Open Our Eyes

Not too long ago I was in a store with a group of friends who aren’t exactly on the same page as me about social justice. We talked about the price of food - they were complaining - and I responded to their complaints that a lot went into the food that we were buying. I asked them if they ever stopped along the freeway to look at the kind of work that farmworkers do - that is, what it takes to put strawberries into boxes, watermelons into trucks, stooping down to cut lettuce and asparagus and going through the vineyard pushing through the branches and leaves to cut grapes. No one had. I shared how the food was packaged and put into trucks to be sent to processing centers for sale and distribution. Still not convinced about the so-called “food chain,” I told them about my own mother who put herself through business school by working as a cannery worker. This changed the conversation.  I discovered I needed to make a connection with them that was real. I needed to connect the story of the individual with the the systemic mess of injustice. People had to “see” the suffering to come to a conversion point.

Jesus opens our eyes not only the suffering of the farmworker that suffers from heat stroke, but he opens our eyes to the entire system that makes farmworkers work long, hard hours in 110 degree weather in the Imperial Valley.  We must open our eyes to the realities of a 16 year old Oaxacan fieldworker in Greenfield, a 10 year old child making Michael Jordan shoes in Viet Nam, a young woman locked in a factory in rural China assembling iPhones. In today’s Gospel, Jesus is opening the eyes of the Jerusalem Pharisees by making the point when he holds up the coin that everyone is caught up in the web of Cesar and his unjust system.  But we all have to make a choice once we see the injustice.  When the Pharisees admit that they personally benefit from an economic and social system that is sustained by labor coerced by force and economic realities that make people essentially slaves, they will have to make choice about how they will continue living their lives knowing that their well-being is possible at the expense of invisible people who undoubtedly suffer much.

What Jesus sees at stake in the matter of the coin is not a matter of the separation of Church and State.  Jesus is arguing that one cannot continue on living one’s life without taking a serious look at what makes your life possible. He is trying to uncover the violence underneath every day life in Jerusalem.  To understand this point, we have to understand where Jesus came from.

Before Jesus and Pontius Pilate were born, the Roman conquerers flooded the markets with Roman money as a way to coerce the people into depending more on the Roman system. Putting Roman coins in the hands of a conquered people was the way that Rome maintained social and political control.   At the time around Jesus’ birth the Romans instituted a census tax. This tax was not well received and a rebellion began.  In Galilee there were a few insurgents that led the rebellion, but they were crucified.  When Jesus was a teen, a rebel, Judas of Galilee, cried out, “Taxation was no better than an introduction to slavery!” Romans were cruel in their counter-attacks. Galilee became known as a hotbed of political unrest. (see http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/portrait/galilee.html and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judas_of_Galilee)  Jesus’ background as a child and youth was formed in the rebellious environment of Galilee. It is therefore not a surprise that Jesus was willing to take on a good fight.

Jesus tried to open the eyes of the Pharisees. They knew what Jesus knew, they just didn’t want to open their eyes.  In fact, everybody knew that the system was corrupt and people were hurting because of this system. Jesus the Galilean was not going to let it go. Jesus’ preaching was dangerous because Jesus taught that there was only one legitimate Kingdom: that of God.  All other principalities - including Cesar’s, were false and illegitimate.

The Jerusalem Pharisees and the Sadducees, Scribes, Temple Priests and all other powerful people in Jerusalem realized that if Jesus were to continue his preaching and bringing together all sorts of people a across gender, economic and social lines, Pilate would understand these assemblies and speech as rebellion and he would be forced to address this rebellion with swift action. The power brokers of Jerusalem were coming to the conclusion that the brutality of Pilate’s response would be too harmful to the people. Ultimately their treacherous actions were guided by the principle that it be better than one man die, then suffer the entire community. They were willing to tolerate injustice in order to keep on living  the way they were. 

