We hope many were able to watch Sunday night’s episode of the television series “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” featuring the remarkable Grys family, members of St. Joseph’s Parish in Pekin. The lessons were plentiful and timely.

For those unaware, in late October the crew of the popular ABC series came to the community across the Illinois River from Peoria. Motivated by the needs of young Jake Grys, an endearing 8-year-old who has a ready smile as he copes with brittle bone disease and dwarfism, an army of volunteers mobilized to build the Grys family a new and safer home — in just one week.

So many aspects of this story read like Christian parables. There are the examples of giving and gratitude embodied by Steve and Jean Grys, who in the past 25 years have been foster parents to more than 250 children and who have devoted their lives to caring for young people with special needs. There is the charity and solidarity demonstrated by the Pekin area community, which proved that good people working together for a well-defined cause under strong leadership can accomplish almost anything.

And there is Jake, so small and fragile — he was born with several broken bones and has broken another almost every month of his life — yet a giant source of inspiration. On a night that Hollywood’s celebrities glammed up for the Golden Globe Awards, there was no brighter star on television that evening than Jake Grys, thief of hearts.

In an interview with The Catholic Post published in our Thanksgiving issue, Jean Grys recalled a moment on the initial video submitted to ABC when Jake, lying on the floor, put his hands on either side of his face and said “I just don’t know why God made me this way.” His mother told us that she later explained to her adopted son that God made him that way for a reason, “and He has something for him to do.”

We could pick out any one of these profound lessons and expound on it. All are natural subjects for reflection in a week that we consider a renewed call to active citizenship as a new president is sworn in, and ponder the sacredness and dignity of every human life — no matter how small or fragile — as we observe the anniversary of Supreme Court rulings that were blind to that foundational truth.

But you can connect the dots. And we hope the picture it forms is a call to responsibility and service. If Jake Grys can smile through days when every movement could break a bone, if one couple can care for so many children God brings into their lives, if a TV crew and a group of volunteers can build such a beautiful house in a matter of days, what can the 170,000 Catholics in our diocese and the millions of Christians around our country accomplish if they put Christ’s love into unified action?

The answer is build the Kingdom of God. There are many opportunities this week to begin a society makeover, Gospel edition. Let’s get to work. –Thomas J. Dermody, editor-in-chief, The Catholic Post