Serving others will lead us to the heavenly kingdom

    I remember having to do a required number of service hours over the summer in high school. I volunteered at a nursing home near my house for at least two summers. As a teenager, at first, I dreaded the thought of working in the home, surrounded by the elderly and antiseptic smell of the environment. After my first few weeks there, I remember enjoying my volunteer time and eagerly contacting the home to volunteer the next summer.
    While community service is required for most high schools, it becomes optional in college. As an undergraduate, my campus ministry sponsored a number of community service projects to help those in need near college and out of state with popular spring break mission trips. One of my regrets as an undergraduate is that I never took the time to take a mission trip to help those less fortunate than myself.
    For the past few months, I have been struck by Pope Francis’ humble actions and his call for service among the faithful. These actions, of course, should come as no surprise. After all, he is a Jesuit. Having been educated in the Jesuit tradition in undergraduate and graduate studies, I fully recognize the pope’s call for social justice.
    In the last few Gospel readings, we are reminded of Jesus’ call of service to others, most notably in the parable of the Good Samaritan. While others passed the injured man on the road, a traveling Samaritan stops to care for him, paying for his lodging as the injured man is treated for his injuries.
    How often are we like the Levites and the priest and pass those in need on the streets?
    Last fall, I drove with a friend to a conference in Madison, Wis. As we pulled up to an intersection, there was an older man on the side of the road with a cardboard sign announcing that he was homeless. Prepared to keep driving, I avoided eye contact and kept myself occupied. My friend, however, began rummaging through her purse and asked if I could roll down her window. I remember looking at her in surprise as I wondered what she was doing. She just smiled at me and said her mother had always told her that she could never know what might happen to her. In a twist of fate, her fortunes might be reversed and she could find herself like those along the road. Putting the spare change in the man’s hand, she rolled up the window and looked ahead, as if nothing had happened. As we became closer friends, I witnessed her compassion and service for others, something that I had only glimpsed in her actions on that drive.
    Since then, I have tried to serve others with more awareness. Whenever I happen to have spare change, I give it to the homeless around my college campus. Jesus calls us to be advocates of the faith, but also to advocate for those in need and in despair. To be like Christ, we are called to serve others, to put others before ourselves to enter the kingdom of heaven.
    As young adults, we find our lives busy: busy with school, with work, with responsibilities. Perhaps we need to remember our time back in high school, when community service was required, in order to recall the lesson that we may have now forgotten. In the chaos of life, we should stop and remember the feelings of joy and fulfillment that overcomes us when we help another person. Rather than trying to find the nearest soup kitchen, often the call for service might be even closer to home. Take time to help those around you, whether by helping a sibling or volunteering to tutor someone who has difficulty in areas that come naturally to you. God gives everyone certain talents; we must not be afraid to use them in order to help those in our community.
    Heather Bozant Witcher can be reached at [email protected].