Over two thousand years ago, Aristotle suggested to his followers what living out the virtue of integrity looked like; integrity is not what someone does but who they are. We can all resonate with this kind of thinking which Jesus first proposed on the Mount of Beatitudes (Matthew 5). This Gospel is timely for our contemporary society especially in recent weeks following the senseless death of George Floyd at the hands of a former Minneapolis police officer. When we celebrate freedom for all in our just society, how well have we been doing? Is it time to open our eyes to the truth and reality of the suffering of our Black American sisters and brothers? To have the courage to say Yes, we need to hear their stories of unjust suffering. Yes, we need to strongly hold our politicians accountable to enact real change.
Christ in His contemporary passion has been suffering mostly out of our sight. Jesus, the living Word of God still speaks to us. He still continues to invite us to live in the kingdom of heaven today. His Yes brought us the truth and taught us to value everyone. We believe that He died for every single life on this planet. So that “a stone of hope may rise out of the mountain of despair” (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.).
May we rise to this moment and fill it with our collective, Yes! In fact, the world is rising now. Once awakened to this tragedy, we must never rest until we have routed out the sin of racism in our society. Just like the prophet Elisha, who left his old life and embraced the Yes of the new call (1 Kings 19:19-21). May we keep walking forward in hope and leave the past behind.
No comments:
Post a Comment