A few months ago, I was leaving Blessed Sacrament Church in Providence, Rhode Island, after singing at two English Masses. As I drove to take my daughter Gaby to a meeting with her friends, we experienced something that still makes me reflect deeply today.
Halfway there, at a street corner, we saw a man on the ground who was trembling uncontrollably. He appeared to be suffering from a drug overdose.
My daughter and I looked at each other, moved and a bit paralyzed. We wondered whether someone else had already called 911. Yet I couldn’t stop thinking: What if we were the first to see him? We called emergency services, reporting the situation and giving the exact location. I continued driving another 10 blocks to drop off my daughter where she was meeting her friends.
Passing the same corner on my way back, I was relieved to see firefighters and an ambulance already there. The man who had been convulsing was now sitting up, alert and receiving help.
In my heart, I felt that perhaps we helped save a life that day.
This experience reminded me how easy it is for our society to become indifferent to the suffering of others. Jesus makes it clear in Matthew 25: He identifies himself with those who are hungry, sick, homeless or abandoned. Our Christian faith is not proven only inside the church building but in our willingness to stop, to see and to act.
Christmas does not end on Christmas Day. The Church invites us to contemplate the mystery of the Incarnation for several weeks. It is a prolonged season meant to transform us through the love God showed by becoming a small, fragile child.
Your help can begin by supporting your parish and donating to a food pantry, soup kitchen or any cause close to your heart. And let us not forget the poorest of the poor around the world whom we can help through Catholic Relief Services.
Remember: Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.
Christmas continues every time we reach out to someone suffering – every time we welcome the stranger, accompany the sick, or feed the hungry. It continues when we break through indifference and become instruments of hope. May the Lord grant us the grace to be modern Good Samaritans.
Silvio Cuéllar is a writer, liturgical music composer and journalist. He was coordinator of the Hispanic ministry office and editor of the newspaper El Católico de Rhode Island, the newspaper of the Diocese of Providence.
I am writing in regard to the article from Archbishop Thomas Wenski in the Viewpoints section of the Nov. 21 edition, “Speak out against unjust laws amid mass deportations.”
I find the article inappropriate for the Catholic News Herald as it is taking a political position on a subject that is very arguable and has very strong supporters on both sides of the issue. By contrast, the article written by Bishop Michael Martin on pages 4 and 5 of the same issue does very well to express support for those negatively affected, while at the same time avoiding language that would likely offend one side or the other.
Although I disagree with most of what the archbishop has to say and question the accuracy of some of his statements, my primary reason for writing is to express my desire for the Catholic News Herald to remain “out of politics,” as I feel they have done very successfully up until this instance. There are many newspapers and television programs that I have stopped watching completely over the years due to their adopting a political bias instead of reporting news with neutrality. I do not want to see the Catholic News Herald follow them.
David Esposito lives in Statesville.