"Go and do likewise."
Scripture Readings
The Rich Man & Lazarus
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The Good Samaritan
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Matthew 25:31-45"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne, and all the nations will be assembled before him. And he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the king will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.' Then the righteous will answer him and say, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?' And the king will say to them in reply, 'Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.' Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.' Then they will answer and say, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?' He will answer them, 'Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.' And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."
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Scripture Reflection Questions:
1) Based on your reading of these Scripture passages, explain what Jesus means when he tells the man, "Go and do likewise."
2) As Jesus' disciples, how are we called to care for those who are suffering and in need? Explain your answer using evidence from Scripture.
3) According to Matthew 25:31-45, who are we really serving when we care for those in need? Explain your answer using evidence from Scripture.
2) As Jesus' disciples, how are we called to care for those who are suffering and in need? Explain your answer using evidence from Scripture.
3) According to Matthew 25:31-45, who are we really serving when we care for those in need? Explain your answer using evidence from Scripture.
"Who is my neighbor?"
Good Samaritans of the 20th Century
St. Maximilian Kolbe (1894-1941)Maximilian Kolbe was born in January 1894 in Zduńska Wola, which was at that time part of Russian Empire.
In 1907 Kolbe and his elder brother Francis decided to join the Conventual Franciscans. They illegally crossed the border between Russia and Austria-Hungary and joined the Conventual Franciscan junior seminary in Lwów. In 1910 Kolbe was allowed to enter the novitiate. He professed his first vows in 1911, adopting the name Maximilian, and the final vows in 1914, in Rome, adopting the names Maximilian Maria, to show his veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In 1918 Kolbe was ordained a priest. During the Second World War he provided shelter to refugees from Greater Poland, including 2,000 Jews whom he hid from Nazi persecution in his friary in Niepokalanów. He was also active as a radio amateur, with Polish call letters SP3RN, vilifying Nazi activities through his reports. On February 17, 1941 he was arrested by the German Gestapo and imprisoned in the Pawiak prison, and on May 25 was transferred to Auschwitz I as prisoner #16670. In July 1941 a man from Kolbe’s barracks vanished, prompting SS-Hauptsturmführer Karl Fritzsch, the deputy camp commander, to pick 10 men from the same barracks to be starved to death in Block 13 (notorious for torture), in order to deter further escape attempts. (The man who had disappeared was later found drowned in the camp latrine.) One of the selected men, Franciszek Gajowniczek, cried out, lamenting his family, and Kolbe volunteered to take his place. During the time in the cell he led the men in songs and prayer. After three weeks of dehydration and starvation, only Kolbe and three others were still alive. Finally he was murdered with an injection of carbolic acid. Father Kolbe was beatified as a confessor by Pope Paul VI in 1971 and was canonized by Pope John Paul II on October 10, 1982 in the presence of Franciszek Gajowniczek. (Jewish Virtual Library) |
Raoul Wallenberg (1912-1947)Raoul Wallenberg (b. 1912) was a Swedish diplomat who saved the lives of tens of thousands of Jews in Budapest in the second half of 1944. With the support of the World Jewish Congress and the American War Refugee Board, the Swedish Foreign Ministry sent Wallenberg to Budapest in July 1944 to help protect the 200,000 Jews who remained in the capital. From October 15, when the Arrow Cross seized power, to the liberation of the capital three months later, Wallenberg saved Jews through a variety of means -- by issuing thousands of protective documents, by establishing the International Ghetto of protected houses, and by securing their release from deportation trains, death march convoys, and labor service brigades -- all at significant risk to himself.
Wallenberg was detained by Soviet agents on January 17, 1945, soon after the Soviet forces occupied Budapest, and thereafter disappeared without a trace. On December 22, 2000, the Russian prosecutor's office issued a formal statement acknowledging that Wallenberg was held in a Soviet prison as a "socially dangerous" person for two and a half years before he died. This statement followed one by Alexander Yakovlev, the Russian official appointed to investigate the Wallenberg affair, who stated in November 2000 that Wallenberg had been executed in 1947. However, since the Russians further indicated that all records relating to Wallenberg's arrest have been destroyed, no evidence of his imprisonment or death apparently exists. Consequently, many questions about Wallenberg's fate remain unanswered. |
Martin Niemoller (1892-1984)Martin Niemoller was a prominent Protestant pastor who emerged as an outspoken public foe of Adolf Hitler and spent the last seven years of Nazi rule in concentration camps. The following quote is attributed to him:
"First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out -- because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out -- because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out -- because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me -- and there was no one left to speak for me." |
Oskar Schindler (1908-1974)Following the Nazi invasion of Poland, Oskar Schindler, a German Catholic industrialist, moved to Krakow and assumed responsibility for the operation of two formerly Jewish-owned manufacturers of enamel kitchenware. He then established his own enamel works in Zablocie, outside Krakow. That factory became a haven for about nine hundred Jewish workers, providing them relief from the brutality of the Plaszow labor camp nearby.
