From the Pastor’s Desk | July 10, 2022 | Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
“And who is my neighbor?”
~Luke 10:29b
Brothers and Sisters,
“Won’t you be, won’t you be, my neighbor?” While I fondly recall watching Mister Rogers on TV, entering his home, then changing his shoes and sweater as a kid. I much preferred seeing the Trolly make its way into the Neighborhood of Make-Believe. I loved hearing the stories about King Friday, Queen Sarah, Lady Fairchilde, Prince Tuesday, Daniel Tiger, X the Owl, Henrietta the cat, and many others. Like most of us, I reached a bittersweet point where I sadly outgrew “little kid” TV.
The 2019 A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood starring Tom Hanks opened my eyes to how important Fred Rogers was. A soft-spoken Presbyterian minister and children’s television host. On his program, Mr. Rodgers welcomed viewers to a neighborhood where everyone belonged. A place that kept this profound Gospel truth front and center: our neighbor isn’t just the person who looks, acts, and makes as much money as us. Our neighbors include people from any socioeconomic, generational, racial, or cultural background — everyone! This concept leads me to today’s Gospel, where we find a scholar asking Jesus, “…who is my neighbor?” and who does the law teach us to love as ourselves to inherit eternal life? Instead of a direct answer, Jesus offers the parable of the Good Samaritan. A story that implores us to expand our understanding of who includes our neighbors.
Travel can open our appreciation of the needs and challenges of our neighbors worldwide. My experiences at work camp as a high schooler and college student impacted my discernment to the vocation of priesthood. I encountered difficulties and hurdles in Appalachia and a community dealing with poverty as I had never seen. Still, despite these burdens, I witnessed people who didn’t think first of their own needs but of their neighbors and community.
I pray that all our families and parishioners continue to expand their definition of who counts as a person – who truly is our neighbor and whom Jesus is asking us to love. I hope the summer experiences, with family vacations, summer jobs, camps, and living life at a slower pace, can be formative experiences for all. Please pray for our youth. Especially those middle and high schoolers coming home from Damascus Camp, a place whose mission is to awaken, empower, and equip a generation to live the adventure of the Catholic faith through world-class programs and an environment of encounter. And for high schoolers in our diocese at the O’Dwyer Retreat House through next weekend who are beginning the High School Leadership Institute, which focuses on the formation of missionary disciples. As we hold our youth in our prayers, let us also ask Christ the Teacher to help us recognize the kind of neighbor he wants us to become and those neighbors he asks us to love.
In the Lord,
Rev. Michael S. Triplett