Our country is in turmoil. In Minneapolis a police officer strangled George Floyd, an African American man, to death. The video is chilling. The killer police officer has been arrested and charged with murder.
The first Africans were brought to what is now the United States in 1619. Of course, they did not come seeking opportunity as did the many immigrants who came from Europe and Asia. They came as slaves. They were used and abused, tortured and dehumanized. Even after the slaves were freed, prejudice against black people did not stop. Our nation has a perverse history when it comes to our black citizens.
Racism is blasphemy against God who created all men and women in his image. To deny anyone equality is an offense against the image of God which is in each person. God’s image is not less imprinted on black human beings. Before God, all are equal.
Jesus always sided with the outcasts, with those who were not respected, with sinners, prostitutes, tax collectors. In the Acts of the Apostles, Luke states explicitly that one of the Church’s first post-resurrection converts was a black man, an Ethiopian eunuch, a man whose sexuality was ridiculed and despised. God’s heart is open to all, no exceptions.
Nor is God is pleased with the political hatred which is corrupting our national unity. Democrats and Republicans hate and mistrust one another, each side attributing corrupt motives to the others.
Can we Capuchins be instruments of peace?
The friars of our Capuchin Province of St. Augustine are black and white, Asian and Hispanic, immigrants and native born. Thanks be to God, we are bonded in Christ and not divided by race and ethnicity. We are young and old. Our friars are also Democrats and Republicans. Yet we live in charity, respecting and loving one another despite racial, ethnic, political or ideological differences. We friars already model precisely what is needed in our nation.
The friars of our Province serve admirably in three predominantly African American parishes. Our prayers are with our brothers who serve the African American Catholic community. Throughout the Province, we minister to the diverse people who comprise the US Catholic Church. All of our Capuchin Provinces in the US are fully inserted in the reality of America, which is multi ethnic, multi cultural, young and old, ideologically diverse.
At this time, we grieve the death of George Floyd. We are sad also for those who have suffered unjustly because of the rage and mayhem that this unjust killing provoked. But Franciscans are purveyors of hope in a hopeless world. In the time of the Crusades, when Muslims and Christians hated each other and damned one another to hell, Francis actually visited the Muslim Sultan, ate with him and dialogued. Let’s be true sons of Saint Francis! The Capuchins of the Province of Saint Augustine, with our racial, ethnic, ideological and political diversity are uniquely poised to preach peace to a discordant world.