Reflections, Sermons and more

Sunday, February 04, 2007

Hush Someone is Calling My Name   

   February is Black History Month, during this month, a growing number of catholic Christians of African decent in the United States strives to give special attention to the spiritual meaning and significance of history of African-American contribution to Catholicism and Christianity.  This is a special opportunity to share and examine past contributions and individual spiritual discernment. This is a perfect time to pause for a moment to consider how God’s Grace has and is working in us over the past and present, over time and place.

            Parents and grandparents often urge us to keep God in our lives and to listen to the direction in which He was guiding us. Distractions of today’s digital and fast paced society, can and often does, interferes with our need to make God the center of our lives and so noisy that hearing God can be a difficult task. How often did they us to be silent in church? We thought that they were telling us to be silent so not to distract others from what was being said from the pulpit, but they knew that we needed to be silent and reverent so we could hear the small whisper of the Holy Spirit.

            Did we not hear their voices of wisdom in their wake up calls, over breakfast and before rushing off to school and over supper and before bed?  Did they remind us over and over again to be good, to give God thanks and to be an example of person coming from a Christian home?

            Even when we hit adulthood and fitfully attempted to negotiate life on our own, their phone calls, emails and visits would never fail to include the reminder that God created us for a purpose and is constantly revealing His Will to us. Be still and listen they repeatedly admonish us, lovingly and encouragingly.

            The very lives they led were reminders to us that they were practicing what they were preaching to us. Clearly their practice of life told us and showed us that there were no human challenges greater than God. No human challenge could prevent us from hearing the Call to Christian vocation, to the clergy, ministries, and lay life, nor could these challenges prevent us from practicing the vocation to which He called us. They heard God’s Call in the welcoming voice of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ … ‘Whom shall I send? Who will go for us? Here I am, I said. Send me!’  Like the African Eunuch in Acts 8:37, w are told to choose, over the generations, to journey with Christ to the Father, to be reunited through Christ to God’s Divine Plan of Creation for them.

            When the slaves first we brought here, they held onto their former culture and practices. With time, most converted to following Christ, even if not willing at first. Once they found the love, compassion and promises of Christ, they combined their former culture with the Good News, and were able to survive in a land of hostility. Their former cultures demanded respect of family and elders, as did the Good News; the raising of children was of the most importance and was the responsibility of everyone, and so did the Good News; faith and thanksgiving in the Creator, regardless of their situation was comforting, and the Good News promises the same. Without the faith and beliefs of those who came before us, I can not image what the world would be like today.

            Let me share with you how one African-American man, born in slavery, followed the guidance he received from his elders and listened to the Holy Spirit, in spite of extreme challenges.

            On April 1, 1854, a young slave named Augustus Tolton was born in Missouri.  Augustus’ mother, Martha, a strong and courageous woman, fulfilled her husband’s long quest for freedom. She gathered her children and walked to freedom by crossing the Mississippi River. Reaching safety, she spoke to her children, “Now you are! Never forget the goodness of the Lord!”  Augustus was seven years old when he and his family reached Quincy, Illinois. He remembered his mother’s counsel, and never did forget the goodness of the Lord.

            Prior to their escape, the slave owners of the Tolton family (the Elliots) had all their slaves baptized; so upon reaching Illinois, the family became members of the Roman Catholic Church.  They continued to practice their faith after becoming free. Augustus was enrolled in Catholic School for a time, but had to withdraw because of the racial prejudice of the parishioners who protested the presence of a “Negro” in the school.  Some of the School Sisters of Notre Dame who staffed St. Boniface School tutored Augustus until he got enrolled in St. Peter’s School, where he was allowed to attend classes.

            Augustus listened and heard the whisper of the Holy Spirit and began to desire to serve the Lord more deeply by becoming a priest. However, at that time, the American Catholic Church did not allow black men to be admitted to studies in United States seminaries. Request to have Augustus admitted to an American seminary fell on deaf ears. His parish priests, disheartened by the prejudice of those in charge of seminaries, began to tutor Augustus themselves.

            In 1878, he was admitted to Franciscan College at Quincy, Illinois as a special student.  However the two parish priests continued their efforts to get him into a seminary. In 1880, they were successful, and Augustus leftfor the Propaganda College in Rome to prepare for priesthood.  For a time, Augustus thought that he would be sent to Africa to serve as a missionary after ordination; but Cardinal Giovanni Simeon thought it best that he return to his home country and diocese of Alton, Illinois. The Cardinal said “America needs Negro priests. America has been called the most enlightened nation, we will see now whether it deserves the honor. If the United States has never seen a Black priest, it must see one now. Can you drink from this cup?”  Despite knowing well the resistance he would surely face upon returning, Augustus answered the call, “I can drink of the cup of the Lord!”

                        Father Augustus Tolton was ordained on April 24, 1886, as the first known and recognized Black priest in the United States of America. Returning to the United States, he ministered for two years as pastor of St. Joseph’s Church in Quincy, Illinois. He quickly gained a reputation as a fine preacher, so much so that many of the German and Irish Catholics began to attend Mass with the Black Catholics! He was most attentive to the spiritual and human needs of his people. Soon his Masses and Biblical classes gained prominence, and he was asked to attend and speak at many public gatherings.  His increasing popularity unleashed both hidden racism and the jealousy of both Catholic and non-Catholic ministers in the area. His enemies referred to his church as “that nigger church”, and to him as ‘the nigger priest”.

            Augustus Tolton continued to be well known in Chicago and the United States. He spoke at numerous gatherings and lectures, including the 1st Catholic Colored Congress in Washington DC in 1889. Catholics in Boston and New York heard him speak, and he preached at places like the Cathedral in Galveston, Texas and many others. Papers throughout the country played up Fr. Tolton’s unique role as the only full blooded Black priest in the American Catholic Church. Augustus was proud of his Blackness, and extremely devoted to his people.

            Perhaps it was because he was so devoted and hard-working that his life was cut short far too early. In July 1897, he journeyed with other Diocesan priests to make a retreat, returning on an excessively hot day on Friday, July 9, 1897. As he stepped from the train at 35th Street and Lake Park, and began walking home, he was stricken by a heat stroke and rushed to Mercy hospital. He died that night at the age of 43.

            Later, the first Black Catholic Bishop, Harold Perry, SVD, wrote this of Father Augustus Tolton: “Fr. Tolton found his opposition within the Church and among church people, where compassion should have offset established prejudice and ignorance. It was his lot to disprove the myth that young Black men could not assume the responsibility of the Catholic priesthood.”

            From the beginnings of our faith in Jesus and the Good News He gave us, many have suffered and martyred for their beliefs. History of African-Americans has not been a priority in our nation’s schools. A month, the shortest one of the year, is now dedicated to Black history, but most often, Christian leaders are never mentioned.          

            When God calls and we take the time to listen, all men and women, can hear His voice within our hearts and our souls. But if we do not take the time to hear … to listen … we lose out. The saints of the ages should be studied, their examples and wisdom followed, for they heard and replied, ‘Send me!’  Are you hearing the whisper? Are you willing to be set apart because you have heard and choose to respond affirmatively to God’s calling and plan for you? Are you sharing the history of those who have gone before, paving a way to walk with Jesus on His road to Calvary, the tomb and Resurrection?

            Stop! Listen! Hear!

‘Hush, hush, someone is calling your name! Oh Lord, what shall I do? I am so glad, troubles do not last always. Oh Lord, what shall I do?’

Pax et bonum

Father David +

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