It’s All in the Name: Healing The Issue of Racism (Part II)

By Deacon Gerard-Marie Anthony

In the first part of our article, we looked at how a name helps us to recognize who is knocking at the door.   The first name we examined was the Devil’s name of Murderer/Liar as compared to the name of Jesus/Truth.   We went over truths to point to Jesus who is “the way, the truth, and the life” (Jn. 14:6) so we can begin to have a more peaceful life.   We will now look at the other names of the Devil which are Satan and Lucifer/Prince of this World. 

Satan

So let us look at the Devil’s name as Satan.   Satan comes from a Greek word Satanas which means adversary or accuser.  The book of Revelation tells us this, “Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: ‘Now have salvation and power come, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Anointed. For the accuser of our brothers is cast out, who accuses them before our God day and night” (Rev. 12:10).  So if someone is knocking on your heart and telling you to accuse your brothers day and night, to see them not as good or as a person, but simply as their faults and failings; we can know it is diabolical.   Our Lord confirms this in the Beatitudes when He says, “Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God” (Matt. 5:8).  He states this again in the Judgement of Nations:

Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.  For I was… a stranger and you welcomed me. Then the righteous will answer him and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you…a stranger and welcome you?’ And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me’ (Matt. 25: 34-35, 37-38). 

Racism

When we look at our brothers and sisters, especially of different skin colors, do we see God in them, a stranger to welcome; or do we see them as someone to accuse of the horrible evil of racism?  In this, we constantly instill doubt which is the Modus Operandi (MO) of him who has the name of Satan.  This is what Satan did to Adam and Eve and wants to do it to us as well.  Pope Saint John Paul II gives a name to those who instill this doubt which contradicts the very meaning of life by dividing, keeping people apart, and thus stops unity/love with the term “Masters of Suspicion.” (See TOB 46:6/October 29, 1980 audience).  Deacon Jim Russell explains:

The Holy Father mentions a trio of them: Freud, Marx, and Nietzsche—and the “whole system each one represents.” He further says their “hermeneutics” (principles of interpretation) correspond to the threefold concupiscence (Nietzsche = pride of life, Marx = concupiscence of the eyes, Freud = concupiscence of the flesh). The Pope says that such masters of suspicion “seem in substance also to judge and accuse the human ‘heart.’” He says they judge and accuse precisely “due to what biblical language calls concupiscence.” He adds that these hermeneutics “of suspicion” put the heart in a state of continual suspicion…(Masters of Suspicion vs. the Meaning of Life: Getting ‘Theology of the Body’ Right).

All this is important to get to the heart of this “meaning of life” being proposed here. At the opposite pole of Christ’s call to purity of heart for every human person is the hermeneutics of “suspicion” represented so vividly by these “masters of suspicion.” The very meaning of “the whole of existence”—the very meaning of my life and your life—is to choose Christ’s call to purity of heart and avoid this continual, and supposedly irreversible suspicion rooted in concupiscence.

Note that [Karl] Marx is specifically mentioned as promoting a “concupiscence of the eyes”.   John Paul II notes that Marx’s worldview prevents the eyes of our souls from seeing things clearly or from God’s point of view.  It is a manipulation of spiritual/relational/and individual optics which takes us off the correct path to the meaning of life.  Thus, Saint John Paul II notes we should be vigilant of any organization that is promoting a Marxist worldview.  When we simply accuse our brothers and sisters of racism all the time without actually taking the time to get to know them and observe their actions, we open the door to a Satanic Spirit.   But when we defuse suspicion and defend the dignity of the person by not making a rash judgment about him or her, we grow in love.  

