Sunday Check-in and Travel

I’m pretty sure we were already feeling the heat of the week as we loaded the buses this morning at 7:00 am! As everyone checked in, they received a lanyard and nametag. The group vibes were already forming!

After a quick meeting and instructions from Joey about loading the buses, we walked over to join our parish community for 8:00 am Mass. Father Samuel celebrated Mass, assisted by Deacon Alex Fry. Deacon Alex gave a great homily about The Good Samaritan, and he challenged us to SEE our neighbor, be MOVED with compassion, and to APPROACH them. We ultimately have to change the way we see “the other” in our lives — not as a stranger, not as a victim, not as insignificant, but as our brother or sister. When we are moved with compassion, it’s a movement from our core (literally, “from the gut”) that urges us to respond. And we serve and love our neighbor because their inherent dignity as a son or daughter of God demands it.

“We serve – not because we are good – but because the person we are serving is good.”

Dcn. Alex reminded us that we don’t serve in order to show the world what we can do, but to magnify what God has done. Jesus is the one who served the man on the side of the road first… and that man is each of us. We have been beaten down, robbed of our inheritance, and left for dead by satan and sin in so many ways — but Jesus has been moved with compassion for us, come to our aid, bandaged our wounds, and restored us to life. We love because He first loved us.