On Sunday, 20 of our middle school youth helped to prepare and serve dinner to our guests from CARITAS (a traveling homeless shelter that St. Stephen’s hosts one week each year). Afterwards, we sat down to talk about it.
Helping folks who are in need is important work, but not necessarily religious work, right? How does hosting CARITAS connect with our faith? I asked the kids to think of a story they’d heard in church that might connect the two.
How would you answer? Is there a Gospel story that comes to mind when you think of housing and feeding a group of strangers from the other side of town?
A girl raised her hand and suggested a well-known parable found only in the Gospel of Luke (10:25-37). A chorus of voices told the story:
“There’s a guy lying by the side of the road…”
“Yeah, and someone comes along and helps him…”
“A Samaritan!”
“Oh, and he was beaten up and robbed! That’s why he was lying there…”
“Didn’t some people walk past him and not help?”
Yes, some people did walk past. A priest and a Levite each saw the dying man and “passed by on the other side.”
With this parable Jesus illustrates what love for one’s neighbor looks like. At its core, it is Jesus’ answer to the question “what must I do to be a Christian?”
As Christians, we are called to stop and help. Like the priest and the Levite, we have plenty of reasons not to. We are busy. Furthermore, we are very busy.
I like to imagine the priest and the Levite – holy men both – on their respective ways to religious observances. Each is running late. I imagine them reaching their places of worship, each saying a prayer for the dying man, entrusting him to God’s love and care.
The Samaritan, meanwhile, IS God’s love and care. Listening to our youth tell this story on Sunday evening was moving. Watching them live it, even more so.
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