Jesus wanted more than anything to free those who were trapped by the system. He believed that challenging people and getting them to question the things all around them would give the the idea that they could be free and they did not have to be victims of their own oppression. The awareness of the very possibility of liberation is HOPE. Jesus called them to join his cause and to unshackle themselves of their fears.  He gave them a way out. Regrettably, the vision of freedom made his detractors only more defensive. They couldn't get on board with Jesus’ message of HOPE built on liberation and resistance. It was far easier just to accuse Jesus of blasphemy.

This Gospel is very important for us today.  Jesus knew the Kingdom of God is about creating justice for those who have been left out of the picture. The Kingdom is about the 100%, not the 1%. In trying to open the Pharisee’s eyes, he asked someone to produce a coin. One of the Pharisees gave the coin to Jesus. This simple act of producing a coin exposed the first level of hypocrisy. Jesus knew that these guys were with him in his critique of the Romans. The Pharisee had an unclean object in his pocket.  The image on the coin and the pagan symbols made everything unclean.  Carrying a profane object by the Temple, the most sacred space in Israel, was a significant offense. Jesus continued to probe the hypocrisy. He pointed out the image on the coin - the image is Cesar.  The Pharisee’s coin represented the entire system of oppression and coerced peace. This coin was, in effect, an instrument of the Jewish people’s oppression.  Jesus exposed the sad reality that his entire society was unwittingly participating in a fundamentally evil system. The coin didn't belong to the people, in fact, the coin belonged to Cesar and everything he stood for: a society controlled by the constant threat of crucifixion, a class-conscious society that excluded entire segments of society from participation, a society that rewarded the strong and punished the weak. Cesar was owned nothing.

We too have coins in our pocket.  Our national interests are protected by our troops invading lands with oil, by policies that  opened borders to lure workers in, but sealed the borders behind them to make them slaves. Our national interests are protected by investing resources in bailing out Wall Street and crooked companies and investors, while ignoring the millions of people displaced by foreclosure. We cannot have it both ways. We either serve God or we serve Cesar. We either serve the 100% or the 1%. 

In a few chapters Jesus will indeed have a confrontation with Pilate and this confrontation will come at a cost.  Jesus died so that we could rise. And that we are risen by virtue of our baptism means that we too, rebels of Galilee, will take up the cross of resistance and hope!  

I can do all things in him who strengthens me.

In every circumstance and in all things I have learned the secret of being well fed and of going hungry, of living in abundance and of being in need.  I can do all things in him who strengthens me.

I love that line, “I can do all things in him who strengthens me.” This past week the priests of the diocese had a retreat with Fr. Greg Boyle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Boyle), of Homeboy Industries - a re-entry training and employment program helping ex-felons and gang members leave their old lives behind.  Fr Boyle, or as he is known on the streets as, “G,”  told stories of how homies from “East Los” moved from the life on the streets to getting jobs, training, and getting on with life. The stories of these men and women is captured in the line, (“I can do all things in him who strengthens me.”).  Our retreat with G helped us understand that the “homies” are our kin.  His homies are not distant people disconnected from us; they are literally our sons and daughters, our sisters and brothers, our flesh and blood.

G’s stories served one central theme for our retreat: that when we find kinship with others, we will find kinship with God within our selves.  This interior kinship with God is something that cannot be taken away or forgotten. It is something that changes us for ever. Like a tattoo on the heart.

When G went to Dolores Mission, he started out ministering with the idea that intervention would save the people in the community. After having worked at the Mission for several years, he came to the conclusion that salvation is not about saving people from themselves, but having people be restored to themselves. He had to come to understand that salvation is about seeing ourselves as God sees us and ministry as the opportunity in which people find their way back to their true self.

G is one of the best storytellers I know. He told stories about gang members who entered into Homeboy Industries right out of prison had their life changed by the Homeboys program. One one side the program is practical: participants achieve stability and acquire new skills - but the real change happens when participants make a heart-connection to former enemies, to staff and most significantly, with themselves.

