Light from Light, True God from True God

Fr. Malloy’s Midweek Message.  Feb 1, 2023

Friends,

Today we begin Black History Month a time to realize, recognize, and relish the struggles and contributions of black women and men to our country and to our world. 

We also hear, in the readings for the 4^th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Jesus telling his disciples that we are to be the salt of the earth and light for the world (Matt 5).  The Prophet Isaiah proclaims:

“Thus says the LORD: Share your bread with the hungry, shelter the oppressed and the homeless; clothe the naked when you see them, and do not turn your back on your own. Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your wound shall quickly be healed.” (Isaiah 58)

And 85 year old Pope Francis is preparing to journey to South Sudan.  Once again, he will call for peace in that land so torn by violence and pain.  Over 400,000 have died in recent decades.  Animosity is fueled by religious and ethnic conflicts; but the deep causes of the killings are rooted in the injustice and corruption surrounding the distribution of wealth in the oil rich Sudan.  In a meeting in Rome in 2019, the Pope lowered himself to the ground and kissed the feet of the Sudanese political leaders, begging them to make peace in their country.

The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., arguably the greatest American who ever lived, once said:

“I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality… I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.”

After making great gains in desegregating the South and changing the ways of thinking of million of his fellow citizens through the practice of loving and active non-violence, King began to speak out against the insanity and injustice of the Vietnam war.  He said, “Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind.”  His opposition to war was rooted in his following of Jesus, who call us to be light for the world.

“Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction.”

Listen to the anthem of the Civil Rights Movement, “We shall overcome” by the Morehouse choir.

 

Peace,

Fr. Rick Malloy, S.J.

Keep Safe.    Keep Sane.    Keep Smiling

        

Luz de luz, Dios Verdadero de Dios Verdadero

El Miercoles Mensaje del Padre Malloy, S.J.  1 de Febrero, 2023

Amigos y Amigas,

Hoy comenzamos el Mes de la Historia Negra, un tiempo para darnos cuenta, reconocer y saborear las luchas y contribuciones de las mujeres y hombres negros a nuestro país y a nuestro mundo. 

También escuchamos, en las lecturas del cuarto domingo del tiempo ordinario, a Jesús decir a sus discípulos que debemos ser la sal de la tierra y la luz del mundo (Mt 5).  El profeta Isaías proclama:

"Así dice Yahveh: Comparte tu pan con el hambriento, acoge al oprimido y al sin techo; viste al desnudo cuando lo veas, y no vuelvas la espalda a los tuyos. Entonces brotará tu luz como el alba, y tu herida sanará pronto". (Isaías 58)

Y el Papa Francisco, de 85 años, se prepara para viajar a Sudán del Sur.  Una vez más, pedirá la paz en esa tierra tan desgarrada por la violencia y el dolor.  Más de 400.000 personas han muerto en las últimas décadas.  La animadversión está alimentada por conflictos religiosos y étnicos; pero la causa profunda de las matanzas hunde sus raíces en la injusticia y la corrupción que rodean la distribución de la riqueza en el Sudán rico en petróleo.  En una reunión celebrada en Roma en 2019, el Papa se postró en el suelo y besó los pies de los líderes políticos sudaneses, rogándoles que lograran la paz en su país.

El reverendo Martin Luther King Jr, posiblemente el mayor estadounidense que haya existido, dijo una vez:

"Me niego a aceptar la opinión de que la humanidad está tan trágicamente atada a la medianoche sin estrellas del racismo y la guerra que el brillante amanecer de la paz y la fraternidad nunca podrá hacerse realidad... Creo que la verdad sin armas y el amor incondicional tendrán la última palabra".

Tras conseguir grandes logros en la eliminación de la segregación racial en el Sur y cambiar la forma de pensar de millones de sus conciudadanos mediante la práctica de la no violencia amorosa y activa, King empezó a pronunciarse contra la locura y la injusticia de la guerra de Vietnam.  Dijo: "La humanidad debe poner fin a la guerra o la guerra pondrá fin a la humanidad".  Su oposición a la guerra estaba arraigada en su seguimiento de Jesús, que nos llama a ser luz para el mundo.

