By DEXTER DUGGAN
PHOENIX — Christians should be “risk-takers” in society, as illustrated by the Parable of the Good Samaritan, the archbishop of Milwaukee told the 48th annual Red Mass at St. Mary’s Basilica here to mark the beginning of the Arizona legislature’s session.
Archbishop Jerome Listecki delivered the guest homily to a congregation including Arizona legislators, judges, and other public officials on January 23 in an observance that dates back to 1970 in the Diocese of Phoenix.
State Sen. Catherine Miranda, a Democrat, was announced as this year’s recipient of the local St. Thomas More Society’s award for standing up for her pro-life beliefs. Each year the Red Mass here has a portrait of More up front in the church.
More was martyred by England’s King Henry VIII in the 16th century for fidelity to his Catholic faith.
As the Red Mass concluded, the attorneys were asked to rise and renew their oath for admission to the bar that lists the moral and legal obligations of their profession.
Speaking of the day’s Gospel presenting Jesus’s parable about the Samaritan who cared for the injured man along the road who was beaten by robbers, Listecki said that the religious officials who earlier had passed him by, the priest and Levite, had their own reasons for failing to extend assistance.
The Jewish priest didn’t want to render himself “unclean” by touching a body that could be a dead man, and so excused himself from involvement, the archbishop said.
The road from Jerusalem to Jericho in this parable was a dangerous place, Listecki said, and the Levite could have feared the prone man was a decoy to trap him, so “he can’t take a risk. . . . But Christians are risk-takers. . . . Pope Francis has asked us to reclaim the missionary spirit” in reaching out.
Areas where Christians could reach out include defense of pro-life, traditional marriage, or “respect for immigrants,” Listecki said.
The Good Samaritan wasn’t concerned with his own safety but the welfare of the injured man, he said, adding, “We are called to do something to relieve suffering.”
The Phoenix Diocese’s main celebrant of the Red Mass, Bishop Thomas Olmsted, told the congregation that Listecki trained as both a canon and civil lawyer.
Before turning to the Gospel parable in his homily, Listecki said, “We’re trained to be wordsmiths” as lawyers, “to eliminate any kind of ambiguity” in language.
Thus, in this Gospel, an expert in the law asks Jesus to explain “who is my neighbor” that one must love in order to inherit eternal life. Jesus replies with the story of the man beaten by robbers.
In what might be regarded as a warning against superficial appearances, though, Listecki also told of his experience of seeing a raggedly dressed man sorting through garbage in a city, so, with the Good Samaritan in mind, he gave the man $10 and said to go get some breakfast. But the man wasn’t the pauper he appeared.
Listecki said the man explained, “Father, I own these buildings.”
“I took my $10 back,” Listecki said.
The archbishop told the Red Mass, “I would encourage you to pray” and retain a compassionate heart.
Beginning his homily, Listecki recalled first having met Olmsted, the Phoenix bishop, 39 years ago in Rome when Olmsted worked as a priest there.
Olmsted “already had the reputation of being a deeply spiritual man,” Listecki said, and today the Phoenix Diocese and U.S. Church are “blessed to have his leadership.”
A Bold Voice
After the Mass, The Wanderer encountered Fr. Fred Adamson, Phoenix vicar general, and asked for his reaction to the observation about Christians being risk-takers.
Adamson said this “presents a challenge to respond to the contemporary issues that we find in a secular culture. Some of the things (Listecki) mentioned, standing up for the unborn, the immigrant, the poor . . . the Church is always called to be the bold voice for those in need.”
Giving such an example may be as close as one’s job.
Miranda, the Democratic state legislator receiving the St. Thomas More Society award this year, has been criticized for her pro-life stand. For instance, in November 2014 Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona posted about her:
“A lot of us might assume that a female Democrat will be a fierce advocate for reproductive rights, but that’s not always a safe assumption. It certainly isn’t the case with Catherine Miranda, who not only won’t advocate to make abortion access a reality in Arizona, but will actively fight against it.”
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