Who is my Neighbor?

Last Sunday was the anniversary of the dedication of Christ the King church in Ann Arbor Michigan.  Fr. Ed spoke of the many events preceding that dedication day, many of which seemed almost impossible, but God provided when we didn’t know how.  It was wonderful to hear all the stories again, how blessed that small parish is.  But Fr. Ed also spoke of the saint’s relics preserved within the altar.  I had forgotten that fact, but now it echoes in my mind as being infinitely important.

The altar of every Catholic Church building contains the relic of a saint.  Often the parish is named in the saint’s honor, like nearby St. John Neumann parish here in Canton, Michigan.  But the Christ the King church altar has 4 relics, those of:  St Maria Goretti, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, St. John of the Cross and those of St. John Vianney.  Just as I’ve recently written about the importance of prayer and how I saw answered my recent prayers for my mother (with the rose bush), I can now see clearly how each of these four saints’ lives has had a dramatic impact on the people of Christ the King parish.

St. Maria Goretti was the young teenager who gave up her life rather than consent to rape.  St. Elizabeth Ann Seton was the founder of America’s parochial school system.  St. John of the Cross was known for his writings on spiritual contemplation and closeness to God.  St. John Vianney was a dedicated priest in France during the French Revolution which killed priests.

In summary, each of those four saints led a life dedicated to their Catholic faith.  They didn’t just know their Catholic faith, like a subject to be learned and memorized, they LIVED the faith.

I have just finished meditating on next Sunday’s Gospel about the Good Samaritan (Lk 10:25-37).  In his book The Better Part, Fr. John Bartunek reflects on the Good Samaritan:

“It summarizes the entire Gospel, the entire meaning of life.  (Jesus was asked) ‘Yes, but who is my neighbor’, and he obliges with further explanations, (which are like) the explanation given by the words and examples of thousands of saints, and by the teaching of the Church in every age (act like the Good Samaritan). … And still, we find it hard to learn the lesson.  One would venture to think that perhaps we don’t really want to learn it. … (But) the time has come to pack up our books and leave the classroom behind; the lesson of how to live only makes sense when we let it change the course of our life.

I am blessed to have met a number of people who did just that.  There was the man who gave away his career, his penthouse and cars to live in the slums and love his neighbor, and the one who gave away fortunes to build an orphanage in the Philippines for street children, and another to pay off the college debts of young men and women so they could enter religious life.  I also know the woman who started houses for unwed mothers, and another who sold all her things to go live in a poor village in Africa.  These people changed the course of their lives, to live their love their God and neighbor.

The saints remembered at Christ the King parish lived those types of lives, and their lives are abundantly reflected in the people of that parish, which has a large number of religious vocations.  A large percentage of the children of that parish are home-schooled, or in Catholic parochial schools --- with the financial support of the entire parish.  Within this parish are many authors and others whose vocation is teaching the Word of God.  And the pastor of Christ the King, he once told the woman he was engaged to marry that he felt called to become a priest instead.  He did, and she accepted and understood, and she became a religious sister.

All these things and people I am blessed to know.  They understood the Parable of the Good Samaritan, which began when a lawyer asked Jesus: Yes, but who is my neighbor.  And Jesus’ answer, in the reflection of Fr. Bartunek is hard: “The lesson of how to live only makes sense when we let it change the course of our life.”