GARY – For the past three weeks, a group of young missionaries has made the Diocese of Gary their home. Each day, they walked the streets of Gary and Michigan City, looking to encounter the homeless who may need a little kindness and conversation with someone who gets to know them by name.
For the fifth year in a row, members of Christ in the City, some considered year-of-service missionaries and others serving for only the summer, spent time in Northwest Indiana. Near the end of their mission to the region, they hosted a “Lunch in the Parking Lot” event. On June 9 at the Cathedral of the Holy Angels, they invited their new homeless friends in the area to share a meal. They also invited faithful from around the diocese to learn more about Christ in the City and participate in the lunch.
Missionary Grace Mahaney, originally of Sioux City, Iowa, admits that whenever she would bring up to people that she was going to Gary, they would share their apprehension. She would get a lot of responses like, “It's a dangerous town,” and “You don't want to go there.” However, Mahaney stated she has been moved by how wrong people's impressions of the city have been, as she felt very welcomed there.
“I have met really, really incredible people who have so much life to share and so much that they've been able to offer me just through kindness, and welcoming me into the community,” she said.
Mahaney said it was a joy and a privilege to be in Gary, adding that she had never had a bad experience while encountering people on the street. She noted how rooted the local people are to the City of Gary. Coming from Denver, Mahaney has spoken with the homeless people there and learned that many moved there from a variety of different places. She found that was not the case in Gary.
“Pretty much everyone that I've gotten to know here in Gary and have asked them where they're from, they are born and raised in Gary,” Mahaney said. “So, people are very rooted in this place. Maybe they don't love it, maybe they don't see it as exciting or the most booming place, but they know it's home. They are committed to their community, which I find really beautiful.”
Mahaney explained that the Christ in the City program is first a formation program for the missionaries. They are formed to model after the love of Christ, the pursuit of seeking out the lonely. Therefore, those working with Christ in the City seek to serve the poor.
“It's not necessarily by providing first for physical lack of necessity, but for a greater, deeper lack of just like true communion with another,” she said. “We are formed as missionaries to learn how to really see the other person, see their values, see their dignity, and then be able to communicate to them as well that you are a person of inestimable value.”
Mahaney said Christ in the City seeks to bring out the truest humanity, one where every person is valued. She shared that the program has deeply formed how she sees others and how she sees the world.
The name of Christ in the City could be misinterpreted as the missionaries are bringing Christ into the city.
“But in reality, Christ is already here,” Mahaney said. “Christ has already been in Gary, and He’s already been in these people. It's like we are coming to find Christ in the city, and Christ is already present here.”
Father Mike Surufka, OFM, rector of the Cathedral of the Holy Angels in Gary, agreed. The pastor confirmed his belief that they are not bringing Christ to the city but that He already exists there. To emphasize that point, every time he saw the missionaries, he would ask them, “Have you met Christ today?”
Father Surufka shared that he tries to educate the missionaries about some of the economic and social structures that lead to poverty, reminding them that what they're seeing is not necessarily caused by the people who live there.
“That's a common impression,” he said. “Even people who live in the region know Gary's in hard times, but often when they drive through, they ask, ‘Why don't the people take care of their place better?’ or ‘Why don't people prepare their town?’ They won't say it out loud, but at some level, they are thinking that, so I want these people to know how this came about.”
Dorie Little, of Hobart, saw “Lunch in the Parking Lot” advertised in diocesan communications. She has assisted at Ss. Monica and Luke Soup Kitchen in the past, and saw this event as a new volunteer opportunity.
“I’m just always there to try to help if I still can,” she said.
Little said she hopes more people would be open to participating in community service, acknowledging it can sometimes be difficult to encourage others to lend a hand.
“How do you get them to be involved other than pray?,” she said. “Pray that one day God enters their hearts.”
For more information about Christ in the City, visit https://christinthecity.org/mission/
