The Good Samaritan - 2002

It would be the death knell for the 1,500 million subsistence farmers around the world if they were forced to buy patented seeds each year. Their livelihoods would be totally undermined and they and their families would be forced off the land into already crowded cities. What has all this to do with the work of Catholic missionaries?

In a parable in the Gospel of St. Luke a foreigner comes across a wounded man on the roadside who has been stripped of all that he had. Many of the people with whom missionaries work have few possessions, but they are precious to them. They have their own seeds, plants and herbs which their ancestors have tended and developed. These are being taken from them. For instance, there are now dozens of patents filed by foreign companies on the neem tree, so important to the poor in many countries of Asia. Local people may discover they can be taken to court for doing what they have done for centuries.

The parable of the Good Samaritan presents a way of living that is at the heart of Christian life. It invites us to re-examine our priorities and ask ourselves if there is somebody who urgently needs our help - now. I have no doubt that helping local communities abroad to protect themselves from the avarice of those who would take what is theirs, and helping to raise awareness at home is a modern application of the parable.