Bishop Michael Pham, of the Catholic Diocese of San Diego, delivered the following homily at the diocesan Young Adult Mass, held July 13, 2025, at The Immaculata Church:
This is my first time celebrating Mass with you young adults. It’s a wonderful view to see many of you gathering here on this day. It gives us, as Church, great hope – hope that you are the Church today.
You are witnessing Jesus in your life and continue to flourish his grace in our world, in our society. Particularly, we need all of us together, especially in today’s society, to live out justly and act justly in our society. We need all of us, and it is wonderful to see you here truly wanting to be in touch, living intimately with God and Jesus Christ, so that we can be truly the disciples of Jesus today, which in today’s Gospel selection, Jesus explains to his contemporaries and us about what it means to be a neighbor.
For us, as a follower of Jesus, being a neighbor comes from treating people as Jesus would treat them. Jesus was never in a hurry. He always set aside time to listen to the troubles and joys of those he met. Jesus showed that all good things – listening, praying, healing and forgiving – take time.
One of the striking features about the Samaritan in the Gospel is the amount of time he spends in caring for the injured man. His compassion extended far beyond the expectation. He even used his own money to pay for the man’s needs. He spent time nursing the man’s wounds and making sure everything is taken care for him.
Jesus invites us to set aside time for ourselves and time for our neighbor, if we truly wish to live out the Second Commandment, love your neighbor as yourself. Being a good neighbor takes time. It takes time to develop human relationship.
Certainly, you experience that in your own relationship with your friendships. It takes time. The more time we share with one another, the more intimate sharing will become apparent. Intimate sharing comes from the heart. It is from the heart that is where God dwells.
As we hear in today’s first reading from the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses said, (God’s law) is very close. It is already in your hearts, and in your mouth; you only have to carry it out. Obviously, the priest and Levite know the Commandments, but if that is the case, why didn’t they stop to help the man? Perhaps, in their mind, they asked a wrong question – What will happen to me when I stop? – while the Samaritan asked a different way: What will happen to the wounded man if I don’t stop?
Many of us today are very cautious about getting involved. Getting involved is messy business. It disrupts our lives. We are so busy with ourselves. We are so busy with the things that we need to do for our own accomplishments. And so, it’s quite messy when we want to get involved. We never know the amount of trouble we are getting ourselves into if we do decide to help. It is much safer and far easier to close our hearts and go quietly beyond the other side of the road.
The parable of Jesus is more real for us today than ever before. If we ask ourselves how many people lie wounded on the roadside of life, perhaps we may have a tunnel vision, we don’t see many people on the roadside, but there are plenty. Maybe because their wounds are not also always visible and not always physical, and you probably can sense that in your friends, those that you know as well in your journey, that those are hurting, not visibly, but invisibly. You know you are there to help on the journey with your friends.
People can be wounded in spirit. We may see people in our own house, if we pay attention, but because a person who has lost a spouse, a person who lost a job, forgotten old people, and so on, they are all waiting and lying quietly there on the roadside.
Today’s parable does not invite us to go out, risk our lives, and become heroes. It invites us to reach out, risk our pride, and become human. It invites us to ask a question: “Can I help?” As we approach the table of the Lord, we believe in receiving Jesus’ body and blood into us. We have the courage and strength to say, “Yes, I will help.”