When people connect with themselves they begin to see themselves in a much more gentle, graceful way.  He told the story about a young man who was covered head to toe in tattoos who went into the Men’s Warehouse to buy a new suit because that man, G and a couple other homies were going to DC to meet the president in the White House. G brought the young men to the store to buy suits for the occasion. When this one guy came out of the dressing room and stood in front of the mirror, he saw himself as if it were for the first time. 

The way that G told the story, the young man saw something that he hadn’t noticed earlier in his life.  Standing at the mirror, looking at his reflection in silence, the young man for the first time saw the real person who dwelt inside him.  This hard-nosed gang member covered in tattoos and scars from old scuffles, realized that he wasn’t just ink and old wounds. He was much more.  He realized at the most intimate level of his life that he was a someBody. He wasn’t just a gang-banger, a former hoodlum or criminal. He was God’s beautiful child. The veil of self-deception that would have led to his death fell away. 

On this mountain he will destroy the veil that veils all peoples, the web that is woven over all nations; he will destroy death forever.

This young man had to come to a reckoning with himself. While his fingers touched his tattoos and old scars as he stood in front of that mirror, he knew that he couldn’t just erase the past. He had to make peace with the past. When we reconcile within ourselves, our kinship to God becomes ever more powerful. Kinship with others and self-acceptance makes us experience God in a real, concrete, tangible, visceral way. God isn’t a distant concept or theological construct.  God is a real force of healing and confidence.

The Lord GOD will wipe away the tears from every face; the reproach of his people he will remove from the whole earth; for the LORD has spoken. …This is the LORD for whom we looked; let us rejoice and be glad that he has saved us!” For the hand of the LORD will rest on this mountain.

When any of us see ourselves in a gentle, loving way, we see ourselves as God sees us and when that happens we start living differently than our old way of life.  While transformation is possible, it is not an easy task. Jesus said, “Many are invited, but few are chosen.” Transformation happens when we find kinship rather than enmity, when we find resolution rather than conflict. When we find forgiveness rather than resentment and love rather than separation.

The homies who’d been given the opportunity to go to the White House, had been living their lives differently, but they still lacked one thing. They needed to see themselves differently. The last part of their transformation was self-realization - standing in front of the mirror, wearing a suit, saying, “Damn, I am someBODY.” The suit was just a simple outward sign of the inward change.   Today they don’t need the suit. They have faith.

One day we too will be invited to show our inner self to another person. One day we will stand in front of a mirror - maybe a real mirror or a spiritual mirror and look at our reflection and ask, “What do I see?”

When we come to this Table, we have been invited to a banquet of kinship. The point of our Eucharistic banquet is to share in the one cup and the one bread as an outward sign of what we are feeling on the inside: kinship, connection, a bond with our sisters and brothers. The host in the parable kicked out the guest who wasn’t wearing a wedding garment. The guy wasn’t tossed out because he couldn’t afford garments, he was tossed out because he didn’t see the point of connecting to the event, to the groom nor to the host. So, like the host at the wedding feast who expected his guests to adorn themselves with a wedding garment that expressed honor and support for the families of the newlyweds, we too will be asked to put on the garment of kinship as we come to this banquet.

It is my hope that as we come forward, we have prepared ourselves to share in this banquet now. 

To Act justly, to love mercy and walk humbly with our God.

The passage today from Isaiah is a tough one. Like Jesus’ parable, it deals with corruption. Isaiah’s passage deals with the corruption of the institution whereas Jesus’ parable deals with the corruption of people within the institution. Isaiah’s passage and Jesus parable aren't about other people. It’s about all of us and how corruption enters into the vineyard and how each of us consciously or unconsciously participates in that corruption.

Religion and churches don’t start out corrupt, but, history has shown over time that churches, synagogues, mosques and temples inevitably have to deal with bad grapes. What causes a bad harvest? What causes corruption in the institution?  How is it that good people do bad things? 