"Devolver odio por odio multiplica el odio, añadiendo más oscuridad a una noche ya desprovista de estrellas. La oscuridad no puede expulsar a la oscuridad; sólo la luz puede hacerlo. El odio no puede expulsar al odio; sólo el amor puede hacerlo. El odio multiplica el odio, la violencia multiplica la violencia y la dureza multiplica la dureza en una espiral descendente de destrucción."

Escucha el himno del movimiento por los derechos civiles, “We shall overcome” by the Morehouse choir.

La Paz,

P. Ricardo Malloy, S.J.

Sigamos Seguro.    Sigamos Sano.    Sigamos Sonriendo

King Had a Dream. Do we?

Freedom and Economic Justice: Rev. Martin Luther King's Unfinished Agenda

Richard G. Malloy, S.J., Ph.D.

In October of 1967, Rev. Martin Luther King spoke at St. Joe's in Philadelphia. In that speech, given just six months before he was assassinated, King stated, "Our goal is freedom. And I still have faith that we are going to get to that goal." The freedom King was speaking of that day was not simply racial equality. He was also speaking about economic justice. In his address, King spoke of the relative ease with which lunch counters had been desegregated, while he noted that it was proving much more difficult to eradicate the ghettos of the large Northern cities.

Earlier that year (August 1967) at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, his home church, King delivered a sermon entitled "Where Do We Go from Here?," in which he directly articulates many of the themes of economic justice he would touch upon later in October in his talk. King argued:

"When the constitution was written, a strange formula … declared that the Negro was sixty percent of a person. Today another curious formula seems to declare that he is fifty percent of a person. Of the good things in life, the Negro has approximately one half those of whites. …half the income… twice as many unemployed. The rate of infant mortality among Negroes is double that of whites and there are twice as many Negroes dying in Vietnam as whites in proportion to their size in the population."

Note in the above quote, Rev. King putting to good use the methods of analyzing society he learned as an undergraduate Sociology major! What he was talking about near the end of his life was the simple truth that freedom and economic opportunity and equality were more than linked. You cannot have one without the other. Freedom and economic equality mutually condition one another.

Today, almost fifty years since the iconic "I Have a Dream Speech", some progress has been made, but there is still a long way to go. The median net worth of whites is ten times greater than that of African Americans.

Source: Prof. G. William Domhoff’s websitee. http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html (accessed Jan 16, 2012)

The U.S. Census Bureau reports that median household income in the USA is $49,445. Median household income of whites ($54,620) is almost one third greater than that of Blacks ($32,068). And despite sincere efforts on so many levels, overt, vile racism is still evident in our society. Go to the Southern Poverty Law Center’s website ( http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/hate-map) and see the virulent racism that still exists among us.

What would have happened if King's ideas were heeded? In his 1967 Atlanta speech, Rev. King called for the eradication of poverty in our midst. He proposed a Guaranteed National Income, an idea articulated at that time by John Kenneth Gailbraith and even championed by Richard Nixon a few years later. In 1967, it would have cost $20 billion for a Guaranteed National Income, about what we spent to put a man on the moon, and $15 billion less than the $35 billion we were wasting on the War in Vietnam. What would our country and the world look like today if poverty has been systematically eradicated thirty-five years ago?

In Martin Luther King, Jr., God sent us a prophet. The prophet spoke in our midst. And we have not yet heeded his message. The shortest verse in the Gospels is "Jesus wept" (John 11:35). There, Jesus is crying over the death of his friend Lazarus. I wonder what Jesus' reaction is to our society's inability/refusal to enflesh in law the principles of freedom and economic Justice, the principles for which Martin Luther King died at the young age of 39 years? Is Jesus weeping again? Maybe. Or maybe Jesus is calling us to Keep the Dream Alive, and bring to fruition the Dream of Rev. King. On that hot sweltering day in August 1963, King spoke of hope and healing, justice and joy.

“In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note…. But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so we have come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice” (MLK, “I Have a Dream” Speech, 1963)

King had a dream. Do we?