ANGELA MERICI CENTER
Two Questions Answered By Love BY GINNY SCHAEFFER
When Jesus said, “Love your neighbor,” he knew your neighbor would act, look, believe and love differently than you. It’s kinda the whole point.
— From a yard sign Author unknown
Am I my brother’s, sister’s keeper? Who is my neighbor? Nearly every day, on my way into work, I am forced to confront these questions at least once, if not twice. Some days, especially if the weather is extreme, they hit me hard. “How can I sit in my climate-controlled car, with my belly full of breakfast or planning what I’m going to have for supper and not do something? How can I ignore what’s right in front of me…the need, the cry for help?” Their signs pull at me, as they are meant to, declaring the holder’s life situation: “Homeless · Hungry · Sick · Homeless Vet · Children to feed · Let’s be honest. I’m going to buy beer.” They walk up and down the sidewalk or along the median looking for any kind of signal that someone is going to give them a dollar or two. Am I my brother’s, sister’s keeper? Who is my neighbor? The images on TV break my heart and send waves of sorrow crashing through me. The numbers are staggering and nearly impossible to comprehend. Going on four million people worldwide are dead from something we cannot see, much less put our hands around. Body bags loaded into refrigerated trucks. Hospitals around the globe have been overwhelmed. People in India are begging for oxygen. Long-haulers are suffering months, perhaps years, after their initial illness. Healthcare providers stare back at us, over their masks, with haunted eyes that have seen too much suffering and death. Am I my brother’s, sister’s keeper? Who is my neighbor? Other images enrage me and my soul cries out, “What is wrong with us?” People of color are killed on
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SUMMER 2021 | DOME
our city streets in broad daylight. Infants, toddlers, and children are torn from their parent’s arms as they try to escape poverty, gang violence and climate catastrophes. Mobs of angry, violent Americans, fueled by conspiracy theories, storm the United States Capitol in an attempt to stop the constitutional process of a peaceful transfer of power. Gun violence kills the young and old, the innocent and the perpetrator, the bystander and the target. Am I my brother’s, sister’s keeper? Who is my neighbor? As followers of Jesus, we know the answers to these two questions: Yes, and Everyone. Jesus did not mince words about who we are to open our hearts to, reach out to, and make room for, in our lives. He did not just talk the talk, He walked the walk as well. He healed the servant of a Roman centurion—the sworn enemy and oppressor of his people—and praised the man for his faith. He welcomed women into his inner circle— a great taboo. He touched the leper— something that could get you thrown out of town and family. He engaged the Samaritan woman and the Syrophoenician mother—not only women but also “aliens” who most Jews of the day despised. He healed the sick, fed the hungry, had dinner with folks with less than stellar reputations who were frowned upon by polite society and the religious elite. How did he do it? How did Jesus stay open and welcoming to so many people with such desperate needs? Yeah, there were times when he tried to get away from the demanding crowds. One day he got into a boat and had his fishermen disciples row him across to the other side of the lake only to be met by another