Corruption enters the vineyard when people seek ways to damage, hurt destroy and eventually kill anyone or anything that would threaten their power base.  Group behavior like this is not surprising if we look at the behavior of spousal abusers. When an abusive spouse feels that he or she has lost their grip on their victim, they become even more cruel.  Abusers will attack not only their victims but also helpers.  They may even claim that they themselves are the real victims. 

Isaiah’s “Song of the Vineyard” starts out with establishing that the owner of the vineyard had given everything to build up his vineyard. Clearing the desert land of rocks and putting up a watchtower indicates that the owner is clearly interested in a return for his investment. Grapes require patience because they don’t come up fast like wheat or corn. After years of tilling the the soil and trimming the vine, the vineyard will produce a proper harvest. Workers must be dedicated to the crop and successful vineyard owners must treat their vineyard as a long-term investment and not just a job. Vineyard owner and worker must cooperate with one another in order to produce grapes. The owner must treat the workers justly and the workers must realize that they must do their job, not the owner’s job.

In the Middle East grapes were an important crop - they would become wine which would provide some nourishment in the desert and raisins for food in times of hunger. If wild grapes were all that were produced, the effort of the owner would have been in vain.  In the original Hebrew, it is very clear that the word for wild grapes is equated with that of a “bitter harvest.” Poorly aerated soil and poorly grafted vines will result in wild or bitter grapes.  The word, “bitter harvest” is also used in the Bible to reference a harvest of injustice and repression.  Thus, this particular song reminds us that the sweet harvest requires that all of us do our jobs in the vineyard, being attentive to the task at hand. God’s intent is not that we yield a bitter harvest of injustice and repression because of neglect, but that we yield a harvest of love, compassion and mercy because of fidelity.

In Jesus’ parable another dimension is added. Jesus addressed the motivations of those who do violence. In Jesus’ parable the workers in the vineyard thought that they were the owners and that because they worked in the vineyard, they deserved the full harvest.  Now, let’s go back Isaiah’s song. The workers of the vineyard aren't the owners. The vineyards’ workers didn't invest in the vineyard nor did they place themselves at risk for the harvest…yet they demanded control of the harvest…and they were ready to kill to take control.

Earlier this year, the parable of the Vineyard came up in a daily mass reading. The Pope asked, “What happens when we want to become the owners of the vineyard?”He continued saying that those who want “to take possession of the vineyard…have lost the relationship with the Master of the vineyard.” Those who would take possession of the vineyard, “think they are strong, they think they are independent of God.” In effect, the usurpers have severed themselves from the loving and patient intentions of the owner of the vineyard.  He said, “They have become worshippers of themselves.” (http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-francis-the-corrupt-harm-the-church-the-saint)  When the owner’s Son arrived, were they grateful to hand him over the harvest or were they resentful?

A bitter harvest can happen in the offices of the Vatican or any given parish in the world. When our theology, preaching and actions make people dependent on US rather than dependent on God, we will for sure yield a bitter harvest.  Sure we can preach about Jesus. We can utter his name a thousands times, but if the recitation of his name and our words engender fear in people rather than make them confident in God’s power, we are doing something horribly wrong. I believe in the attempts Pope Francis is making to change the Church from being a dogmatic, self-engrossed institution to being a gentle, outreaching, compassionate presence in the world. That change won’t happen by fiat or command from the top, but because priests and local bishops are doing what they can to be more concerned about the well-being of others more than being concerned with self-preservation.

When we put ourselves in the center rather than the one died for our sins, we do no service to anyone. If our words and deeds do not reflect grace and forgiveness, then who is being served?  By preaching about fear and the terror of the unknown, all we do is make people dependent on us, not God. Grace, on the other hand, always points back to God. Preaching forgiveness always leads to community.   When we have community we have the possibility for open-mindedness and when there is open-mindedness, we have the possibility for service to others.  As workers we are obligated to be sure the vineyard is doing what it’s supposed to do: produce good grapes of righteousness and justice.

