Go, and do likewise

A few years ago, around the feast of St Thomas, I made a note of this tweet from Pope Francis:

During difficult moments, let us not close in on ourselves, shutting Jesus out. Let us seek Jesus, return to him, to his forgiveness, to those wounds that have healed us. In this way, we too will become capable of compassion, of approaching the wounds of others.

It caught my attention, largely because it referenced the devise (motto) given to the group with which I prepared for my perpetual profession of vows: Through his wounds we are healed. (Is 53:5). For RSCJ, our group name and devise are our new call and identity within the Society, individually and as a whole, and a touchstone for our future lives. Certainly, over the years this devise has been seeping into me, quietly and at times barely noticed; maybe not as much as my group's name, but certainly enough to give me an instinctive understanding of these words.

Ten days ago I began this month reflecting on St Thomas, and the call to recognise and approach wounds with compassion and love. The remembrance of this returned to me when I read today's Gospel, in which Jesus responds to a question about loving others with the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10: 25-37). One of the smaller details of this parable, often lost in its larger, over-arching themes, is that the Samaritan, moved with compassion, bandages the injured man's wounds, pouring oil and wine on them. And, though we aren't told this, he would surely have gently, reverently, massaged the oil into tender, bruised skin, handling the wounds of this stranger with as much tenderness and care as if they were his own, or a close relative's.

Go, says Jesus, speaking of active, selfless love beyond borders, and do likewise... And Go, and do likewise, he is saying to me now. Whether like Thomas, reaching out to the wounds of his teacher and friend... or like the Samaritan, tending the wounds of a stranger; someone he would never have normally approached... we too are called to do likewise...