by Nadia Ramoutar  MMM Communications Coordinator             Ireland                                23.07.2025

Recently a number of my friends participated in a fundraiser to make money for the Samaritans.  In Ireland, this is a well-known charity that provides help to people in their darkest hours.  They even have a 24/7 hotline that people can ring anytime and talk to a trained volunteer. It’s a wonderful gift to any community.

It is interesting how over many years we have come to think of the Samaritans as people who are kind and help strangers and neighbours who are in a bad situation.  However, as many of you know, when Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10, at the time this was not the case.  In the response to the trick question “Who is my neighbour, Jesus told the famous story of three people who saw someone in dire need and how the first two, who were supposed to be spiritual, ignored the neighbour.

It was the third person, the Samaritan, who aided the person going up and beyond the call of duty to which Jesue said “Which of these proved to be a neighbour to this man?”

It is a powerful question and one that is as timely now as it was then.  At the time of this story, the Samaritans were not a popular group of people.  They were disliked and the Jewish people of Galilee and Judea shunned the Samaritans.  Our view of them now is totally different.
When we look at the condition of the world today, we can see that there is a lot of noise around “belonging” and who is our neighbour raises its head again.  When we look at the atrocities being done globally it seems that political and spiritual boundaries are being used in horrific ways not only to divide people but to persecute them.  It is difficult to stay in touch with world news without a sense of dread and anxiety.

When I visited the MMM Missions in Tanzania I was standing with the MMM Sisters at the top of a hill.  I could see as the starting time for the outreach antenatal clinic was growing close.  I saw women and girls coming from every direction.  Some were carrying one of two babies or small children.  Many were pregnant.  It was a true gift to see the women coming together like a river of humanity and flowing up towards us.

What tribe the women or girls were from, or what religion they were, was not a question.  They were now our “neighbours” and in need of support and care.  What would it take to spread this idea again and to bring Jesus’ example back into humanity?

We are facing dark times in our world and it is time now to say, “I will be your neighbour.”   No questions asked.