“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart……,and your neighbour as yourself.” Lk 10: 27
A long film on the independent channels could cost me a fortune! Wonderful heart wrenching appeals for children’s and pet charities abound. Several years ago I committed myself to one annual donation in response and that only every other month! This introduction to this week’s homily is not that I don’t believe that we are all called to be good Samaritans but in realisation that we do not have bottomless wallets and purses and that in any case our theme today as set out in the collect is about the heart: -
“returning to right paths.”
Ever since my time as the Priest with responsibility for S Edward’s Burgess Hill this story of the life of England’s saintly confessor has never left me.
‘ A lame man Michael always sat in between the King’s Palace and his Chapel that we now know as Westminster Abbey. Saint Peter had appeared to Michael, on the latter’s fourth pilgrimage to Rome in search of healing, and declared that if the King of England would carry him to the sanctuary he would be healed. The Saintly King readily acceded to this commission, picked Michael up, carried him to the Altar, and, yes, they both walked out together!’
Now we can easily say, “that’s all very well but even in our local community there are not too many Michaels, and we haven’t seen S Peter for a while”; regarding the latter, we should remember the effort of making the pilgrimage is part of the vision! Others might refer to the care agencies and other bodies. That does not negate today’s theme in that we are called to consider not only those physically challenged but also those who have been denied love or stripped of their self-respect; some have been devastated by bereavement and relationship breakdown. These are those who do not bare any distinguishing marks, they are to be found in the most unlikely places and we might meet them at inconvenient times. The truth is that they are equally loved by Jesus who seeks to raise them…..ignore them and rather than fulfilling his calling we follow in the steps of the Priest and Levite.
Such action and ministry is being the Church. So often we are told that we spend too much time in Church and that young folk will respond more readily to a less formal approach to worship. Of late statistics have proved this not to be the case, that the younger generation are in fact more engaged by catholic practice and formal worship. Every time we come into S Martin’s we have an example of how this was viewed by our Victorian founders who in the Tractarian style created a spiritual home, plain on the outside and elaborate within: this being to stress that in the worship of the Church one experiences a glimpse of the glory of heaven.
On that subject our minds might well leap to our parish future and rightly so as Sir Peter reminded us, two weeks ago, that our recent celebrations were to heighten our desire for Church to be here to continue the spreading of the good news of the risen Lord to future generations. Many ask me of the treasured artifacts of this present building and in the most part I point out that they would be too big for the new building. What will continue uninterrupted will be the worship – the daily offering of the Mass to sustain the mission of the Parish. If we are tempted to claim that others are better equipped and trained to minster to those represented by the victim in the parable, there can be no better equipping and training agent than receiving the life of Jesus in Holy Communion or reflecting in his presence in the Tabernacle.
Returning to the beginning of this address and the end of the Gospel Parable we are all in different positions and the depth of our wallets may differ, the latter is the subject of a homily on Christian Stewardship. What we all share in common is that we are call called to be Good Samaritans – Jesus, has, as it were left us to represent the two pennies that are his presence in the world and while he will pay the extra when he returns, that is the reward of eternal life: then heed the warning, that like the king in another parable, he will call us to account if we but bury the treasure of his life in the ground.
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart……,and your neighbour as yourself.”