St. Sabina Catholic Church has invited Senator Obama's Pastor, the Rev. Otis Moss III, to give a reflection on the Last Words of Christ at the Parish's Good Friday Service. The service will begin at 7:00 pm and there will be a live audio webcast from the parish website: http://www.saintsabina.org/
May I offer my own reflection on the matter of Senator Obama's former pastor, Rev. Wright? In Washington, DC, Catholics, including Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity and the intentional community of "A Simple House" (http://www.asimplehouse.org/) have made the Christian discernment to live and be a presence in some of the most hopeless, drug-invested, impoverished and crime-ridden neighborhoods in the city. Maybe some people who have kept themselves safely ensconced in their suburban, Republican voting, gated communities might imagine "how nice of these nuns (or lay faithful). The poor folk they serve must be so extremely grateful."
Nothing could be further from the truth. The people in these neighborhoods are not just of material want. They are often of spiritual want as well. The Sisters and the people of A Simple House live among despair and bitterness. They meet people, even community leaders, making many of the same comments as the four or so controversial statements culled from Rev. Wright's 4,000 sermons. They daily encounter people full of hate, anger and resentment.
Yet, for them, this response is not a reason to get up and leave but a reason to stay. Among people with no hope, and full of anger and despair, they still see the face of Christ.
What ever we think of the heroic actions of the Sisters and A Simple House, we might think the same of a young man, an Ivy League school graduate destined for Harvard Law School and Editor of the Law Review, who, without regard to all of the advantages his education offered him, elected to move to the South Side of Chicago, in the neighborhood of Trinity Congregationalist Church and St. Sabina Roman Catholic Church, to give his life as a community organizer among the materially and spiritually poor.
This community organizer did not say "I am out of here" the first or even the second or third or greater time he saw anger and bitterness and despair. Like so many times before in history, he came to help those who he thought had nothing yet from them found everything in the person of Jesus Christ. In their imperfections, he found his own imperfections. In seeing the glimmer of hope amid despair, he found hope. This young man who came to save the people of this neighborhood found salvation through the people of this neighborhood.
May all who come here be spiritually rewarded by their devotions during the Holy Tridium. Pray for Peace.
May I offer my own reflection on the matter of Senator Obama's former pastor, Rev. Wright? In Washington, DC, Catholics, including Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity and the intentional community of "A Simple House" (http://www.asimplehouse.org/) have made the Christian discernment to live and be a presence in some of the most hopeless, drug-invested, impoverished and crime-ridden neighborhoods in the city. Maybe some people who have kept themselves safely ensconced in their suburban, Republican voting, gated communities might imagine "how nice of these nuns (or lay faithful). The poor folk they serve must be so extremely grateful."
Nothing could be further from the truth. The people in these neighborhoods are not just of material want. They are often of spiritual want as well. The Sisters and the people of A Simple House live among despair and bitterness. They meet people, even community leaders, making many of the same comments as the four or so controversial statements culled from Rev. Wright's 4,000 sermons. They daily encounter people full of hate, anger and resentment.
Yet, for them, this response is not a reason to get up and leave but a reason to stay. Among people with no hope, and full of anger and despair, they still see the face of Christ.
What ever we think of the heroic actions of the Sisters and A Simple House, we might think the same of a young man, an Ivy League school graduate destined for Harvard Law School and Editor of the Law Review, who, without regard to all of the advantages his education offered him, elected to move to the South Side of Chicago, in the neighborhood of Trinity Congregationalist Church and St. Sabina Roman Catholic Church, to give his life as a community organizer among the materially and spiritually poor.
This community organizer did not say "I am out of here" the first or even the second or third or greater time he saw anger and bitterness and despair. Like so many times before in history, he came to help those who he thought had nothing yet from them found everything in the person of Jesus Christ. In their imperfections, he found his own imperfections. In seeing the glimmer of hope amid despair, he found hope. This young man who came to save the people of this neighborhood found salvation through the people of this neighborhood.
May all who come here be spiritually rewarded by their devotions during the Holy Tridium. Pray for Peace.
3 comments:
Isn't that the same parish which frequently has pro-abortion speakers? The parish who's pastor was reprimanded for that and uttering offensive (even violent) remarks and the subject of an anti-gun protest?
Obama's Catholic supporters are certainly an unsavory lot, ignoring the true gospel message and the murder of the unborn.
Shame.
God Bless,
Matt
Matt:
Obama's Catholic supporters may be unsavory, but do you really think they are Catholic?
Is the minister at St. Sabina's Catholic? If he was Catholic,in the true sense of the word,he would not be holding ecumenical services on the most solemn of days.
Matt is free to think what he will. Cardinal George says he is Catholic, and the Cardinal is entitled to his position as well.
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