4 minute read
Let Us Pray
from August SAM
DEFIANTLY CATHOLIC
IT IS REMARKABLE that our senses and memory are so closely linked: those smells, sounds, or tastes that transcend time and space. Every time I hear car tires screeching, I remember the 7-year-old me when my dad’s car was rammed from behind. I can remember the loud bang of our screen door as it closed that told me in my youth it was summertime. I remember my brother’s scream when he heard his classmate and friend Emmett Till was murdered in Mississippi. at particular memory still lingers in the ether, in nitely hovering since 1955.
Advertisement
Back in the day (I love saying that), my mother gathered us kids together. Not an unusual thing, but this time her serious face gave weight to what she was about to tell us. “ ere is a political system in South Africa that is called apartheid,” she said. “It denigrates and dehumanizes Black Africans who have lived there for thousands of years—long before it was invaded by Europeans. One of the methods they use is to require all Black Africans to carry passbooks in order to travel anywhere in the country.
“ ose passbooks have a picture of the person so they can be identi ed,” she continued. “ e pictures in those passbooks are taken with a Polaroid camera because it produces an instant picture. Polaroid is an American company. From this point on, no one in this family will buy one of their cameras. ey are not to enter our home. Nor will you allow anyone to take a picture of you with one of those cameras. Do you understand me?”
We all agreed—even my father who was not used to taking orders from my mom. She knew our little e ort would not change the vulgar system in a land thousands of miles away, nor would it a ect the bottom line of a company such as Polaroid.
And yet she would make certain that our family would stand up for what was right. Her purpose was to instill in us her undying commitment to the sanctity of all people everywhere. She was pro-life before it was a movement or slogan.
STRENGTH AND DIGNITY
One could speculate where this unwavering commitment to the belief in the right of all God’s creatures to live fully and without fear came from. It might have been engendered by the seed of courage that blossomed when her friend Mamie Till-Mobley, the mother of Emmett Till, stood strong in her faith when the horrid murder of her son broke the hearts of our community and the world. For it was then that the world got the chance to see the strength and dignity of Black mothers. is seed of faith was forti ed when, in 1957, my mom and dad were nally able to buy a new home, which happened to be in a White community. She began
attending Mass at our new parish and chose to de antly sit in the front pew as a response to the priest’s statement that he did not want the newly arriving Black Catholics to attend his church. He did not know or understand the faith of my mom. He had never witnessed someone who would ght to be Catholic. I am my mother’s son.
GO IN PEACE
Our Church is God’s Church, and we belong to God. Church is the place we go to nurture our faith. It is where we go to be community. It is where we go to hear and listen to the word of God—to be encouraged to live a life of faith and love. When the Mass has ended, we are not to leave our faith, our love, or our kindness behind the stained glass windows. My mother understood that. is nurturing of faith and commitment to God is what my mother understood and tried desperately to live. To her, Mass was more than a Sunday morning conversation. It was her locker room where she readied herself to enter the game: to live by the rules she learned, the nourishment she received, and to make certain her little team would be ready to be de antly Catholic.
ACTION STEPS
• Find places in Scripture that grab your heart in broken times. Seek places in the Bible that help you fi nd the
“message in the mess” that is affl icting you: Scripture passages such as Psalm 139 or Philippians 4:9. • At the end of Mass, we are called to go out to love and serve the world. Our faith, hope, and love have been nourished in the Mass, but it is then that the work of Mass truly begins.
CHECK OUT PAUSE+PRAY!
Daily online prayer resource: FranciscanMedia.org/PausePray
PRAYER
WE PRAY . . . Within each of us a seed of faith was planted. Our task is to nurture it with care—to give it breath and light. It is our task to share it in every moment and every person. In that way, dear God, it will produce a harvest untold. Amen.