The story of the vineyard in both Isaiah and Jesus’ parable - reminds us that everything we have is due to God’s GRACE, not our merits. We have been entrusted with an opportunity that we are called upon to care for: the vineyard.  We are called to share the bounty of the vineyard with everyone - that no one hunger or thirst. As JOYFUL workers in the vineyard, we do not use the tools of fear and repression scaring people with hell or being captured by the clutches of the devil. We, above all, are joyful. Christianity is about GOOD news, not threats or spiritual torture. 

So… we come to this Table with a spirit of thanksgiving. We are extremely aware that the Eucharistic Harvest belongs to Christ, not us. We are at best, workers in the vineyard - not the owners - and all we are doing is what we were called to do in the first place: To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God. 

The first shall be last and the last shall be first.

Today’s passage takes place within the context of Jesus’ discourses on becoming disciples. In the previous chapter, Jesus commented on the young rich man who wasn’t able to give up his “stuff” to become a disciple. Jesus said, “…it will be hard for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven…is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God…” “…es más fácil que un camello pase por el ojo de una aguja, que un rico entre en el Reino de los Cielos”. Jesus taught that discipleship requires a certain detachment from the things of the world. Disciples cannot serve in the Kingdom of God if they are serving a king on earth. 

Jesus teaching about wealth and power is a challenge to those who believed that by associating with the powerful and influential, the Kingdom of God would come. Fearing that some would interpret his teaching about the Kingdom of God as being actual kingdom with a hierarchy of classes and privileges, Jesus illustrated the true nature of  the Kingdom of God by bringing children to them so he could embrace them. Children represented the poor and powerless of society. Apart from parents, people didn’t value children as anything other than as extra hands in the field.  Children inherently understood that they had no power and so Jesus said to the crowd, “Let the children come to me, and do not prevent them; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” “Dejen a los niños, y no les impidan que vengan a mí, porque el Reino de los Cielos pertenece a los que son como ellos”.

Jesus taught that both discipleship and the Kingdom cannot be confused with the world’s kingdoms and values.  Disciples must serve rather than be served. The Kingdom of God does not belong to an earthly king, but to everyone.  Those who are first will be last and those who are last will be first.  Muchos de los primeros serán los últimos, y muchos de los últimos serán los primeros.

In the chapter that we read from today shows an employer who is clearly not interested in the number of hours that the laborers are working.  Those who worked early in the day received the same amount as those who worked a short time.  What was our reaction to this parable?  We probably were puzzled. Recall Isaiah’s line from the first reading, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways above your ways and my thoughts above your thoughts.”  “Mis pensamientos no son los pensamientos de ustedes, sus caminos no son mis caminos, dice el Señor”.  So what are God’s thoughts? What is the point of this parable?! Let’s take a closer look at the parable and see if it connects to Jesus’ teaching about discipleship and the Kingdom of God.

If a boss were to do the same thing that was described in the parable, we would be justifiably furious.  But the parable is not about wages. It’s about the employer’s graciousness to the families and children of those he employed.  As I’ve said before, the historical and social context of Jesus and his parables was a time of great economic uncertainty. People were unjustly displaced from their farms and were forced to go to the plazas and crossroads as day laborers. There were long lines of people waiting to work and employers could get many workers for next to nothing.  The employer in the parable wasn’t simply thinking of these workers as individuals, but was thinking of what happened to the families of workers who had no employment. Could it be that this parable was suggesting something in addition to the traditional interpretation of the parable as a critique against the old religious order, that there was something more subversive underfoot? 

Imagine if people elected to engage in bartering and forming cooperatives rather than buying and selling things on terms set by the Roman oppressors. By disengaging from the official Roman economy and choosing an alternative, the people chip away at the occupation. Their refusal to buy goods and services tied to the Empire is in effect a refusal to participate in their own oppression. This is why I find this particular parable quite revolutionary.

