By Archbishop Thomas Wenski - The Archdiocese of Miami
Archbishop Thomas Wenski preached this homily during the Mass for Unity against Racism sponsored by the Office of Black Catholics and celebrated Aug. 21, 2022 at St. Helen Church in Fort Lauderdale.
We gather this morning at St. Helen’s for this “Unity Mass” sponsored by the Office of Black Catholics. There are some three million Black Catholics in the United States. This represents about 6% of all Black adults – but still it is a significant number. I learned that interesting fact from a recent survey conducted by the Pew Research Center. The survey gives us data that we could use to better understand some of the challenges and opportunities for evangelization among those who make up what we could call the African diaspora here in the United States. For example, about 6% of Black adults make up an even smaller share of Catholics, 4%. 16% of Black Catholics are converts – this is a hopeful sign; but yet only about half of those black Catholics who were raised Catholics still identify as Catholics.
Black Catholics are not a monolithic group: There is great diversity. Many Black Catholics immigrated from Africa or the Caribbean in recent years. That diversity is evident here today. And in this diversity, we seek unity. In unity, of course, there is strength. But diversity is also a strength for diversity does not have to divide us – for what unites all of us, whoever we are and wherever we come from, is our one faith, one baptism, one Lord, Jesus Christ. We are Catholics – the word in Greek means “universal”; the Gospel is not the purview of one group, race, or ethnicity, it is for everybody. In this sense, we can say that salvation is “catholic.”
Both the first reading, from the prophet Isaiah, and the Gospel reading from Luke speak to the universality of God’s salvation: In the Kingdom of God, “there will be gathered nations of every language” as Isaiah tells us; “they will come from the east and west, from the north and the south,” Jesus says in the Gospel reading. I can imagine in my mind’s eye, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. praying over these verses as he prepared his famous “I have a dream” speech. His dream was also a universal dream – justice was for everyone, man, woman, and child regardless of race, color or creed. This week marks the 59th anniversary of that speech.
Dr. King said in another speech, quoting a slave preacher who he said "didn't quite have his grammar right but uttered words of great symbolic profundity": "Lord, we ain't what we oughta be. We ain't what we want to be. We ain't what we gonna be. But, thank God, we ain't what we was."
Dr. King’s dream, the prophet Isaiah’s dream, Jesus Christ’s dream didn’t come true overnight. For these dreams to come true you’ve got to be fully awake and engaged. They won’t come true if you are asleep. These dreams take time, effort, and patience.
And this is what Jesus means when he speaks about “entering through the narrow gate.” Jesus passes over the question posed to him: Lord, will only a few be saved? He doesn’t answer that question because it betrays an attitude that would see “salvation” as being for just a privileged few. These “religious elites” would be saved, and the rest of us could go to hell.
But Jesus opened his arms wide on the cross – to embrace as many of us who would let him. His work, and this would apply to us who are to work for him and in his name, is not to be some sort of bouncer to throw people out of the club as it were. Christ’s message goes in the opposite direction: He’s come to get us in through the door before it is shut closed. Again, the salvation, which Jesus accomplished with his death and resurrection, is universal. By dying and rising for us he gets us through the door.
So, the gate that leads to Eternal life, to the kingdom of God, is open to all; but it is a narrow gate because to enter through it is demanding – it requires effort, self-sacrifice, it requires that we shed our selfishness, our pride.
Yes, Jesus saves – but not without our cooperation. Making dreams come true is hard work. We have a lot of hard work to do to make our Church more “catholic,” in the sense of universally embracing everyone – just like Jesus embraced everyone from the cross. 94% of African Americans are “non-Catholic” – we need to reach out to them and invite them to know Jesus with the intimacy with which we know him – in the Holy Eucharist, in our communion in His Body and Blood. For whatever reasons, half of those African Americans raised Catholic and no longer practicing. And you know who they are – they are your siblings, your children; they are the ones standing next to you in your first Communion pictures. We need to encourage them to come back home.
Can’t we dream of a revival of Catholicism in our African American communities? And why not? We got the good news – let’s share it. It’s not just for a select or privileged few. It’s for everybody.
Dreams do take time, effort, and patience – but, as I said, we need to be fully awake and engaged.
“Strive to enter through the narrow gate.” And, if you got the point of the parable he cites, make sure you get in before the door is closed. Jesus’ teachings are not for wimps. He even tells us to love our enemies. And, as we know, it is hard enough to love our families and our friends.
“Go out to all the world and tell the good news!”