In October 1944, Schindler was granted permission to relocate his defunct enamel works to Brunnlitz, Czechoslovakia -- this time as an armaments factory -- and to take with him the Jewish workers from Zablocie. He succeeded in transferring to Brunnlitz approximately eight hundred Jewish men from the Gross-Rosen camp and three hundred Jewish women from Auschwitz, ensuring their human treatment and, ultimately, saving their lives. For an opportunity to learn more about Oskar Schindler, check out the 1994 film Schindler's List directed by Steven Spielberg. |
Irena Sendler (1910-2008)Irena Sendler was a Polish social worker who helped smuggle more than 2,500 Jewish children out of the Warsaw ghetto during the Holocaust.
As head of the children's section of Zegota, the Polish underground Council for Aid to Jews, Irena ("Jolanta") Sendler regularly used her position as a social worker to enter the Warsaw ghetto and help smuggle children out. Hiding them in orphanages, convents, schools, hospitals, and private homes, she provided each child with a new identity, carefully recording in code their original names and placements so that surviving relatives could find them after the war. Arrested and tried by the Gestapo (the German secret state police) in the fall of 1943, she was sentenced to death, but Zegota managed to rescue her before she could be executed. She assumed a new identity and continued her work for Zegota. Yad Vashem recognized Ms. Sendler with the Righteous Among the Nations medal in 1965. She died in Warsaw, Poland on May 12, 2008, following a long illness. |
These are just five examples of men and women who risked everything to save Jewish lives during the Holocaust. None of them were Jewish; they had nothing to gain by helping the Jewish people and, in fact, everything to lose by doing so. They risked their lives and the lives of their families to save the lives of people they didn't even know.
This is by no means an all-inclusive list. Hundreds of individuals representing a long list of racial and ethnic backgrounds, nationalities, and political and religious identities participated in the Nazi resistance movement. A wide variety of Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant religious leaders spoke out publicly against the Nazi regime and participated in behind-the-scenes resistance to save the lives of thousands. The Jewish people themselves launched very active resistance movements all across the cities of Europe and even within the ghettos and concentration camps.
Thousands of Jewish men, women, and children went on to live because of the compassion and care of their fellow human beings and their resilience and strength as a community. As the last survivors of the war and the concentration camps leave this world, we are called more than ever to bear witness to these events, to be the voice for the voiceless, and to promise to speak out when others are persecuted.
This is by no means an all-inclusive list. Hundreds of individuals representing a long list of racial and ethnic backgrounds, nationalities, and political and religious identities participated in the Nazi resistance movement. A wide variety of Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant religious leaders spoke out publicly against the Nazi regime and participated in behind-the-scenes resistance to save the lives of thousands. The Jewish people themselves launched very active resistance movements all across the cities of Europe and even within the ghettos and concentration camps.
Thousands of Jewish men, women, and children went on to live because of the compassion and care of their fellow human beings and their resilience and strength as a community. As the last survivors of the war and the concentration camps leave this world, we are called more than ever to bear witness to these events, to be the voice for the voiceless, and to promise to speak out when others are persecuted.
"Who is my neighbor?" Reflection Questions:
1) Whose story speaks to you the most? Why?
2) Given the dangers of helping Jews during the Holocaust, what factors would have motivated you to help? Under what circumstances would you risk your life to save people you don't even know?
3) What factors would have discouraged you from helping? Like the Jesuit priest on the "Personal Testimony" page, can you think of a time when you were immobilized or paralyzed by a situation and didn't help someone in need even when you knew that you should have? What happened in that experience that prevented you from acting?
4) What threats to human rights and human dignity exist today? Can you think of any modern-day examples of persecution, genocide, or violence that need our witness and attention as a people of faith who profess that every human person is made in the image and likeness of God? Explain your answer.
2) Given the dangers of helping Jews during the Holocaust, what factors would have motivated you to help? Under what circumstances would you risk your life to save people you don't even know?
3) What factors would have discouraged you from helping? Like the Jesuit priest on the "Personal Testimony" page, can you think of a time when you were immobilized or paralyzed by a situation and didn't help someone in need even when you knew that you should have? What happened in that experience that prevented you from acting?
4) What threats to human rights and human dignity exist today? Can you think of any modern-day examples of persecution, genocide, or violence that need our witness and attention as a people of faith who profess that every human person is made in the image and likeness of God? Explain your answer.