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When Jesus replied to a religious student asking, “Who is my neighbor?” the story of the Good Samaritan was given to all of us.  In today’s gospel from John, another story about a Samaritan is told.   What do these stories tell us about our faith and how does our faith guide us?

A letter from Archbishop Valery Vienneau back in December of 2014 states, “the dwindling number of practicing Catholics forces us to reconsider our priorities as Christian communities whose primary mission is to evangelize.”  Since today’s readings seem to be aimed for adults deciding to convert to Catholicism, it seemed to me appropriate to wonder why many Catholics are moving in the other direction.  What does it mean to become a Catholic, to be a Catholic or to stay a Catholic?  These are not easy questions.

For me, being a Catholic primarily means participating in Mass. Celebration is an important means of grounding oneself and relating to others and Mass is a wonderful celebration.  Secondly, being a baptized Catholic has simply been such a big part of my upbringing and experience that it is like second nature.   Third, being a theologian in the Catholic tradition, I understand spirituality through a Catholic lens, using Catholic language.  For example, I am more familiar St Thomas Aquinas than with John Calvin–both extremely influential theologians.

Also, to quote James Carroll (writer of the “Spotlight” series that was made into the movie):

“The virtues of the Catholic faith have been obvious to me my whole life, and I cherish the countless men and women who bring the faith alive.  Around the world there are more than 200,000 Catholic schools and nearly 40,000 Catholic hospitals and health care facilities, through which selfless women and men care for the poor, teach the unlettered, heal the sick, and work to preserve minimal standards of the common good.”

So why are so many people leaving rather than, as in the days of St Paul, being converted?  I have a pretty clear opinion on the matter, and it is illustrated in the two stories about Jesus and Samaritans.   In both cases, the rituals of the participants’ religions prevented them from being open to the presence of a neighbor in those whom they had been told were inferior or tainted or sinful or worthless.  In John’s story, it was a Samaritan woman; in our time it may be a Catholic woman, a man or woman of another religion or language or race.

A firm faith, not softened by love, makes for a heart of stone, like the rock that Moses struck to provide water for the people.

Agnes Beirne