A Mass for Peace and Reconciliation
commemorating the 93rd anniversary of the birth of
The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Saints Simon and Jude Cathedral,
Diocese of Phoenix, Arizona
January 17, 2022
His Excellency,
The Most Reverend Edward K. Braxton, Ph.D., S.T.D.
Homilist
“Who is My Neighbor: Go and Do Likewise”
Scripture Readings:
Micah 6, 7-8
Colossians 3, 12-15
Luke 10, 25-37
Who is my neighbor? A man fell victim to robbers who stripped and beat him, leaving him half-dead. Passersby ignored him until a Samaritan, moved with compassion, approached the beaten bleeding, half naked man, poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them. He cared for him, telling the innkeeper, “Take care of him!” Who was neighbor to the half dead man? “The one who treated him with mercy and compassion.” Jesus said, “Go and do likewise!”
Dear Sisters and Brothers in Jesus Christ:
When His Grace, Archbishop Desmond Tutu of Cape Town, South Africa died on Sunday, December 26, the day after Christmas, at the age of 90, many commentators surveying the heroic life of this moral giant, who with Nelson Mandela, helped to bring down the evil, racist apartheid regime in South Africa, noted his many remarkable achievements for the cause of racial justice, reconciliation, and world peace during what has been called the Second Act of his extraordinary and long life.
He knew who his neighbor was and how to go and do likewise!
The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. should have celebrated his 93rd birthday on Saturday, January 15. But the events of unspeakable horror of 54 years ago, April 4, 1968, made that impossible. I can still see Reverend King’s body sprawled on the balcony with a towel over the gaping hole in the side of his face and so much blood flowing from his wound.
This murder most foul ended the life of a moral giant, who with many others before and after him, worked tirelessly to bring down the evil, racist apartheid-like regime that has endured in the United States ever since the first enslaved free human beings were dragged in chains to this country from West Africa, in the Middle Passage. Despite the undeniable and remarkable strides that have been made to bridge the racial divide in this country, the blood stained headline of almost every morning’s newspaper makes clear how much we needed the voice and the deeds of this drum major for racial justice and this trumpeter for peace during these past 54 years. For many Americans, and, yes, for many American Catholics, the brutal murder of Reverend King means little more than a “day off” in January. But for many others, our country has been impoverished by his death because, unlike Archbishop Tutu, Reverend King’s life was robbed of what might well have been a powerful Second Act. He was only 39 years old!
He knew who his neighbor was and how to go and do likewise!
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But, what if? What if Reverend King were still alive today? What if this towering Baptist minister were still in our midst, as one like Moses, “whose eyes were not dimmed, nor his natural forces abated” (cf. Deuteronomy 34:7)?
He would see both progress and regression. He would take pride in the role he played in the eight-year presidency of Barack Obama, the country’s first bi-racial president. But he would dismiss as naive those who wrongly concluded that President Obama’s election signaled the dawn of a post-racial America.
Examining contemporary data on widespread discrimination against African Americans in education, housing, healthcare and employment, he might conclude that for every two steps forward since 1968 there have been three steps backwards. He would be shocked by the assault on the capitol and on democratic government a year ago on January 6 and distressed by the extreme polarization of the American people and the blatant efforts of some courts and states to take away hard won rights for People of Color to vote.
While Reverend King might still affirm that the moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice when he sees the convictions of those accused in the deaths of Mr. George Floyd, Mr. Ahmaud Arbery and Mr. Daunte Wright, he would still weep at the litany of African American men and women who continue to die in altercations with white representatives of law enforcement.
He would readily concede that when African American young men are accused of committing crimes, they should be arrested, tried, and, if convicted, punished. But he would insist with all vehemence that suspected wrong doers of even small offenses should not be tried, convicted, and executed on the streets by white law enforcement officers.
A thoughtful man of prayer, not inclined to make hasty judgments, Reverend King would readily acknowledge that police are sometimes in very difficult situations in which they must make split decisions. They must act in an instance when they think their lives, or the lives of others are in danger. Nevertheless, he would not hesitate to point out that when Mr. Dylann Roof, a self-proclaimed white supremacist, slaughtered nine innocent African Americans at prayer in Mother Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C. on June 17, 2015, he was arrested by the police without a shot being fired.
If Reverend King were alive today and he accepted an invitation from the Diocese of Phoenix to speak to you today on the topic of the racial divide in the United States and the ongoing efforts of the Catholic community here to pray and work for racial justice and reconciliation, then, you might hear that voice like no other, echoing through this Cathedral, saying:
“Thank you, sisters and brothers for inviting me to share fellowship with the Christian community in Phoenix. Your warm welcome is in contrast with the controversary in this state after President Reagan declared my birthday a national holiday in 1986. Later that same year Governor Babbitt declared my birthday an Arizona holiday but the following year his proclamation was repealed by Governor Mecham, arguing that his predecessor did not have the authority to declare such a holiday. I remember that in 1991, the National Football League voted to remove the 1993 Super Bowl from Phoenix after Arizona voters failed to make this day a paid holiday. Then, in 1992, Arizona voters reinstated the holiday.
