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August 22, 2019Sin corrupts everything it touches. The terrible effects of sin include a darkening of our intellect and a weakening of our will. Sin blinds us. It weakens us. Faith enlightens us. Honest reflection, however, confronts us with the fact that even though we Christians have been enlightened by the gift of faith and strengthened by the grace of the Holy Spirit, the effects of sin have left us with blind spots and moral weaknesses.
One of the blind spots that the Holy Spirit is calling to our attention today is racism. Racism is nothing new. Racism is not merely a corrosive social ill. It also is a sin against God and the human family. It is a sin that lodges in human hearts and corrupts cultures and societies. It is a sin that blinds us to the fundamental equality of all human beings and the God-given dignity of each person created in the image of God.
Racism is what led to the horrors of the holocaust of the Jews and others in Nazi Germany. It was embedded in the cultural attitudes that displaced indigenous peoples throughout North America and sought to eradicate their native cultures. It was institutionalized in segregationist Jim Crow laws following the abolition of slavery, our nation’s “original sin.”
Racist attitudes and blind spots continue to create intolerable situations around the world where migration brings together people of different colors, creeds and ethnicities. Racism usually goes unacknowledged as a significant factor in our inability to seriously confront and remedy the immigration crisis that has become so intractable in our nation and in so many other nations.
As recent events in El Paso and elsewhere demonstrate, we are witnessing with alarming frequency latent racial tensions erupting into violence around the country. Many are shocked to see these outbreaks of racial intolerance and violence. We had naively consigned such things to a less-enlightened racist past.
We live in an era in which it is hard to keep up with the rapid pace of scientific, technological and digital advances. Our culture has embraced an evolutionary worldview that assumes progress is the inevitable trajectory of human history.
But, there is really no parallel to progress in the moral universe. Human nature has not changed or evolved in any fundamental way. Even aided by grace we still struggle with the effects of sin. We are not as wise or as strong as we think we are. We still fall prey all too easily to spiritual pride. Human nature, though fundamentally good, is fallen and wounded by sin.
We all are still sinners. As our faith professes, we believe that we have been redeemed by the blood of Christ who died and rose for us all. But, we cannot bank the faith and virtues of past generations and count on these to sustain us into the future. We are just as susceptible to sin, including the sin of racism, as those who went before us. We can learn from history, but we are also capable of repeating its mistakes.
Repentance and ongoing conversion are tasks for each person in every generation. As we come to grips with the troubling evidence of racism in our society, we all are called to examine our own consciences, including our own blind spots as these are being revealed to us by the Holy Spirit.
How is the Lord calling us to affirm the dignity of every human being from conception to natural death? How are we being challenged to reject every manifestation of racism that divides the Body of Christ, diminishes the promise of our great nation, and weakens the human family?