St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church

May the Lord Jesus give us his peace.

African American spirituality, what belongs to you, toothless and blind.

African American Spirituality. The Lord told Moses, go down Moses and be holy as I AM holy. Don't be a hater, revenge is mine, not yours. God tells His people, "love your neighbor." Stay clean.

My experience of serving African American people has been as awful as it has been great. Hearing stories of 2011 glass ceilings, end of row watchers as people shop, even the direction to other bathrooms and prohibitions to board elevators. The most grievous of my experience was a teacher who made one of our students write 100 times "I am an animal" on a piece paper as a punishment for being too bright. In the African American community there is deep cause to hate, to seek revenge, but no.

God is bigger than the hate, promises justice, and keeps us from sin.

The genius of African American people is that God has real authority.

Proud stories are told of people who refused to be like their oppressor.

Leviticus states, "I AM the Lord." That is enough for most black folks.

When the chariot swings low, the lowly get on, the lofty are left behind.

What belongs to you. St. Paul turns everything upside down in his letter to the Corinthians. They decided to join movements within Christianity - Paul's, Apollo's, Cephas' you could add Barnabas' group. People boasted about what group was right - the one they were in of course. I belong to this one, I belong to that one. And we do the same thing today. FLIP! Paul turns the group think on its head. Christian! They all belong to you! Each one is your servant. YOU are the temple, YOU are the beneficiary of Grace, YOU, the present and the future belong to you! In Christ, in the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead, even death belongs to you.

We don't fancy cult of personality here, we are devoted to understanding and obeying Christ. In Him we have the way, the truth, life everlasting. Sound too religgy for you? Consider this, we would be fools to boast of belonging to something that rusts, dies, does not last. In Christ, every act, every blessed thought in prayer lasts and lasts - even gets better in time.

A visit, serving food or offering our gifts, making listening time for another - who can take these away? And they just get better in time. You don't belong to this or that, EVERYTHING belongs to you! It's all yours.

Toothless and blind. An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth, makes everyone blind and toothless. Instead Jesus in Matthew's Gospel, says "offer no resistance to a person doing evil things." Don't make a two twit situation out of a one twit situation. Remember the African American story - "We refuse to become like our oppressor." We'll keep our teeth and eyes thank you! But…

Jesus takes the whole thing to def-con 5. Hold on now. He says, "Go ahead and give them yours. Your coat, your cheek, your cash." Wait, it gets harder. "Love your enemy. Say a prayer for the person who talked about you behind your back." UGH! The request of Christ is so hard!!

Not as hard as when we are drawn away from who we are. And NO THING must be allowed power over the place God has given us. Every enemy not prayed for preys on you. Every time we fail to pray for a person who idly chats on, we end up listening to it instead. Ok, so the whole world owes you. Are you going to be a grumpy waiter and hater? You're too blessed to be stressed. Pray for them.

In the example of Jesus Christ we refuse to be haters, to become like our oppressors, everything belongs to us in Christ, why miss it all fighting?

We will not be found petty, overcome by the obvious evil around us, and we will not be found making more of it. RIGHT? We'll see.

Every day, each act or lack of acting, shows who we are before God.