Thirty years have passed since the volatile debate about honoring my birthday was national news. I certainly applaud all of the efforts that religious and civic groups have made to bridge the racial divide during the past three decades. You know better than I do how much or how little the climate has changed here since then.
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I am excited to know about Fr. Andrew McNair and his “Let the Church Say Amen” ministry – the African American ministry evangelization network – with its focus on the important issues of Christian marriage, family life, supporting youth, and vocations. This is all a part of your effort to reach out to the African American community, which has not always felt welcome in the Catholic Church. I am sure you would be happy to have many more dedicated priests like Fr. McNair, coming forth, not as a visitor from another diocese, but as sons of your own parishes, teaching the people of God of all backgrounds who their neighbors are and showing them by their deeds what it means to obey Christ’s command to “Go and do likewise!”
I am not a member of the Roman Catholic Church, and I am not an expert on the social teachings of the popes and the Catholic bishops on how to respond to racial division. I stand before you as a redeemed sinner like all of you and I turn to the same inspired Word of God as you do when facing the persistence of the racial divide in the United States.
Like you, I strive to heed the words of the prophet Micah: “You have been told, O mortal, what is good, and what the LORD requires of you: Only to do justice and to love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God.” Eleven years after the attempt on my life in 1968, the Catholic Church declared in “Brothers and Sisters to Us” (1979) that “Racism is an evil which endures in our society and in our Church. Despite apparent advances and even significant changes in the last two decades, the reality of racism remains.”
Thirty-nine years later in “Open Wide our Hearts: The Enduring call to Love” the Church, speaking of the most extreme forms of racial prejudice said,
“Racism occurs because a person ignores the fundamental truth that, because all humans share a common origin, they are all brothers and sisters, all equally made in the image of God.”
With these words you were affirming your commitment to heed the call of Micah “to do Justice and to love goodness.”
Are these pastoral letters, “Brothers and Sisters to Us” and “Open Wide Our Hearts,” well known in the Diocese of Phoenix? Have they been addressed in Sunday homilies? Have excerpts appeared in the diocesan newspaper, in parish bulletins? Have parishioners been urged to discuss, pray, and act to overcome the sin of personal, structural, and institutional racism with the same urgency as they are urged to discuss, pray, and act to overcome the sin of abortion?
Are students in Catholic elementary schools, secondary schools, and college given opportunities to study seriously the clear teachings of the Catholic Church on the sin of racism that endures in American society and in the Catholic Church?
Do your Catholic School textbooks give adequate and accurate consideration to social justice and civil rights? Do petitions in the prayers of the faithful for Sunday mass pray specifically about healing the racial divide? When there has been a specific instance of racial hatred in the community, is it named in your prayers or is it glossed over with benign generalities?
Have your Priests, Deacons, Religious Brothers and Sisters, and the Christian Faithful honestly examined their consciences and acknowledged the part they may play in maintaining racial biases, stereotypes, and prejudices, and committed to bridging the racial divide?
Do the employment practices of the diocese and the parishes reflect a true and honest commitment to hire and promote people of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds?
On my birthday is any serious consideration given to my many, substantial writings beyond quoting a few lines from my I Have a Dream Address? How many of you have read and discussed my “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”? How many of you have never heard of it?
How much direct social contact do the people of the Diocese of Phoenix have with people of different racial and ethnic backgrounds? Do Catholics tend to live in self-contained worlds? Do African Americans, European Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian American, and Indigenous People have real social contact with each other? Do they visit each other’s homes? Go out to dinner together? Travel together? Have serious heart to heart conversations? Or are these relationships superficial at best and strained at worst?
Does the Church in Arizona continue to speak of all people who do not have European ancestors as members of “minority groups?” Do you appreciate how such language demeans people by referring to them as who they are NOT? NOT white! They are not people with European ancestors. This is very similar to the strange but enduring practice of many Catholics referring to Baptists as “non-Catholics.” We are not “non-Catholics” just as African Americans are not members of a minority group. One never hears of people whose ancestors came from Sweden, Ireland, Poland, Germany, or Belgium as “minorities.” Why not? I have never understood as to why you do not speak to us as who we are, “God-fearing Baptists.” We are not “non-Catholics.” We never speak of Catholics as “non-Baptists.” How can there be “minority groups” in the United States if every American is a citizen? Have we forgotten our motto, E Pluribus Unum (“Though from many nations we are one!”)?
To bridge the racial divide the Catholic Church, like the Protestant Churches, may not need so much to say more, as to do more. We need to know who our neighbors are, and go and do likewise!
