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Feb. 10, 2020
Sister Jean Evans, RSM
For some years, I was part of a team of spiritual directors, psychotherapists and lecturers offering a nine-month renewal program to groups of missionary priests and brothers. The men were ordained or had professed vows for 10 years. They had labored for the Lord in some very difficult and dangerous mission stations in Africa and Latin America. Many of them were traumatized and, like so many veterans of war, needed help to regain physical, emotional and spiritual well-being.
On the last night of the program we were welcomed to a Mass of thanksgiving and a festive dinner. As part of the Mass, each of the program staff introduced him/herself to the guests joining us at the Mass. One of the psychotherapists went to the mic and said very simply, “I am the innkeeper.” At that moment the words of the good Samaritan parable became real for me.
I’m sure you remember the story: A Samaritan traveler who came upon a man wounded by robbers was moved with compassion when he saw him. He went up to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them … The next day he took out two denarii and handed them to the innkeeper and said, “Look after him, and on my way back I will make good any extra expense you have” (Luke 10: 33-35).
The innkeeper received the wounded victim. He cared for the traumatized man and helped him regain his strength. Within the context of that renewal course, “I am the innkeeper” summed it all up. The psychotherapist received the wounded missionaries with compassion and assisted them to regain strength and confidence. He helped his counselees to discover healthy ways to deal with the damaging effects of violence and trauma in their mission experience – to find balance, healing and in some cases, their faith in God restored.
This simple statement, “I am the innkeeper” got me thinking: Are there other figures in the Gospels with whom we could identify? Other Gospel personalities whose “job description” might fit us?
Offhand, I’d suggest taking some time with the Gospels. Luke 1-3 gives us the early life of Jesus and stories of his mercy. Mark 1 introduces us to 24 hours in Jesus’ busy life. In the first chapter of John’s Gospel we meet John the Baptist and Jesus’ disciples.
Am I Peter’s mother-in-law cured of a fever by Jesus? Am I one of the sick and lame, one possessed by troubling thoughts? Do I accompany Jesus as he gets up before dawn to go to a lonely place for prayer? Am I the one who shouts at Jesus, “Everybody is looking for you!”?
Take your own tour of the villages with Jesus and discover the mission that he has chosen especially for you. Are you the teen who comes along with five barley loaves and two fish? Put on “new glasses” to read the Gospel stories that are so familiar to you. Then look for your own personal niche, your own Gospel identity. The Holy Spirit will help.
Are you Mary, listening at Jesus’ feet? Martha, her busy sister? Lazarus, Jesus’ good friend? Are you one of the lost sheep? Do you need a good shepherd to pick you up and set you upright again?
Remember this, your Gospel identity isn’t a static one. It grows and changes as you grow and change. I may have been an innkeeper for a number of years or a John the Baptist preparing the way for the Lord, or an Elizabeth counseling and supporting her young cousin. Now, I could be the widow of Nain or a friend who supports her.
What will you discover as you pray over the Gospels this year? With whom will you identify?
As for me, I am a Gospel child. I’m one of a dozen or more scruffy-looking kids sitting on the ground as close as I can to Jesus. Just sitting near him – without a care in the world.
Mercy Sister Jean Evans ministers at Mercy Center, Burlingame, on the Development Team and assists Mercy Suzanne Toolan with music at Mercy Center’s first Friday “Prayer Around the Cross.”