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This Fr. Gerry Creedon homily was delivered at St. Charles on August 24, 2003
"FOR IT WAS THE LORD our God who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, out of a state of slavery" (Jos. 24)
This past week remembered the March on Washington. Martin Luther King's speech followed an African American tradition that placed the struggle for civil rights within the context of the story of Moses. Negro spirituals like "Go down Moses" have helped African Americans for generations to see their journey as an Exodus from oppression to freedom.
I wish to recall some of the stirring words that helped change a nation.
" Five score years ago a great American, in whose symbolic presence we stand, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a symbolic daybreak to end the long night of captivity…
"There is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force…Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.
"I say to you today that despite the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'we hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal.' I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even in the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character .
"This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, 'My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, form every mountainside, let freedom ring.'
"And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!
"Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white man, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sings in the words of the old Negro spiritual, 'Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!'"
King's message called for freedom through equality and non-violence. In he past 40 years racial justice has been advanced and yet more needs to be accomplished. His call has to be expanded in a multi-cultural society to include all people of color, immigrants and minorities despite the fears excited by international terrorism.
King wanted an end to poverty through income guarantees and jobs. We have narrowed our solutions to employment. With half of the people in shelters employed, jobs are no solution unless they pay a living wage. This Labor Day our bishop calls for support to Arlington's living wage ordinance.
With renewed terror in Jerusalem and Baghdad, we need to hear again King's
advocacy of non-violent methods of conflict resolution. We cannot fight fire
with fire. On an international level there is no more articulate spokesperson
for the way of non-violence that Pope John Paul. He has reviewed our catholic
ethical reflection on war and peace through the lens of the US civil rights
and the Polish solidarity movements.
Finally we have come to recognize that there are no limits to equality. The words from today's second reading "Wives be subordinate to your husbands" have led some to wonder about St Paul. Thank God we as Catholics are not literal fundamentalists. The word needs to be reinterpreted in the light of conscience and ongoing tradition. A silent revolution has taken place in our church's teaching on marriage. One of the optional nuptial blessings for the renewed marriage rite approved by the Vatican contains the phrase:
"May she always follow the example of the holy women whose praises are sung in the Scriptures. May her husband put his trust in her and recognize that she is his equal."
As followers of Moses and of Jesus we celebrate in the Eucharist a new Passover from despair to hope and from the death of oppression to the freedom of Resurrection.