JOHN 5:2-9a

There is in Jerusalem at the Sheep Gate a pool called in Hebrew Bethesda, with five porticoes. In these lay a large number of ill, blind, lame, and crippled. One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been ill for a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be well?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; while I am on my way, someone else gets down there before me.” Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your mat and walk.” Immediately the man became well, took up his mat, and walked. 

Gospelthink: I pay attention to everyone who needs help. Do I pay attention to the people around me who need the most help?

Zak in the movie "The Peanut Butter Falcon" was a Down's Syndrome young man. He lived in a retirement home in North Carolina where he was cared for by a kind young lady named Eleanor. He dreamed of becoming a professional wrestler and attending the wrestling school of his hero, the Salt Walter Redneck, whose videos he watched obsessively. After a failed escape attempt, he finally sneaked out of the home with the assistance of his elderly roommate. He stowed away on a small fishing boat which Tyler an immature young person who was totally selfish had stolen. After they met, Tyler began to realize who he was, but more importantly for Zak, that Zak was a young person who deserved to be treated with respect and love. Together with Eleanor, he began to understand that Zak was a real person, and not someone who simply should be put away. 

There was a young lady in the nursing program of one of our universities who was asked a question on her final exam that she could not answer. She was a conscientious student and was doing quite well in the course and felt good about the exam until the last question. It read: "What is the first name of the maintenance man who works in our building?" Of course, she had seen the maintenance man several times—he was a rather unorthodox man who was never very happy and not friendly, and consequently she had never talked to him.

The young lady handed in her exam paper leaving the question blank, and it was marked “wrong” when she received the exam back. The professor explained something that the young lady never forgot. Her …professor said: "In your career of helping people, you will meet many people; all are significant. They deserve your attention and care, even if all you do is smile and say 'hello'." She went up to the maintenance man a couple days later, found out his name, and asked about his family and life, and spoke to him often while she was involved in her Registered Nurse training.

Everyone is important. Of all the characteristics of Jesus, the importance of everyone is basic. He would go into a place in which many sick people were gathered, and pick out one in particular who needed the most help. He was even known to heal all the sick gathered around him because everyone, even the most neglected, was important to him.

This is one of the basics of good living. The fact is that we all have different personalities and all have different ways of looking at things. If we could learn to accept those personalities a little better, our world would turn out to be a little better. In the movie "The Peanut Butter Falcon," Zak knew that he was different, and everyone who met him knew that he was different since he had Down's Syndrome. But Eleanor and later Tyler finally realized that he was someone who had a life and therefore needed to be respected for that life.

Everyone is important. Jesus said it and much of our modern film says it as well.    

PRAYER

Good and gracious God, Your Son taught us that everyone in our world is important. It is a lesson that we all must learn, and we need your help to do it better than we are. Be with us, we pray. 

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GUIDE FOR CLASSROOM PRESENTATION AND PERSONAL ENRICHMENT

Theme: Christians must recognize the importance of other people, no matter who they are.
 
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
(session: approximately 45 minutes)
1. What scene during this session of the movie is most striking? Why?
2. In the Gospel, the people believed that the first person to enter the pool would be cured. In your opinion do "miracles" happen in our world? Yes or no and why?
3. In your opinion, what is the most difficult thing in caring for a handicapped person?
4. Granted that everyone is important, are there some people more important than others? Yes or no and why?
5. Who is the most neglected in our society? What can we do to help them?
6. What does the person of Zak in the movie teach us?
7. What does the movie "The Peanut Butter Falcon" teach young people?

©2007 Capuchin Province of Mid-America
Fr. Mike Scully is a member of the Capuchin Province of Mid-America