Love Counts No Costs As It Upholds Justice

Yesterday at a protest in London, the actor John Boyega spoke out against racism.  He denounced when people are demeaned for their race.  

It occurred to him that by speaking out so boldly, it might hurt his career.  He considered that he might not have a career after he said what he had to say.*     

He values the dignity of all people, rather than profit at any cost.  He speaks to uphold justice.  

People who seek justice seek God, even if they do not know it.  Those who seek truth seek God.  As persons strive for recognition of the truth of the dignity of all, they strive to do the work of God.  

When one loves justice, goodness and right no matter what the cost, one loves God with all one's heart, with all one's soul, with all one's mind, and with all one's strength.  To love God in this way is the most important commandment, as Jesus tells us in today's Gospel.**  

John Boyega spoke against racism for the sake of George Floyd, a black man pinned to the ground by a white police officer who continued to apply pressure even after Mr. Floyd protested that he could not breathe, resulting in the death of Mr. Floyd.  Although John Boyega thought he might endanger his acting career by defending the rights of our brother George Floyd, and of our other black brothers and sisters, including Sandra Bland, Trayvon Martin, Stephen Lawrence and Mark Duggan, who have suffered similar fates, John Boyega spoke out for the sake of our brothers and sisters.*  To put one's neighbor's interests before one's own, is to love one's neighbor as oneself, the second most important commandment, as Jesus tells us in today's Gospel.***  

Love seeks the dignity of the other.  Love looks beyond oneself.  Love spares no expense.  

We love with all our heart when we work for justice without counting the cost.  We truly love our neighbor when we put our neighbor before ourselves.  In so doing, we become who God made us to be.  

* https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/11780885/john-boyega-speech-black-lives-matter/ 

** Deuteronomy 6:5; Deuteronomy 10:12; Matthew 22:37; Mark 12:30; Luke 10:27 

*** Matthew 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27; Leviticus 19:18; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14 

Give The Government What It Deserves

There is an appointed time for everything.*  There is a time to be silent, and there is a time to speak.  When injustice occurs, it is not a time to remain silent.  It is a time to speak.  

When George Floyd, a black man, is pinned to the ground by a police officer who is kneeling on his back despite a protest that he cannot breathe, injustice is occurring.  That injustice is heinously worsened when he dies because he could not breathe under that pressure.**  

Protesters are protesting for Mr. Floyd, because the force that was lawfully given to the police officer was unlawfully used.  When government starts abusing the powers given to it by its citizens, the citizens put the government in check.  

In today's Gospel, Jesus teaches, “Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.”***  We give to the government what is due to it when we check its abuses one way or another.  Indeed, at the same time we also give to God what is due to God, since we are working for justice, for the respect of all persons, for the recognition of the dignity of all persons, which God expects of us in all we say and do.  

Government leaders have the power that they have only because it was given to them from above.****  Thus those in power fall short when they fail to acknowledge that moral authority which gave them the power they wield.  Those in power do even worse when they imply that they follow that moral authority but then act in exactly the opposite manner.  

Yesterday, using either tear gas or smoke canisters, law enforcement cleared a park, Lafayette Square, near the White House of protesters who, news agencies are typically saying, were peacefully protesting.*****, ******, *******  It has been suggested that the park was cleared because of violence in the area the night before.*****  Regardless of why the park was rid of protesters, what one actually does matters, not what one says or one insinuates.  Last night the President walked to an Episcopal church near the White House and a photo was taken as he held up a Bible there.  Presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden expressed that he hoped that the President "opened it once in a while instead of brandishing it."******  May the President follow the teachings of Jesus, as may we all.  May he truly lead, not rely merely on bluster and vague gestures which do not make any clear statement.  May he not only claim to value freedom, but so act as to truly value freedom.  

Today the President visited the John Paul II Shrine.  Then he went back to the White House to sign an executive order on international religious freedom.  Archbishop Wilton Gregory pointed to the rich irony of Saint Pope John Paul II’s defense of human rights as he condemned “the use of tear gas and other deterrents to silence, scatter or intimidate" protesters "for a photo opportunity in front of a place of worship and peace.”******  

Indeed, I put far more stock in what is going on right under someone's own nose, and how that person responds to those events, as an indication of that person's beliefs, of what that person holds dear, and what I can expect from that person.  In short, if the President will not protect the rights of people peacefully protesting right outside the White House, I hardly expect the President to be a champion of human rights elsewhere in the country or around the world.  

Indeed, for that very reason, that injustice was occurring right in front of him, I echo House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, who said, "I am horrified he attempted to put down peaceful protests with military force," Hoyer said, calling it "the act of an authoritarian, unempathetic leader."*****

It has been suggested that police dispersed protesters who were attacking them.*****  However, no specific source was given to substantiate this claim.  Therefore, there is no way to check it, to question the supposed source of information.  I am more than a little suspicious of such a mysterious, unattributed claim.  Indeed, I call into question the acceptability, the propriety, of making such unsubstantiated claims, as they seriously endanger the search for the truth, potentially confusing and misleading citizens.  

On the other hand, I have been relieved to see a distinction made between peaceful protesters and those who inject violence into protests.  As the U.S. Attorney General, William Barr, noted, "Unfortunately, with the rioting that is occurring in many of our cities around the country, the voices of peaceful protests are being hijacked by violent radical elements."********  The truth is that many protesters are peaceful.  To label all protesters as radicals is to distort the truth.  Indeed, as I have maintained elsewhere based on a depiction of Pope Paul VI, protesters seek the truth; those who protest demand recognition of the truth that all human beings deserve to be treated with dignity.  Those who infuse violence into protests violate the dignity of others.  To protect citizens' dignity, law enforcement rightly pursues those who introduce violence into protests.  

The U.S. Attorney General asserted, "There will be even greater law enforcement resources and support in the region tonight."*****  I am grateful that the government will be quelling violence.  However, we need to address the very violence done in the first place, done against Mr. Floyd.  If those applying to be law enforcement officers were more rigorously tested, including psychologically, and denied places in law enforcement agencies when they show sufficient warning signs, then perhaps such heinous crimes by law enforcement officials, the very individuals tasked to prevent crime, more often could be prevented.  

Yet at the same time, if those in power continue ever more to fail to lead, there will be even greater momentum to vote them out of office.  If we want to uphold the truth, the truth that all human beings should be accorded the dignity we all deserve, then we will vote for security, not for leaders who make inflammatory statements which drive insecurity.  

The U.S. Attorney General continued, "The most basic function of government is to provide security for people to live their lives and exercise their rights, and we will meet that responsibility here in the nation's capital."*****  Indeed, the most basic function of the citizens of a state is to remove leaders who fail to serve, and as citizens of this nation, we will meet that responsibility as we exercise our right to vote.  

* Ecclesiastes 3:1 

** https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/06/01/george-floyd-independent-autopsy-findings-released-monday/5307185002/ 

*** Mark 12:17 

**** John 19:11

***** https://www.foxnews.com/politics/barr-lafayette-square-trump-protest-remarks 

****** https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2020/06/02/washington-archbishop-wilton-gregory-calls-trumps-visit-john-paul-ii

******* https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/inside-the-push-to-tear-gas-protesters-ahead-of-a-trump-photo-op/2020/06/01/4b0f7b50-a46c-11ea-bb20-ebf0921f3bbd_story.html 

******** https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/30/william-barr-george-floyd-protests-290792