66 actas del ix congreso católicos y vida pública disparities in American criminal justice real - real in the humanity, the flesh, the suffering, and the cries of George Floyd for his mother. Pope Francis and Dr. King will not let us stop once we understand the world as it is. They ask us to walk alongside those who suffer. They ask us to look into the eyes of George Floyd, to hear his cries, to weep with him, to honor his dignity as a child of God. Agape is not an arm’s-length love. It’s messy, it’s painful, it’s present. And, here’s where it gets even harder, agape compels us to recognize the dignity of Derek Chauvin, the officer, who now rightfully sits in prison. We are called to love both, regardless of what they have earned. To walk with them, to be present with them. Dr. King told his followers to love the white supremacists who were subjugating them. To be clear, loving them doesn’t mean failing to hold them accountable for injustice or empowering them to commit more injustices. It means no one, no one, is beyond the reach of Christ’s love, and we are his hands and his feet so we are accountable for demonstrating that love. Our recognition of another human being’s dignity is unconditional, and it requires going beyond statistics and systems and entering into a sacred accompaniment with the person in need. That is agape. The second theme from Dr. King and Pope Francis: we respond to racism with agape, the unconditional love that compels us to seek the good of others. The third theme from Dr. King and Pope Francis - in responding to racism, we are called to faithfulness, not necessarily to success. Faithfulness requires us to live and work in alignment with the true nature of creation. We are created for relationships, and we are called to help heal relationships broken by sin and systemic injustice. We bear witness to that truth even when, and sometimes especially when, the restored relationships and the resulting beloved community lie beyond our view. In Fratelli tutti, Pope Francis explains that “loving the most insignificant of human beings as a brother, as if there were no one else in the world but him, cannot be considered a waste of time.” For we must realize “that what is important is not constantly achieving great results, since these are not always possible. …it is truly noble to place our hope in the hidden power of the seeds of goodness we sow, and thus to initiate processes whose fruits will be reaped by others.”
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