Homily given by Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M., April 20 during the Mass in St. Mary of the Assumption Cathedral, Trenton, marking the 200th anniversary of the birth of Blessed Frederick Ozanam, the founder of the St. Vincent de Paul Society.   

I want to talk to you today about the Gospel of Luke and the Good Samaritan.  It is a familiar passage, perhaps one of the most famous of all the parables in the New Testament.  We know the story well.  A scholar is seeking the path to eternal life and he asks Jesus to tell him, to show him the way.  And Jesus, good rabbi that he is, responds with the “Shema Israel,” the traditional Hebrew prayer known to every Jew, commanding people to love God and neighbor.  The scholar then asks Jesus “who is my neighbor” and, again, the good rabbi Jesus responds with the story, the parable that we all know.

As we reflect back on Christ’s tale, we recall that it begins with an incident of brutality and a man, no doubt a Jewish man, robbed, beaten and left for dead on the street.  People passed him by, fellow Jews --- a priest and a levite, people who also knew the “Shema Israel” well, people who should have known better --- looking at him and leaving him there.  They did nothing to help.  It wasn’t until a Samaritan stumbled upon this tragedy that the man received any attention.  The Jews hated the Samaritans and, yet, the object of their hate became the source of love and compassion and mercy.  The lesson, of course, is not difficult to draw from this story.  Love comes, at times, from unlikely places --- it is our responsibility, as Christians, to turn the “unlikely” into the “likely,” to be the ones who show love even when it is not expected.

In the story of the Good Samaritan, the characters can be divided into three groups: the takers, the talkers and the givers --- those who beat up on others, those who know all the right things to say and they say them often, and those who neither take nor talk … they just do the right thing.  They show love.

Frederick Ozanam was a giver.  And the Society of St. Vincent de Paul that he founded in 1833, under the guidance of French Daughter of Charity, Sister Rosalie Rendu, followed his example in heroic ways.  It still does.  Ozanam, whose 200th birthday we celebrated this week, began with a handful of young men who saw and recognized the people left on the “side of the road” --- the poor, the abandoned, the marginalized.  Ozanam and his friends were the Good Samaritans of their day and by the time of his death in 1853 at the age of 40, over 2,000 “Good Samaritans” followed his example, in the footsteps of St. Vincent de Paul, the Church’s Patron of Universal Love and Charity.

As a Vincentian priest for the last 31 years and, now, a Vincentian Bishop of our Diocese, I consider it a special privilege to be here with you today as we celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Blessed Frederick Ozanam.

His patron and model, St. Vincent de Paul was a parish priest who lived in 17th century France.  He spent most of his life as a priest in Paris in the service of the poor.  It is no wonder that Blessed Frederick Ozanam, a lay man and 19th century founder of an organization established to help the needy in Paris, chose to name that organization the St. Vincent de Paul Society.

St. Vincent once wrote, “You see a great deal of distress that you are unable to relieve. God sees it also. Bear the pains of the poor together with them, doing all you can to give them whatever help they need, and remain in peace.”   Blessed Frederick Ozanam knew that well.  He wrote “I have not the honor to be a theologian, but I have the happiness to be a Christian; the happiness to believe and the ambition to devote my mind, my heart, and all my strength to the service of truth.”  The service of truth led Ozanam to the service of the poor, like his patron St. Vincent de Paul.  Truth opened his eyes to learn and live the Gospel we heard today, a Gospel of love.  Ozanam put himself into the Gospel.

Robert Pace, internationally known Christian preacher, told the story of a photographer working for a religious journal. The editor commissioned him to photograph someone that characterized the destitute condition of humanity.  After a great deal of searching the photographer captured the perfect picture.  From a shadowed alley he spotted a beggar pleading for food.  The beggar lay stretching from his side toward a grocery store that displayed freshly baked bread.  The photographer got into position and excitedly snapped the picture. Moments later he rushed the picture to his editor. The editor agreed that it perfectly depicted humanity’s misery. After congratulating the photographer the editor peered deeply into his eyes and asked:  “And what assistance did you give the beggar after the photograph?”  With a twist of discomfort the photographer softly confessed that he had done nothing.  The editor responded: “You got the picture but you didn’t get the message.”

My dear sisters and brothers in Christ, today is a beautiful day for the St. Vincent DePaul Society of our Diocese.  It is a day when we can demonstrate the depth of our Christian commitment by becoming, in the spirit of the Gospel, Good Samaritans, servants of all, especially the poor and those in need.  As we continue in this Eucharistic celebration and go forth from here, let us remember --- as we take the Lord Jesus Christ into our hearts at Holy Communion --- let us remember, we who are so fortunate and so blessed, the words of Blessed Frederick Ozanam: .....the poor we see with the eyes of flesh; they are there and we can put finger and hand in their wounds and the scars of the crown of thorns are visible on their foreheads; and at this point incredulity no longer has place and we should fall at their feet and say with the Apostle, “You are my Lord and my God!” You (the poor) are our masters, and we will be your servants. You are for us the sacred images of that God whom we do not see, and not knowing how to love Him otherwise shall we not love Him in the person of the poor?”