Neighbor to me

When the parish of St. Thomas Aquinas in Ames, Iowa, was doing major renovations, they decided to have a major artwork on a wall in the new gathering space. This “story wall” would connect the life of the parish with the scriptures and liturgy that sustain it.

An artist parishioner, Jo Myers-Walker, chose to make clay images to mount on the wall. She involved parishioners in the project, and some even helped with the clay.

I lived near Jo and one day I stopped by to see her work.

She told me that she was going to put an image of the Good Samaritan and the man fallen among thieves on the wall. She mentioned that she wanted to put me as the Good Samaritan with a Central American as the man fallen among thieves.

I had been working with some refugees in the parish, advocating for justice in Central America, and had been visiting El Salvador for many years.

By the way, my interest in El Salvador and Central America was a gift of the people of the parish of St. Thomas, especially its Charity, Justice, and Peace Commission. I knew of Central America before beginning work there in 1983 but it was not an area of major concern until parishioners moved me to respond. Thus, Jo wanted to portray me as the Good Samaritan. 

I explained to Jo that in many ways the people of Central America had served as Good Samaritans for me, helping to heal my wounds, helping me to grow in faith, rescuing me from a commitment to justice that was just in the head. They opened my heart to God and to the poor. Thus, I should be the one being attended to by the Good Samaritan.

Also, I noted that the Good Samaritan was an outsider, one despised by the religious leaders of Jesus’ time. It was thus appropriate that the Samaritan be an outsider, one who was despised and seen as less than human, as Central American refugees were depicted then and as refugees are still treated.

Jo listened, as she does so often.

The image – a Central American Samaritan and me as the man fallen among thieves – is at the top of the story wall sculptures.

Today the Gospel is the parable of the Good Samaritan. 

As I now walk among the Hondurans in the parish of Dulce Nombre, I feel more than ever that the people here have helped me heal, have moved me to reach out to the needy, and been a source of joy for me.

Some people read this parable allegorically in a way that posits Jesus as the Good Samaritan – and that reading does make sense.

The rejected person sees the man fallen among thieves, has compassion, comes near, and anoints him and takes care of him.

So does Jesus do for us.

So do the people of Honduras do for me.

And so I am called to do likewise – to make myself neighbor to those at the margins of this world. 

May I be made so worthy to become a good neighbor, a good Samaritan, a disciple of Jesus.