Tuesday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time
(Proverbs 21:1-6.10-13; Luke 8:19-21)
During World War II a man spotted a GI lying on the sidewalk
outside a bar after midnight. Approaching
the soldier, he asked if he needed help.
But the drunken soldier could not reply.
The man took the wallet from the
soldier’s pocket, noted his address on the identification, removed ten dollars,
and called for a taxi. Then he placed a
note in the wallet saying that the money was used for transportation, put the
wallet back in the soldier’s pocket, and sent him home.
The man went out of his way to help another in dire need. As a matter of fact, the man did not believe
in God and would have objected if it were said that he “acted like a Christian.” He only did what he thought was “right and
just” as today’s reading from the Book of Proverbs says.
Christians have no monopoly on righteous deeds. Yet we see such acts as that of the man who rescued
the soldier as “Christian.” They exemplify what Jesus says in today’s gospel: “My
mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and act on it.”
