Fijian Columban Fr Pat Visanti serving in a rural village in Pakistan. Photo: Fr Pat Visanti
When our Oceania Regional Director visited Melbourne recently, we had the privilege of gathering as co-workers to celebrate Mass together. During that Mass, the readings of the day spoke about Jonah and the Good Samaritan. As I listened, I was struck by how both stories - one from the Old Testament and one from the Gospel - intertwine in meaning and message. They reveal two very different human responses to God’s call, yet both lead us toward a single truth that lies at the heart of the Columban Mission: that God’s mercy knows no boundaries, and our mission is to carry that mercy to others.
Jonah’s story is brief, only four chapters, but it captures a universal human struggle - the tension between God’s call and our own resistance. When God commands Jonah to go to Nineveh, a great Assyrian city known for its violence and sin, Jonah runs in the opposite direction. He boards a ship to Tarshish, hoping to escape the uncomfortable mission. In doing so, Jonah is not merely avoiding travel; he is fleeing from the uncomfortable truth that God’s compassion extends even to those we might consider unworthy.
Jonah’s reluctance is easy to understand. Nineveh was the capital of Israel’s enemy empire. To preach repentance meant risking rejection, humiliation, or worse. But Jonah’s disobedience came from something deeper - his struggle to accept that God’s mercy could reach beyond his own people. When God spares Nineveh after its people repent, Jonah becomes angry. He laments that God is “gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love.” He knows these words well, yet finds them hard to embrace when that mercy is shown to others. Through the storm, the belly of the fish, and even the shade of a withering plant, God gently teaches Jonah that His concern is not limited to one nation or group. “Should I not be concerned for Nineveh, that great city?” God asks. The question remains open - not only for Jonah but for every person of faith who has ever hesitated to share love and mercy beyond familiar boundaries.
Centuries later, Jesus tells the parable of the Good Samaritan, answering another timeless question: “Who is my neighbour?” A scholar of the Law wanted to define love narrowly, perhaps to keep compassion safe within the limits of religion or tribe. But Jesus overturns every expectation. In the parable, a man is robbed and left half dead on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. Two religious leaders, a priest and a Levite, pass by without stopping. Then a Samaritan - a person from a group despised by the Jews - comes along. Seeing the wounded man, he is moved with compassion. He tends to his wounds, lifts him onto his own animal, takes him to an inn, and pays for his care.
The Samaritan does not ask who the man is, whether he is friend or foe, or whether he “deserves” help. He simply acts. In doing so, he becomes the true image of mercy - not through words, but through action. His love is practical, risky, and deeply human.
In these two stories, we encounter a sharp contrast. Jonah resists God’s call to love outsiders; the Samaritan lives it without hesitation. Jonah runs away from the wounded city; the Samaritan runs toward the wounded man. Jonah’s heart is closed by fear and prejudice; the Samaritan’s heart is open and generous. Yet both stories reveal the same divine lesson: God’s mercy is not ours to control - it is ours to share.
That truth lies at the centre of the Columban Mission. From its founding in 1918, the Missionary Society of St Columban has been called to go beyond borders - to live among peoples of different languages, cultures, and faiths, and to make the compassion of Christ visible in places of suffering, poverty, and injustice. Columban missionaries, lay co-workers, and partners are continually invited to take Jonah’s unfinished story and complete it - to say “yes” where Jonah said “no,” and to walk the road where the Samaritan walked.
For some Columbans, their “Nineveh” has been a rural village in Fiji, a crowded barrio in Chile or Peru, or a migrant community in Taiwan or Korea. For others, it has been the work of interfaith dialogue, ecological justice, or standing with Indigenous peoples seeking dignity. In every setting, the mission begins where fear and comfort end. Like the Samaritan, Columbans are called to bend down to the wounded - to offer presence, healing, and hope. To live this mission is to recognise that God’s concern extends to every city and every person, and even to all creation. It is to see Christ not only in the sanctuary but also in the faces of the poor, the displaced, the forgotten, and the weary. It is to live what Jonah resisted and what the Samaritan embraced - a faith that crosses boundaries for the sake of love.
The stories of Jonah and the Good Samaritan also speak to us personally as co-workers in mission. At times, we may find ourselves more like Jonah - hesitant, cautious, and unsure of where God is leading us. We might question whether our small efforts make any difference, or whether we are ready to take risks for others. Yet in those very moments, God continues to call us toward deeper trust and wider compassion.
Mission, after all, is not confined to distant lands. It begins wherever we are willing to see another person’s pain and respond with love. It begins when we choose mercy over judgment, action over avoidance, faith over fear. In our daily work and in our relationships, we are invited to live out the same compassion that moved the Samaritan to stop on the road.
The Columban Mission teaches us that God’s love must be made visible through us - through the way we listen, care, advocate, and accompany. Whether through pastoral care, communications, formation, or administration, each act of service becomes part of this larger movement of grace. Together we share in the mission of Christ, who comes to heal the world through hands that reach out and hearts that welcome. Jonah reminds us that God’s call is not always comfortable. The Good Samaritan shows that love is not always convenient. The Columban Mission reminds us that both are necessary if we are to be true disciples of Christ. From reluctance to compassion - from fleeing Nineveh to tending the wounded - lies the journey of every missionary disciple.
It is the journey of our Church, the path of the Gospel, and the vocation of each one of us who dares to believe that God’s mercy is greater than our fears. To live the Columban spirit is to hear again God’s question to Jonah and Jesus’ challenge to the lawyer:
“Should I not be concerned for that great city?” “Go and do likewise.” These two questions still echo today - calling us to rise, to go, and to love without limits.
Maha Shawky, Columban Mission Centre CEO, Australia.
Related links
- Read more from the current Columban eBulletin