Prince of this World 

This brings us to the last names of the Devil which are Lucifer/Prince of this World.  Lucifer means “Light-bearer.”  This takes on a special meaning when putting it next to the words of Jesus, who said, “I will no longer speak much with you, for the ruler of the world is coming. He has no power over me, but the world must know that I love the Father and that I do just as the Father has commanded me. Get up, let us go” (Jn. 14:30-31).  So, in looking at this name we must ask ourselves where are we going? Whose light are we following: Lucifer or Jesus Christ? Are we following the light of this world or heaven?  The Prince of this World wants us to focus solely on this world because then we forget heaven and thus, our dignity as well as our brothers and sisters of different ethnicities’ dignity as well.   

Lucifer does this by manifesting the false blinding-light called vengeance.   Vengeance appears as a guiding light because it looks like a type of justice.  The line of argument may sound something like this: 

They made my family’s life miserable so its “just” to make their family’s life miserable.  Certain people threw bricks through my ancestor’s windows so we can throw bricks at them and through their windows.   We were sold and traded, so we can destroy this financial system.   They beat us at night during the slave-trade so we can beat on them, so they know we are the masters.  

All of this seems just, but this is far from reality.   Black people cannot uphold their dignity by cutting down the dignity of white people and other ethnicities.  God tells us, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay” (Heb. 10:30).  The book of proverbs goes even further saying, “Do not say, ‘I will repay evil!’ Wait for the LORD, who will help you” (Prov. 20:22). Vengeance is God’s prerogative, not ours because only God can repay those who have hurt us in a just and loving way to keep His family together.   Therefore, Jesus tells us, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father” (Matt. 5:43-45).   We must love those who have persecuted us by forgiving them, not by continually living in the hurt of the past, but by going forward towards the future.  In this, we embody Paul’s words in Romans:

Let love be sincere; hate what is evil, hold on to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; anticipate one another in showing honor. Rejoice in hope, endure in affliction, persevere in prayer. Bless those who persecute [you], bless and do not curse them. Have the same regard for one another; do not be haughty but associate with the lowly; do not be wise in your own estimation.  Do not repay anyone evil for evil; be concerned for what is noble in the sight of all.  If possible, on your part, live at peace with all. Beloved, do not look for revenge… for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” Do not be conquered by evil but conquer evil with good (Rom. 12: 10, 12, 14, 16-19, 21). 

Conquer Evil

We conquer the darkness/evil of the past/this world by bringing it to light in the goodness/love of Christ which propels us forward both as individuals and as a society.   The individual can move forward because he is no longer bound by the hatred that consumed his or her heart.  No person or injury should have that kind of power of someone because total domination of the heart belongs to God alone.   Society or the community can move forward because there is no longer the blinding light of vengeance which divides the family of God by putting people against one another.  It allows us to pray in truth the words, “Our Father” because we once again live as a family of that One Father.   It is as Dr. Alveda King, niece of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. says, “There is one race- the human race and many ethnicities.”  When we live like this, we become light to the world (Matt. 5:14-17) because we are in Christ who is the light of the world (Jn. 9:5).  We reverse Lucifer’s role in becoming light-bearers not for this world, which is temporary, but for the Kingdom of God which lasts for all eternity.

The Door of our Heart

In conclusion, we can hear someone is knocking at the door of our hearts.  We have seen through the names of the Devil and God what will happen if we open the door to each.  If we open the door to the Liar/Murderer, Satan, and the Prince of this World/Lucifer we will open wide our hearts to the diabolical. In this, we will carry the world into anger, isolation, and despair as these are the marks of the Kingdom of the Devil which will bring Hell here on earth.  

However, if we “open wide the door to Christ” as Pope Saint John Paul II encouraged us in his inaugural homily as Pope, we will bring the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit into our brokenness.  Then Jesus can heal that brokenness and through that healing, we can have life in abundance (Jn. 10:10) in the Holy Spirit.  Simply put, when we carry the name of Christ into any situation, amazing things happen.  If we carry that name, the name of Christian, and live out that calling even when addressing racism, amazing things will happen.  The healing of our hearts and nation will begin by upholding the dignity of Black Life, White Life…All life and to live as one nation under God in the name of peace, justice, and fraternity!