, we are white and we are black, we are Asian, we are Hispanic and we are other, but we’re all of this family and we understand one another. We understand that whatever we do to and for one another is what enhances and makes better our life together. A beautiful story in today’s Gospel. Whoever hears the word of God and puts it into action, is brother and sister and mother to me. The family of God.