At the graveside, we commend our sister or brother, not to the earth, but to God. Just as “Do this in memory of me” means much more than a remembering- it is a calling-to-mind to make present- to commend means more than to just hand-over or leave. You commended yourself to God by dying and rising with Christ to new life through the waters of baptism.
Commendation also means something like giving charge to one who is worthy of trust. So, when our Lord commends his spirit to the Father, He gives himself over to the One who is eminently trustworthy.
The life of the disciple of Christ, who is not greater than the Master, is not merely a via Delarosa, it is a death, even a crucifixion, a kenotic emptying-out of oneself for others.1 When will we learn that happiness and fulfillment do not come from relentless pursuit of self-interest but is realized by seeking the good of the other?
But who is this mysterious other? The other is certainly the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the homeless, the sick, the imprisoned, and even the dead. Further, the other is the sinner, the ignorant, the doubtful, the sorrowful, the injured, the unjustly accused and condemned. The other is also one’s spouse, children, parents, siblings, friends, and fellow parishioners. The other is the immigrant, the addicted, the outcast.
The Crucifixion, by Thomas Eakins, 1880. Wikimedia Commons
The Christian term for this other is “neighbor.” It is by redefining who our neighbor is that reveals the revolutionary nature of our Lord’s teachings as given in the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Being a Christian means intentionally making yourself a neighbor, especially to someone in need. Needs are both material and spiritual. What better way to tell someone who is thirsty about Jesus than by giving him something to drink?
In Spanish, the word for neighbor is vecino. This is closely related to the English word “vicinity.” Hence, it points to the reality that far from being an abstract concept, your neighbor is someone in proximity to you, someone in your vicinity.
Just as it is easy to love humanity because “humanity” is an abstraction but difficult to love all those who annoy, inconvenience, or make you uncomfortable, it is easy to have neighborly feelings toward people far away for whom you can do little or nothing but hard to help the person who crosses your path and needs some assistance.
Sins of omission are real. Indifference in the face of need is almost always a temptation. This is why we must resist what Pope Francis dubbed the “culture of indifference.”2 The culture of indifference is an aspect of what Pope Saint John Paul II called the “culture of death.” John Paul II did not propose a “culture of life” to counteract “the culture of death.” Rather, he called for a “culture of love.”3
To commend also means to recognize and reward outstanding service. You commend yourself to God by promoting what Pope Francis called,
The true ordo amoris. . . that which we discover by meditating constantly on the parable of the “Good Samaritan,” that is, by meditating on the love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception4
1 Galations 6:14.↩
2 Pope Francis, Morning Meditation in the Chapel of Domus Sanctae Marthae, 8 January 2019.↩
3 Pope John Paul II. Encyclical Letter Evangelium Vitae, sec. 12 and sec. 101.↩
4 Pope Francis. Letter of the Holy Father Francis to the Bishops of the United States of America, 10 February 2025; Luke 10:25-37..↩
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