Who is my neighbour?

I have some friends, Malcolm and Michelle, who I met when we were neighbours, living on farms near Magaliesburg. They are lovely people, and I am very fond of them.  They are by no means wealthy, and those days they ran a business doing school camps on their farm.

One winter evening in July they heard a terrible crashing sound, coming from the road between Magaliesburg and Rustenburg, which was on the other side of the hill, behind their house. Malcolm leapt out of bed, went outside into the cold, and got into his car and drove around the hill to the main road. When he got there, he saw a terrible sight. A family had been travelling in two luxurious Land Rovers when the front Land Rover was involved in a head on collision. The second Land Rover was stopped next to the road, and it’s occupants were standing helplessly in the freezing cold, watching the ambulance attendants seeing to their injured family members, who had been in the lead Land Rover.

Malcolm took in the scene, and saw that the injured were being cared for, so he knew they didn’t really need his help. Instead, he focused on those who were not injured, watching and waiting to see if their injured family members were going to be OK.

He got back into his car, and drove home, and asked Michelle to quickly make a big pot of hot cocoa while he loaded his car up with blankets, and then he drove back to the accident scene and handed the blankets and cocoa to the shivering family waiting next to the road.

Ordinary people doing extraordinary things make this world worth living in.

Mass Readings

July 2019