“I TELL YOU THE TRUTH, WHEN YOU DID IT TO ONE OF THE LEAST OF THESE MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS, YOU WERE DOING IT TO ME!”

8/8/10

Most of us remember the tragic story of Lizzy Seeberg. In the late summer of 2010, only a few weeks after the young woman from Chicago’s northern suburbs started as a freshman at St. Mary’s College, she reported being attacked on campus by a Notre Dame football player. Nine days later, she killed herself with prescription medication in her dorm room. Many, including her family, at least initially believed that Notre Dame, an institution to which her family had been connected, and deeply loyal, for generations, had stonewalled the investigation of the attack that led to Lizzy’s suicide. In response to the charges and subsequent legal actions and investigations, Notre Dame agreed to, as the Chicago Tribune put it, “make widespread changes in the way it responds to sex offense allegations.”

In today’s (Monday, 8/8/11, page 4) Tribune, we learn that Lizzy’s family, in the days after her death, had asked that, in lieu of flowers, donations be sent to Christ the King Jesuit College Prep on Chicago’s west side, another project of the Jesuits (point of clarification: The Jesuits do not run Notre Dame; the Holy Cross Fathers run Notre Dame. The Jesuits, ironically, run, among many others, Holy Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts. Confusing, and probably of little or no import in this story, but a point maybe worth making.) that seeks to address the woeful education deficiencies in the low income black communities, deficiencies that have been called THE civil rights issue of this century. (Students at Christ the King are required to do volunteer work in the community and to earn most of their tuition by working part time at businesses, primarily in and around downtown Chicago. The school is relatively new, but it is already enjoying a measure of success in its mission. The school on which it is patterned, Cristo Rey, also run by the Jesuits and also on the west side, has a longer track record and has enjoyed what can only be called enormous success in the Hispanic community. Both schools are supported primarily by donations. It is efforts like these on the part of the Jebs that makes me especially proud that I went to a Jesuit high school. My wife and I are enthusiastic contributors to Chicago Jesuit Academy, the junior high school that is situated right next door to Christ the King and works on essentially the same model. Call 773 638 6103 and ask for my friend Matt Lynch, CJA’s president, if you want to join us. But I digress.) Lizzy had become enthusiastic about the school when she was a sophomore at Glenbrook North and started volunteering at Christ the King at what could be described as a frenetic pace, working at the school and holding fundraisers in her parents’ home, drawing donors to the school whose collective annual contributions have reached $50,000.

The school has collected $160,000 in donations in Lizzy’s name in response to her parents’ request. The school decided to use the funds to buy a three flat across the street from the school that will house members of the Jesuit Alumni Volunteer Group, who volunteer to work at the school in various capacities, including as teachers, for two years upon graduation from college. Over the last several weeks, members of Lizzy Seeberg’s family have been working on the house, which is badly in need of renovation, contributing sweat equity to make the house livable for the volunteers. They do so in honor of Lizzy, who they are sure would have been the most enthusiastic of the workers, and in service to their less fortunate brothers and sisters.

The Seeberg family has gone through unspeakable tragedy. They have seen a young daughter and sister driven to such despair by a pointless, senseless, selfish, and cruel attack that she killed herself. They have seen, at least in their eyes, an institution they dearly love, an institution closely identified with the Church they have so ardently served (Among her parents’ many other forms of service to the Catholic Church, her father became a member of the president’s advisory council at Christ the King.), obfuscate the search for justice in the senseless tragedy. It would have been easy, almost natural, and certainly understandable if they had become bitter and cynical about their Church and started to wonder if God had truly forsaken them. But they didn’t; they redoubled their efforts in service to God, to His Church, and to His people, despite all that had happened to them. Even the strongest of us has to wonder whether s/he would react in such a manner under such a horrific set of circumstances.

I don’t know the Seebergs, but I know they are remarkable and indescribably blessed and blessing people, true arms of God. They make us uncomfortable, to be sure, because they make us seem lukewarm in our faith and miserly in our service. But, partially through that discomfort, they inspire us to do more for others and for God. They are models of faith and service, true travelers on the road to Emmaus.