“This is a time to reflect. The pandemic is a time for us to understand more and more our responsibilities. It is a wake-up call. We have to take care of everyone,” says Card Gracias. “There are no limits, no borders, no walls to our heart, to our emotions, to this Gospel passage. This is the example that Jesus gives us.”
Mumbai (AsiaNews) – Cardinal Oswald Gracias led this this morning's online Mass expressing his thoughts about the Angels in the Parable of the Good Samaritan, without referring to Fratelli Tutti, Pope Francis’s third encyclical.
“The parable of the Good Samaritan has impressed the world so much. We know what it means: it means going to help others, going to help someone,” said the Archbishop of Bombay (Mumbai).
This passage, he explained, “impressed the world so much. Governments have used the word Samaritan law to say that one is obliged to help someone in difficulty. One can be penalised for failing to do so.”
“Samaritan is a byword, a title for someone who goes to help someone in need. Pope Francis insists that all of us be good Samaritans, urging us to be people who help those in distress, people like migrants, refugees ... He continually insists that the Church go into the peripheries.
“Each of us is called to be a Samaritan, a person who goes out to help those who are oppressed and distressed. I have often mentioned the Dalit community, and I do so again today.
“Our hearts beat with pain and anguish when they are treated badly. Our hearts suffer when our women are in distress. We can expand this parable more and more. We can extend it not only to individuals, but also to institutions, to countries that are despoiled.
“Speaking about the pandemic, Pope Francis’s first point is that the world must understand solidarity. We must become one. We are one family, brothers and sisters.
“Nations too can be the wounded travellers that need help ... others may encounter distress.”
“This is a time to reflect. The pandemic is a time for us to understand more and more our responsibilities. It is a wake-up call. We have to take care of everyone.
“There are no limits, no borders, no walls to our heart, to our emotions, to this Gospel passage. This is the example that Jesus gives us.”