I had a "Come, Holy Spirit, Come" moment at Mass this morning. I serve and preach at Mass on Monday mornings at Saint Mary Cathedral and this morning was no different. However, because of several changes before Mass, my homily was left on the counter in the sacristy instead of on the shelf in the ambo.
After I proclaimed the Gospel and put away the lectionary, I went to grab by homily and realized that it was not there. I did not panic but said a quick prayer (I am pretty sure it was "Come, Holy Spirit, Come" or "Jesus, I trust in you") and gave a short homily off-the-cuff without any notes.
In my homily on parable of the Good Samaritan, I talked about God's compassion and mercy. That, like the parable of the shepherd who left the 99 sheep to go after the 1 sheep that was lost, God does not abandon us in our times of need, pain, and suffering, but He stops to help us, guide us, heal us, and lead us back to our Father in heaven.
I mentioned what a blessing it is for me as a deacon to share blessed moments in the sacramental life of God's people. Celebrating the Baptism of their children. Witnessing the marriages of their sons and daughters. But I also have the privilege of being present to them in their pain and suffering, to be an instrument of God's love and mercy to them and their families when they look to the Church in faith for hope and to feel God's loving closeness.
Finally, I reflected that as disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ, by our Baptism, we are called to witness God's love and mercy to the world through our words but, most especially, in our actions. To live Jesus' commandments to love God and love our neighbor. In other words, to listen to Jesus when he tells us to “Go and do likewise,” to show others mercy and love.
Come, Holy Spirit, Come! Jesus, I trust in you.
. . .
Here is the homily that I prepared:
In today’s Gospel, we hear Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan that is truly about the Father’s loving and merciful compassion for His people. Today is also the Memorial of Saint Faustina Kowalska, Virgin, to whom Jesus revealed his mercy, saying: “I do not want to punish aching mankind but I desire to heal it, pressing it to my merciful heart.” The two rays emanating from Christ’s heart, she said, represent the blood and water poured out after Jesus’ death (Franciscan Media), like we recite in the Chaplet of Divine Mercy: “You expired, Jesus, but the source of life gushed forth for souls, and the ocean of mercy opened up for the whole world. O Fount of Life, unfathomable Divine Mercy, envelop the whole world and empty Yourself out upon us.”
I want to share what four popes have reflected on the parable of the Good Samaritan”
Saint John Paul II said, “Christ, the Son of God, is the Good Samaritan par excellence,” he said. “He is the Savior who finds humanity half-dead by the roadside and stops to heal our wounds. By his death on the Cross, he revealed ‘the tender mercy of our God,’ who desires that all men be saved. By his Resurrection, he restored us to life, to spiritual health. And in return he invites us to love others as he himself has loved us.”
Pope Benedict XVI said, “At the end of the parable, Jesus said: ‘Go and do likewise.’ With these words he is also addressing us. Jesus exhorts us to bend over the physical and mental wounds of so many of our brothers and sisters whom we meet on the highways of the world. He helps us to understand that with God’s grace, accepted and lived out in our daily life, the experience of sickness and suffering can become a school of hope.”
Pope Francis said, “The Church’s ministers must be merciful, take responsibility for the people and accompany them like the Good Samaritan, who washes, cleans and raises up his neighbor. . . This is pure Gospel. … The ministers of the Gospel must be people who can warm the hearts of the people, who walk through the dark night with them, who know how to dialogue and to descend themselves into their people’s night, into the darkness, but without getting lost.”
Finally, Pope Leo XIV said, “The parable speaks to us first about God’s way of seeing us, so that we, in turn, can learn how to see situations and people with his eyes, so full of love and compassion. . . It means learning to have a heart that is moved, eyes that see and do not look away, hands that help others and soothe their wounds, shoulders that bear the burden of those in need. . . Looking without walking by, halting the frantic pace of our lives, allowing the lives of others, whoever they may be, with their needs and troubles, to touch our heart. That is what makes us neighbors to one another, what generates true fraternity and breaks down walls and barriers. In the end, love prevails, and proves more powerful than evil and death” (July 13, 2025).
At the end of the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus asked the scholar of the law this question: “Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers’ victim?” He answered, “The one who treated him with mercy.” Then, Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.” Jesus tells us to do the same, to go and treat others with the loving, merciful compassion that Jesus treats each of us.