The chapters following the Transfiguration until the Entry into Jerusalem hone in on discipleship and kingdom because his disciples need to understand the dynamics of what it means to serve the Kingdom and not the king. Jesus’ confrontation with the authorities of Jerusalem is drawing nearer and nearer and disciples must understand that salvation does not happen by coddling up to rich and powerful or by ignoring the social realities in which they lived. If disciples were to continue on in the ways of the world, Christianity would have died out within a generation. Christianity survived because it was counter-cultural.  Christianity at its best lifts up the poor and voiceless.  Jesus offered us another way to see the world around us. He caused us to prioritize differently and through his teaching, he provided us with alternative future. 

As Christians we therefore cannot be uncritical of the world around us. When we think like the world and not think like God, we end up with the CEO of McDonald’s making $9,200 an hour and his restaurant employee having to work full-time for 4 months to make what he himself makes in an hour. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/10/mcdonalds-hourly-pay_n_4414538.html) This is a far cry from the Kingdom of God!  There’s a woman I know who works as a janitor - I’ll call her Ana. She works at one of these technology companies and makes $11 an hour with no benefits.  All the engineers around her make 6-8 times what she does. Ana uses his or her entire monthly income plus working overtime just to pay the rent…in THIS neighborhood!  (see http://wpusa.org/WPUSA_TechsDiversityProblem.pdf)

The kings of the earth are not concerned about the Kingdom of God.  They aren’t thinking of the prophetic call for justice. They are thinking about profits for themselves…and at the expense of everyone who must labor for pennies. (http://moneymorning.com/2013/04/19/ceo-pay-now-7000-an-hour-350-times-the-average-workers/) Do you think the kings of the earth care about the fast food worker who can’t make rent? Do these kings of the earth stay up late at night worried that janitors who clean up their messes can’t afford to send their children even to junior college?

The kings of the earth ignore folks like Ana and fast-food workers. The Kingdom of God, on the other hand, embraces them.  Let me say it again, the Kingdom of God demands that we hear the poor and that we join their Cause. Working for the poor is admittedly a hard sell and closing the wage gap in and of itself is a daunting feat. When we explain why we do what we do to others, it’s clear that what we’re doing doesn’t make sense to a whole lot of folks again.  Recall Isaiah, “…my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways.”  “Mis pensamientos no son los pensamientos de ustedes, sus caminos no son mis caminos”.  If we are to be Christ’s disciples and if we are to go with him to Calvary - then I believe it is ultimately up to each of us to pass through that narrow gate, to embrace the child and to fight hard so that all people have enough for their daily bread.

McDonnell Hall - The BirthPlace of a movement.

The parish was founded as a mission to Spanish speaking farm workers.  The parish’s original neighborhood called “Sal Si Puedes” - meaning, “Leave if you can” - was located at the Jackson Street 280 onramp. The nick name came about because of mud.  When it rained the entire neighborhood would become a giant mud flat because there were no streets, gutters or sidewalks. The mud was so bad, said Rachel - who grew up here with her family, that the kids would take their shoes off and put them in a grocery bag and walk through the mud. Just before walking into class, they would wipe their feet off as best they could, and put their shoes on.  The school, Jackson School, was a 2 room school house housing kids in grades K-9.  There were no grocery stores close by.  People would have to go downtown to shop - and keep the mud in mind when I say this -  that the closest bus stop was on King Road, over a mile away from the heart of the community.  The community, “Sal Si Puedes” was literally stuck in the mud and isolated from the rest of San José.  And this was the so-called “Fabulous Fifties.”

In 1953 the community got together and decided that they were going to have church of their own. The closest church was Five Wounds - the mass in Latin and the sermon in Portuguese. There weren’t Spanish songs or a sermon the people could understand.  There was no mass regularly offered in the community. Priests would come down once every few weeks to celebrate the mass and do “consejos” in a hall located in the community. The community itself decided that they were going to take responsibility for their own spiritual welfare. St. Martin of Tours, an aging church on the other side of the city was available for sale. The community bought the church, cut it in half and hauled it over to this side of town. The church became the “Mission Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe.” Fr. McDonnell lived in the sacristy when he came down for mass. There in the church Fr. McDonnell introduced a young Cesar Chavez the Church’s VISION for social justice.  They would meet in the church to discuss the problems and challenges facing the community.  In that building, the young Cesar Chavez, Fr. McDonnell and others talked about the poor infrastructure and its affects on the people: no sewage lines, sidewalks, paved roads, no garbage service - all contributed to a host of stomach-related ailments - diarrhea and dysentery.  No other place in San Jose had raw sewage running down the streets.  These challenges were too much to put up with.

