African American History Month is a time to acknowledge the hard work and contributions of African Americans towards the building up of our country.
Looking back at the history of our country, the richness of our country depended on the hard labor of so many slaves, brought here unjustly and treated so inhumanely. It is a disgrace the way America treated them, just as it is a disgrace the way America treated the Native Americans, killing them and putting them on reservations. Just as it was a disgrace the way it treated the Chinese who built up our railroads. And as it was a disgrace interning the Japanese Americans in concentration camps during the Second World War. Just as it was a disgrace the way it treated each new wave of immigrants coming into this country, the Irish, the German, the Italians and so many others. And it is a disgrace as America continues to treat inhumanely the migrants who work in our fields and in so many other hard labor jobs, who are apt to be torn from their families, and deported, after contributing so much to build up our country, and who only want to support their families. It is a disgrace for so many of them who are forced to live so often in inhuman conditions, without a just wage, without health insurance, without decent working conditions, without the respect and decency that should be afforded every human being. And this applies to many other groups and individuals in our society. We all believe our country is one of the greatest countries in the world, but its history is filled with injustice, greed, and often with little respect for the poor and the marginal of society, right down into our own day.
Today we give thanks to God that slowly in our country there has been a growth in human rights and people being able to live in freedom and equality, but it is an upward struggle, with constant setbacks. Evil and malice never rests. We must constantly strive to build up a nation that reflects the justice, love and peace that God wills for all men and women. When one person suffers injustice, we all suffer that injustice. When one race is denied respect and is condemned, we all lose our respect with them. We are all brothers and sisters of the one God, black and white, brown and yellow, rich and poor, Protestant, Jewish, Catholic and Muslim.
But today we think especially of our African American brothers and sisters, who started off in this country with the deep depression expressed by Job in the first reading. Job is not a historical book of the Old Testament. It is a story, a parable, an allegory, encouraging people to be faithful to God in good times and in bad. It teaches us that just because we pass through bad times, it does not mean that God has forgotten us, but to keep faith in God’s love no matter how bad things may look. Thank God our African American brothers and sisters did exactly that in the darkest times of their lives and in their many trials, facing so much inhumanity and so much injustice, even after slavery ended in our country.
It is almost miraculous that we now have an African American elected to the highest position of our government. We truly have come a long way, but there is still a long way for so many others, of all races.
This Black History Month gives all of us the opportunity to give thanks to God for our Catholic brothers and sisters of African descent, and to pray together with them that the long road to justice and equality for all men and women continues on its upward climb. It gives us the opportunity to give thanks to God for the many contributions of so many African Americans to the history of our country, from the very beginning of our nation down to our day, making our nation what it is today. They have contributed to our country, not only by the hard work of their hands, but by being statesmen, professors, inventors, involved in the medical field and in medical research, in the military, in economic and entrepreneurial fields, in every trade and profession that one can imagine, and also as Religious, Priests and Bishops.
It also gives me the opportunity to thank personally and publicly the members of our African American Catholic Ministry here in the Diocese of Fresno and to pledge my ongoing support and prayers, and to thank Msgr. Sanchez for being their spiritual director.
The Gospel speaks of the healing mission of Jesus. The mystery of God’s love for us is that God Himself in the person of Jesus has shared the hurt, the pain, the prejudice, the hatred, the torture, the injustice, that men and women throughout the world in every age have suffered. We are all called to share and continue that healing mission of Jesus now in our lives. We all have been touched by the love of God, but He only touches us, so that we bring that love and healing we have experienced to all of those around us. We are all brothers and sisters in the Lord. I don’t care what race or ethnic background one is. For Christ’s followers there is no room for prejudice, bigotry, or hatred. And also for Christ’s followers, one must be involved bringing about a more just and caring society, or else our faith is only an illusion and we are only fooling ourselves saying that we seek to please and love God.
We love God by seeking to bring justice and respect for all of God’s people, no matter what race or economic class one may belong to, from the first moment of conception, till one draws one’s last breath. We love God by speaking out clearly the truth of God’s love for all men and women, and speak out for their human dignity. We are all brothers and sisters in the Lord, and we ARE our brother’s keeper, and will be judged accordingly. I was hungry and you gave me to eat, thirsty and you gave me to drink. Come, enter into my Father’s kingdom, and that is only when we will truly be free, free at last, because of the blood of our Savior.