The modern Samaritan

Hello Folks!

My second Sunday in the land down under and, I am still adjusting. But, I absolutely love going to mass here because, after the communion or the "eating of the host/bread," they also offered wine or, as I wanted to think about it- the Most Precious Blood of Jesus Christ. My personal experience is that, I felt healed of whatever infirmities that I have- physical, spiritual, emotional- whatever.

Anyway my next post has something to do with the story I heard from one of the priest in the Philippines. Well, I think I will start with refreshing the story of the Good Samaritan before I will tell his story so here goes:

The parable can be read in the gospel- Luke 10:25-37 and, as biblegateway.com stated:

The Parable of the Good Samaritan
25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’[a]; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b]”

28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii[c] and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

Now, what happened to our beloved prelate is not as dramatic as the one in the story. I wanted to screenshot his posts in facebook- I did personally ask his permission to post his story here in our community because I am aware that there are a lot of people out there who thought that there is always a big religious division in our country.

Anyway, what I have read 2 or 3 days ago was that, he had a flat tire somewhere in the capital and, a guy, named Jamal helped him. He said that he was a Muslim and that this was his first time to help a priest. Well, it got a lot of attention.

Yes. A part of me felt disappointed that I was not able to write this before it got deleted or whatever but, it got me also into this: Perhaps, our dear prelate does not really want attention. Maybe, he just wanted to keep things private. Or, there are other reasons out there that I am not aware of. I am going to leave it at that and, since his posts was already deleted, I am not going to leave a link or a trail.

Looking at it from others' point of view, I know that there are some of you guys who are antipriest or, anti Catholics who would perhaps tell me that he was a liar or whatever. But, I am standing on his side because, like me, he has the prerogative to change his mind. He has all the rights to his privacy and to override any earlier decisions that he made. It was never about him being a priest and me being a catholic.

I know that this is not related to my earlier post but, I just wanted to take this opportunity to say a few things about my faith. Yes. These past few months had never been easy because priests had been making the headlines around the world from Theodore Mccarrick to another Filipino priest arrested in a crime in the United States to child sex abuse summit in Rome which was closely observed by everyone. Yes. Our prelates are not perfect and, they will never be perfect or blemish free. I too am angry with the things that others did but, its not all of them. Its just a select few and, everyone are trying to ensure that justice is being served.

No one can go back in time to prevent these abuses from happening or to change the circumstances for them to be brought to justice earlier. Just for anyone out there who are curious. I am not jumping off ship. I would still continue on my journey on my faith. These guys will also continue with their ministries with all their faults, imperfections and struggles in their lives. I would not want anything else from them. As a human being I too have these and, if we are on the same boat, then, they can relate to me better and they can be more merciful and compassionate in their ministries because, they too has a first hand experience on the things that I am going through.

What was the thing that our priest was saying before? I think it goes like this:

The sheep knows their shepherd because he smells the same as them.

@cicisaja