by Katie Patrick
Because the majority of my time is spent at our main office in Lincoln, I rarely have the opportunity to visit the many small towns that we serve across the 24,000 square miles of the Lincoln Diocese. However, a couple of weeks ago, I had the chance to travel west, with stops in Hastings, Holdredge, Cambridge, McCook, Trenton and Imperial.
It was this trip in particular that got me thinking about how diverse our diocese is—and yet how similar is the suffering.
Whether we grew up as third-generation ranchers or “big city” business owners, we were taught, whether as a child or in adulthood, that our Catholic faith is the single, strongest, most important part of our life. Because it doesn’t matter if we’re in the “big city” or a western Nebraska town of 100 people; when we lose someone we love, or experience a miscarriage, or if one of our children leaves the Church; when we are plagued by recurrent sin, we all still turn to the same people—our local parish priests.
The majority of my readers live in Lincoln, or at least in eastern Nebraska. In general, we have a tendency to focus on this side of the state and forget about all that exists in the western side of the state, and those who reside there, as well as the many priests who take care of them. These western priests travel hundreds of miles each week to bring the sacraments to parishioners, as well as just to see them and listen to their problems and concerns, which are just as important and real as those in the “big city.”
It’s easy to “forget” those people we don’t see on a regular basis. When I write here about the small-town parish priests and the issues they deal with, we forget that the problems they see are just as big, if not more so, than those of the priests in the big cities. It’s also easy to forget those people we don’t see every day, but who have needs just as big, if not more so, than those of us reading this article. Of course I’m speaking about the people served by CSS.
When I spoke to the priests and the people I visited, I heard about the issues they dealt with, and the struggles they saw. It reminded me so concretely that we all have needs, and we all need help—even if we can’t obviously see it.
It’s easy to stay in our lane—to only think about those things that directly affect us. If we live in Lincoln, we only think about Lincoln. We don’t “need” to worry about the issues affecting people in small town Nebraska, because we don’t see it, although I can assure you it is very real.
But it is also the same in your town, in your city. Those things you don’t see still exist. There are people in your town with problems we don’t see, because even in the same city, we can sometimes live in different worlds. Those are the people who don’t always have the opportunity to interact with us. But like those priests who serve the needs of their parishioners, with needs we don’t see, CSS also serves the needs of others that are not always seen. They need food. They need clothes. They need a hug. And they need Christ.
We all serve a different role in providing Christ to others. Where the priest works directly with those in need, sometimes in persona Christi, CSS offers Christ in different but necessary ways, but with your assistance.
What you provide to CSS allows us to serve those you may not see and may not think about, but your support, and prayer, to parish priests, allows them to fulfill their mission to serve those same people with issues and problems you also do not see. As humans, our problems are universal—we all suffer, we all grieve, we all rejoice, or hunger, or smile. We need someone to be there for us during these moments, because we are all one body, one body in Christ.