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As you know, I was present on August 6, 1965, when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act, which guaranteed African Americans the right to vote. The bill made it illegal to impose restrictions on federal, state and local elections that were designed to deny the vote to People of Color.
I considered this to be a major accomplishment of the Civil Rights movement. I ask you to join me in praying that this important work is not undone.
But I stand before you with a heavy heart this afternoon. It is difficult for me to declare, “I have a dream” when my dream has been so effectively deferred. I will pass ever in silence the statements that were made in Arizona on Saturday by a former president. I will be equally silent about concerns being raised about the consistency of the position of a senator from this state about the procedure that should be followed to make it possible to debate and vote on critical voting rights legislation. But I cannot and I will not be silent about the fundamental rights of every citizen to vote.
The infamous 2013 Supreme Court decision, Shelby County v. Holder, struck down section IV of the Voting Rights Act which required states, municipalities, and counties with a history of disenfranchised voters on the basis of race to submit changes in their election laws to the Department of Justice. This decision, penned by the Catholic Chief Justice John Roberts, has effectively gutted the Voting Rights Act, causing some critics to compare him to the Catholic Chief Justice Roger Taney who penned the Dred Scott decision in 1857.
Last summer in Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee, the Supreme Court upheld Arizona’s voting provisions making it more difficult for People of Color to vote. I fear my granddaughter, Yolinda, will live to see the United States move inch by gradual inch back to, rather than away from, the Jim Crow voting restrictions.
African American people are at the crossroads today. We are compelled to say to some elected leaders and to some religious leaders: We hear what you say. But, we also see what you do! And we see what you do NOT do!
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As you know, in less than a year, legislators in Georgia have passed many new voting restrictions and 19 other states have enacted 34 similar laws. On Tuesday in my city of Atlanta, the President spoke out forcefully against any efforts to restrict voting rights. The president urged his listeners and the members of both parties to take the necessary steps to win the approval of two bills — the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which could turn back some of the most difficult restrictions passed by state legislatures in 2021, by setting minimum requirements for early voting and for what forms of identification are accepted at polling places, and by easing the voter registration process.
I know, sisters and brothers, that you are gathered to pray to the Holy Spirit for the courage and the strength you need to overcome the racial divide in the Catholic Church. You are not politicians. Your church does not officially support either political party. But as Karl Barth taught us, we Christians must face the challenges of our time with the Word of God in one hand and the morning paper in the other hand. Surely, as followers of Jesus Christ, who know who your neighbors are, and who seek to heed the commandment of Jesus to go and do likewise, you feel a fierce urgency to study with care any legislations having the potential of turning back the clock and effectively undoing President Johnson’s landmark Voting Rights Act.
Now on the very weekend of my national holiday, we are all but certain that the new voting rights legislation will have no chance of approval in the Senate. Indeed, they will be dead on arrival, not unlike what happened in 1890, when Congressman Henry Cabot Lodge proposed legislation to secure equal voting rights in the south for African Americans, the bill, which passed in the House, was then blocked in the Senate by a thirty-three day filibuster!
‘What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
Like a raisin in the sun?
Maybe it just sags
Like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?’
Amen.”
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Dear Sisters and Brothers,
Of course, the 93-year-old Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is NOT your speaker today and these are not his words. They are mine, borne from my years of pondering his challenging words. The events of that terrible day in April 1968 really did happen. The dreamer of dreams really was slain. And his incomparable voice was silenced forever.
Let me conclude by recalling one of his favorite passages from scripture proclaimed this afternoon.
“Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if one has a grievance against another; as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do.
And over all these put on love, the bond of perfection.”
A central message of the Christmas feast, the mystery of “infinity dwindled into infancy,” which we have just celebrated, can be found in the words, “Who was neighbor to the half dead man? Why, the one who treated him with mercy and compassion.” Jesus said, “Go and do likewise!”
The best way for the Diocese of Phoenix and for the Catholic Church in the United States to keep the spirit and of our dear brother Martin’s vision of the beloved community alive, in this New Year, is to get Jesus of Nazareth out of the manger and into our hearts; to get Jesus of Nazareth out of the manager and into the cold stable of the world, where He is needed now more than ever! WHERE HE IS NEEDED NOW MORE THAN EVER!
Praise be Jesus Christ.
Both now and forever. AMEN! AMEN!
The Most Reverend Edward K. Braxton, Ph.D., S.T.D., Bishop Emeritus of the Diocese of Belleville
The Most Reverend Edward K. Braxton, Ph.D., S.T.D., Bishop Emeritus of the Diocese of Belleville, Illinois, a nationally-known speaker and educator, a leading voice in the Catholic Church on the racial divide in the United States. He is author of “The Church and the Racial Divide: Reflections of an African American Catholic Bishop” and can be reached through his Administrative Assistant, Mr. Thomas Myler, at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..