Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Church in New Smyrna Beach posted a poignant and timely homily on its website that was entitled the Gospel and Racial Injustice and originally delivered by Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley, Archbishop of Boston, at a recent Mass in Castle Rock, South Boston. 

O’Malley opened the homily by sharing his prayers for the lives of black individuals who had been killed unjustly: George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, to name a few. 

“Today we pray for healing, reconciliation that will come about by deeper commitment to racial justice and equality,” O’Malley said. 

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O’Malley said that he had been contemplating the war between the Samaritans and the Jews and the way that the parable of the Good Samaritan shook the society of Jesus’ time. 

“The hero of the story is a member of a persecuted and despised minority group,” O’Malley said. “In those days, the words ‘good’ and ‘Samaritan’ did not appear in the same sentence.”

Jesus’ parable tells of a man who was beaten by thieves and left in a state of abject injury, having been nearly killed by his aggressors. While the clergy and upper echelons passed by the injured man and did not help, the Samaritan saw the man on the side of the road and, taking pity on the man, deciding to help him. 

“I am sure that the Samaritan knew what discrimination was,” O’Malley said. “He would have suffered the sting of humiliation, suspicion and rejection whenever he ventured outside of his own community.”

Jesus’ parable calls to his disciples to look on their fellow man with love and compassion, seeing the human dignity in each and every person. 

The Good Samaritan does just this: He takes the time and effort to help the man out of his dire situation, getting into the trenches, as it were, to lift the nearly lifeless man onto his animal, taking him to an inn and paying for him to be cared for, O'Malley explained. 

“We need to return again and again to face the situation, to nurture change and recovery,” O’Malley said. “It will not happen without the sustained effort and focus of all. It is not enough to draw near once for demonstration or a prayer service and then turn our backs and cross over to the other side of the street.”

We are invited to begin to help heal the wounds of centuries of oppression and injustice, he continued, but we cannot simply stand on the sidelines and expect things to improve.

“The symbolic gesture or compassionate word is not enough,” O’Malley said. “We need concrete reform, transparency and determination to do what needs to be done to pay the price to work together and make it happen.”

O’Malley concluded by saying that the issue of racial injustice is bigger than politics or nationality. 

“We have to become Samaritans,” O’Malley said. “Racial tolerance is not enough. We need reconciliation, solidarity and a commitment to anti-racism. We need to be a real community. We need to take care of and care for each other.”