In The Margins: The Power of Unity

“Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel.”

On Wednesday, St. Ignatius Parish will join thousands of parishes around the world in observing the beginning of Lent. Around the world, Christians of all races, ethnicities, ages, genders, and sexual orientations will attend liturgies and receive ashes on our foreheads in the form of a cross. By this action do we demonstrate to the world our unity even as we rejoice in our God-given diversity.  While normally our faith is not evident to our friends, neighbors, and colleagues, on this day we acknowledge publicly our belief that Christ has died, Christ has risen, and Christ will come again. The ashes we bear state clearly that in a world which seeks to divide, we as Catholic Christians are united in our common belief in the Gospel and in the dignity of each and every human person.

As we enter into the season of Lent in the year 2022, the stories we have read in this column and heard during the Synod sessions over the past weeks have shaped our ideas of how we as individuals and as a Parish community can become more unified and less divided. As a listening Church, we are called to attend to and celebrate all voices, particularly the voices of those who have been silenced, ignored, or marginalized. This Lent, let us act together to challenge the exclusion of our brothers and sisters based on race, gender, class, or other socially constructed categories, just as the Syro-Phoenecian woman did when faced with exclusion herself (Mt. 15:21-28). As God’s choir of eternal praise is meant to include those of every nation, race, people, and tongue (Rv 7:9), let us all come together to build that choir here and now, in this time and place, so that come Easter we may all cry together in one voice: Holy, holy, holy.

Together, let us turn away from the sin of racism and be faithful to the Good News that names us all children of God.