Jesus said, 'You go, and do likewise.' Sunday Reflections, 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

 

Fr Pat McCaffrey with friends in Pakistan

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel Luke 10:25-37 (English Standard Version Anglicised: India)  

And behold, a lawyer stood up to put Jesus to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”

But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbour?” Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbour to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

Father Pat with friend in Ba, Fiji

Fr Pat McCaffrey was a classmate of mine who died suddenly in Pakistan on 18 May 2010. His first mission was Fiji, where he worked especially with Indian-Fijians and became fluent in Hindi. He was then part of the pioneering Columban group that went to Pakistan in 1979. Later he worked with people of Pakistani origin in northern England, living in Bradford. He celebrated Mass once a month with Pakistani Catholics in Nelson. Much of his work in Bradford was with refugees from the troubled Middle East. He was then reassigned to Fiji. But his final posting was back to Pakistan.

Father Pat's niece Siobhan McCaffrey describes his death in Following in Father Pat's Footsteps, an article she wrote after visiting Pakistan: On our last day, we travelled to the town of Murree, a seven-hour drive from Lahore, situated on the side of a steep hill, in the foothills of the Himalayas. Murree was where Father Pat died. He had been visiting lay missionaries there. He had left the convent [of the Presentation Sisters where he had celebrated Mass the evening before] around 6:00am to catch a bus to Rawalpindi. He was rushing to catch the bus when he died. The only person around was a street-sweeper [whose name was Latief], considered the lowest of the low in Pakistan’s caste system.

This man had seen Father Pat holding on to the rails outside the compound and then fall back onto the road. He went to his aid but was unable to help. He raised the alarm at the convent and the Sisters came.

We thanked the street-sweeper for trying to help our uncle. He apologized for not being able to save him and explained that it was his moral duty to try, but that God had decided to take him and there was nothing he could do.

Father Pat's whole life was that of a follower of Jesus who had never forgotten the experience of weeping, of suffering with the poor. And God surely blessed him in allowing him to celebrate Mass the evening before he died and in sending a man from the poorest of the poor to be the first to come to his aid, a Muslim who, like Father Pat himself, had never forgotten the experience of weeping, of suffering with others.

Fr Pat McCaffrey’s grave in Pakistan

Unlike the priest and the Levite in today's gospel, nobody passed by Father Pat when he fell. But the first to come to his aid and to raise the alarm was Latief, a street-sweeper, the very lowest on the social scale in Pakistan. Father Pat had spent most of his life as an outsider to one degree or another. He grew up in Northern Ireland where at that time there was discrimination against Catholics. He worked with Indian-Fijians in Fiji whose ancestors had been brought there to work in the sugar plantations. He ministered to immigrants from Pakistan and the Middle East in northern England, most of them Muslims. He celebrated Mass with Pakistani Catholics there, a small minority in their native land and still a small minority among those of Pakistani origin in England.

The man left half-dead in the parable of the Good Samaritan was, presumably, Jewish. He allowed himself to be taken care of by a person he would have seen as 'other' and in doing so was healed. 

Knowing Father Pat as I did, I am certain that nothing would have made him happier than to be attended to in his final moments by a Muslim, Latief, who was a 'nobody' in his own country. We see the nobility of this man's character and his faith in God in what he said to Father Pat's niece Siobhan when he met her: He apologized for not being able to save him and explained that it was his moral duty to try, but that God had decided to take him and there was nothing he could do.

+++

But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion (Luke 10:33).

Parable of the Good Samaritan

Domenico Fetti [Web Gallery ofArt]

Jesus said, 'You go, and do likewise.'

Antiphona ad communionem

Communion Antiphon Cf Psalm 83[84]:4-5 

Passer invenit sibi domum, et turtum nidum, ubi reponet pullos suos. Altaria tua, Domine virtutem, Rex meus, et Deus meus! Beati qui habitant in domo tua, in saeculum saeculi laudabunt te.

The sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for her young: by your altars, O Lord of hosts, my king and my God. Blessed are they who dwell in your house, for ever singing your praise.

Traditional Latin Mass

Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 7-10-2022 if necessary).

Epistle: 1 Peter 3:8-15. Gospel: Matthew 5:20-24.

The Calling of St Matthew (detail)

Caravaggio [Web Gallery of Art]