Sunday Liturgy
Saturday: 5:00 pm
Sunday: 11:00 am
Mission Statement
We are a welcoming Christian community called to embrace and respect the uniqueness of each individual as we join together in our faith and worship. Our ongoing mission is to engage our youth, promote renewal, out reach, evangelization and ecumenical cooperation.
MASS INTENTIONS FOR THE WEEK
Monday, July 14th – 9:00 am Norma & Andrew Forbes
Tuesday, July 15th – 9:00 am Walter LeBlanc/Doreen Elliott
Wednesday, July 16th – 9:00 am Carmie Scaplan
Thursday, July 17th – 9:00 am Gregory Montague (Anniv)
Friday, July 18th – 9:00 am No Mass
Saturday, July 19th – 5:00 pm DM of McLean & Singleton Families
Sunday, July 20th – 11:00 am Doug Enman (Anniv)
Weekly Reflections (Homily) from Msgr. Sheehan (Updated July 10, 2025)
FIFTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Dear friends;
Aren’t lawyers interesting? They love to ask questions… they love to ask questions now in our day… and they loved to ask questions in the time of Jesus.
And like all of us… they sometimes ask the big question… the all-important question about real issues, about fundamental issues.
And this lawyer in the Gospel to-day asks one of the big question; and he asked Jesus: “Teacher… what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
And so Jesus – as a teacher – a good teacher – someone who knows the law – asks him a question - : What is written in the law?” What do you find there…?” and the lawyer who also knows the law… goes back into the Torah and answers… quoting from the Book of Deuteronomy… first the great “Shema” prayer – about loving God… with all your faculties… and then from the Book of Leviticus… the command to love one’s neighbor… namely, the fellow Israelite.
And Jesus commends the lawyer for his answer… but then the lawyer makes a mistake… it’s not a terrible mistake… but it’s a mistake many lawyers make and many people make, they ask too many questions… or they ask just one question too many…
Why did he ask this extra question…? We are told why… “He wanted to justify himself!!”… So he asked… “And who is my neighbor?”
In a way – thank heavens… this lawyer asked this extra question – because we might never have never heard this wonderful story that Jesus told… and which we all know so well as “The story of the Good Samaritan.
And he told the story because somebody asked him about the meaning of “neighbour”… so Jesus told the story… and it’s quite a story…
Unfortunately… we are too used to the story… we’ve heard it too often… and it’s lost its bite… and it makes no sense unless we know something about the Samaritans… and who they were… and why they would have been hated by the audience to whom Jesus told the story…
The Samaritans were hated by the Jews because they were like family – that didn’t really belong… that were Jewish but not Jewish!
“To the Jews the Samaritans were a heretical and schismatic group of spurious worshipers of the God of Israel, who were detested even more than Pagans. The origins of the schism between Jews and Samaritans lay deeply in early Israelite history.” (J. McKenzie)
The Jews who settled in Jerusalem after the edict of Cyrus in 538 BC did not regard the community which inhabited the district of Samaria – the ancient heartland of Israel as true Israelites.
Why? Well first of all they were descendants of a mixed population… some were from Mesopotamia – and Assyria… who had settled in Israel.
When the temple in Jerusalem was begun led by Zerubbabel and Joshua – and the Samaritan community wished to join them in the construction… they were rudely rebuffed, and so they then harassed the project to delay it.
When the walls of the city were built, the Samaritan authorities protested to the Persian court, to the foreign occupiers, that the construction was an act of rebellion… and the work was halted because of it… that really must have made them popular!
Finally, the Samaritans built their own temple to Yahweh – in opposition to the one in Jerusalem – on Mount Gerizim…
It was a family feud… and like one of my brothers says “There’s no hard ball like family hard ball”…
It’s about groups who hate each other – one who feels they’ve been wronged, abused – taken advantage of – spurned – looked down on – by the other and still call themselves relatives – still says we are of the same family…
That is the environment of this story… it is charged with resentment – because Jesus really lays it on…
He makes the priest go by … then the Levite goes by… then the hated Samaritan comes along…
And what’s the first thing he does… He comes near him… he sees him – he is then moved with compassion… He goes to him (he reaches out to him) (“He went to him” “Go to them – they need you now!! They’re hurting… go to them…) He went to him…
He bandaged his wounds… He bound him up… He poured oil and wine on them – He softened his wounds with oil, he fortified him with wine… He ministered to him, he lovingly cared for him…”
He put him on his own animal… he made him mount on his own animal and he led him… to the Inn… to where there was warmth and protection… and security… and again “He took care of him…”
Then the next day… which means that he stayed with him all night “Stay with me in the darkness” – “Don’t leave me alone… I’m hurting.” “Stay with me at night… in the shadows.”
To the innkeeper he says… here’s some money… you take care of him as I’ve taken care of him… he gets other people involved…
“Whatever you spend on him… I will repay you for it… whatever it takes I’ll come good for it…”
After all that… it’s now Jesus who asks the question… “Which of the three do you think the priest, the Levite – or the Samaritan was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?”
And do you know how sad the answer of the lawyer it… He couldn’t even say the word “Samaritan” that is very sad indeed… when we hate so much that we can’t even speak the name of a group or a person… so he sheepishly and
embarrassingly said: “The one who showed him mercy.”
My dear friends… this story … in our holy word… inspired… still has its impact… still has its clout… it is for us…
It is for us… for all Christians… for all peoples – for all nations… for we can love… but we can hate… and we have sometimes hated more than we have loved… and we’ve sometimes hated our own the most.
“They are all your neighbours… and they are all your brothers and sisters even the ones you don’t want to consider your relatives and brothers and sisters and go and do likewise and go and live likewise.”
Amen.