Fr. Don McDonnell and Cesar had a deep conviction that all people should be free - that is free from poverty, violence, and exploitation.  This foundational belief gave hope to those who were gathered in the small, Guadalupe Mission Church. In this church under the spiritual guidance of Fr. McDonnell and the prophetic organizing work of Cesar, the people began to talk about how they themselves could organize the community for change.  Together they worked with other visionaries to develop the Community Service Organization that served to organize and mobilize a people who were isolated from the rest of the city. This was a RADICAL concept in the 1950’s. In an era that is more known for ultra patriotism and conformity, the people of Mayfair took up the banner of resistance that demanded change.  The Mayfair Community was not longer a community of “Sal, si puedes,” but a community of “Si Se Puede.”

The “Si Se Puede” grito of independence, gradually caught the attention of people from around the country and around the world.  After Cesar moved on from the Mayfair, he got people everywhere to consider this concept of communities organizing themselves for freedom. The humble beginnings of the social change movement involving Latino leadership began here.  History will show that the Mayfair community, like our sisters and brothers in the Deep South, will be considered another center of activism and social change. And McDonnell Hall is ground zero of that incredible part of our country’s history.  Today’s recognition of McDonnell Hall is a step for all of us to claim our history.

Today we celebrate not only the State recognition of McDonnell Hall - Guadalupe Mission Church, but also the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. The symbol of the cross rose above the violent streets of Jerusalem occupied by foreigners that bled the region dry and who set the indigenous peoples against one another.  The cross on the bell tower of the humble Guadalupe Mission Church in 1953 stood out as a symbol of triumph of Justice and Peace. In the midst of mud and sewage, the cross reminded the people that they are God’s beloved sons and daughters and that God’s children deserved better. 

While we have paved streets, sewer and garbage service, we are still isolated. Hemmed in by freeways and onramps, our challenges today are raising the literacy rate for our children, getting our youth into university and lowering violence in our homes and streets.  There’s no easy fix to our local problems while our people still fear deportation and profiling. Most of our people do not have sustainable wages - that’s why we work at several jobs. The cost of housing has forced us to live in garages and double or triple up in housing.  Despite what we see all around us, can you see more than suffering and hurt? Look at the first reading. The people in the desert were complaining because of what they saw, “Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert, where there is no food or water? We are disgusted with this wretched food!”  Moses, a visionary leader, saw more than the lack of food. Moses saw a noble people who would create a land out of a desert. His role was to animate the people by providing them with a clear vision of what and who they could be. Sight doesn’t move us to act; VISION, on the other hand, provides hope and moves us toward action. Community organizing for social change requires strong visionary leadership. Visionary leaders are able to see beyond the problems and see real solutions.  Visionary leaders see the path and embolden us to be courageous and take the path.

As we celebrate this feast of the Exaltation, we remember that we exalt Christ who came to us as a laborer.  A working man born to a working family in a poor region. “Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave…” Marginalized from the seat of power and privilege, this working man, this carpenter, started a movement that is still active today. Jesus’ story continues to inspire future visionary leaders to see the world around them as an opportunity to initiate positive and inclusive social change from the base.  So as we come forward to this table, we come together as ONE. We join Fr. Don McDonnell and Cesar Chavez at the Table, anticipating the vision of true and lasting freedom - that has yet to be realized. As we eat the Bread of Hope and the Cup of Resistance, we too become the VISION of “Si, Se Puede.”