There will always be room for improvement. This month of February we are mindful of African American history and heritage. It is not difficult for us to bring to mind the presence of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, Rosa Parks, Ralph Abernathy, Ralph Bunche, and many other such world heroes. Their gift of life was a gift to all humanity. A temptation is to suggest that there is nothing left to do, or worse, to become cynical and suggest that it is only geƫng worse, and it’s not worth it to even attempt to do anything else.
Important to note that such heritage is grounded in the Spirit. The Spirit of the Lord will always be restless and provoke a restlessness that bursts into thanksgiving, praise, and courageous action. And all of this is prophetic in the sense that thanksgiving and praise are pronounced, not because of what has been, but because of what will be! What will be is the ground where the seeds of the Reign of God are sown; where the will of God is done. All of this is in order to say that the United States of America would be incredibly impoverished if it were not for the African American heritage.
Taking note of a recent article in America Magazine (February 4, 2022), we need to realize that the Catholic Church would be impoverished to the extreme if it were not for the African American Catholic heritage. Cyprian Davis, O.S.B. wonders, from the scandalous and sinful reality of slavery,
What prompted slave parents to transmit their Catholic faith to their children? What prompted slave families to go to extraordinary lengths to practice their religion and receive the sacraments? How did these people make the Catholic tradition their own?
The answers, in the end, are to be found in the Spirit of the Lord that departs from the halls of the established to dwell among the smallest, and among the smallest, become the light for the nations. With the intensity of the prophets,
The unique role of the black Catholic community in American history has been to speak to the church in this country, about justice and brotherhood in terms of the church’s own tradition, to speak to their fellow black men and women in terms of the church’s universal call to all people and to speak to the nation in terms of the church’s real identity as “catholic” in a racist society. It is because of the existence of the black community within the Catholic Church from the very beginning of its existence in this country that the history of the Catholic Church in this country is unique.
Father Francisco Gómez, S.T.