Dear Friends,
As I write this letter, the streets of some neighborhoods in Minneapolis are filled with rioters. There are stores being broken into and burned. All in reaction to the death of a man caused by four police officers. The video of the encounter shows the clear aggression of the police officers. Friends of mine own a small bookstore in Minneapolis and have boarded up the windows and doors. They are afraid. They live in those neighborhoods and are not sure what to do. They concur with the anger, but the angry reaction is causing even more harm to the very neighborhoods that serve the poorer communities. Reporters who have been at the rioting report that those who are participating look like any cross section of America.
As Christians we continue to proclaim the sacredness and dignity of every human life. We must condemn violence, especially when it is done at the hands of those who are working for the government. Jesus taught us a very different way of living from that of the world. We are to see Jesus in every person we encounter. Even our enemies have dignity and are sacred.
I am not sure how to fix the wounds of racism. They run deep. However, one of the virtues that could help and that Christianity encourages in all of us is that of humility. And it is needed now. I think it could help us on the way to healing.
The arrogance of personal certitude has only gotten us into deeper messes. It needs to be replaced with a humble willingness to listen to the other and put aside our own preconceived notions. Certitude seduces us. It enables us to believe that what is said to be true is true because someone said so. It simply cuts off thought. It stops discussion. It creates false judgements. It kills.
We have been relentlessly certain about the inferiority of one race to another and, in the process, have diminished our own humanity. We can be so blinded by our “reality” that we invalidate someone else’s. Today our black brothers and sisters are experiencing another trauma that communicates to them that their lives are not valuable.
Voltaire remarked that, “Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.” Certainty is comfortable but is unlikely and is forever disruptive. As life changes, so must we. Only when we can look beyond our personal certitude and encounter others humbly, will we be able to live our lives to the fullness God intends – with the deepest insights and the greatest degree of compassion for others. Humility is uncomfortable but leads us beyond the present moment to the kind of moments that call us to greater truth, deeper wisdom and a more mature measure of life.
Perhaps a bit of humbleness on our part would lead to moral courage and then to a different world. I have always appreciated Hemmingway’s quote, “Few men are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality of those who seek to change a world which yields most painfully to change.”
Peace,
Fr. Damian