Michelangelo de Caravaggio – Artist, Painter, Irreverent Hero

I was a teenager when I discovered Caravaggio.

In 1981, when I was twelve years old and in the seventh grade, I spent a great deal of time skipping school and immersing myself in art. I would wander the halls of the MIA[1], the grand museum in my hometown, but there were no Caravaggio’s there, not in the permanent collection.

I discover the renaissance and late renaissance masters without him. And so, five years later when I did encounter the great Michaelangelo de Caravaggio, it was at the Uptown Theatre on Hennepin Avenue, my neighborhood “art-house” cinema. I was introduced to him through a film by Derek Jarman, starring Nigel Terry, Tilda Swinton and Sean Bean; it captured a great deal of his story, including the character of his life and his irreverent nature…which endeared me to him, it was only then that I became aware of his revolutionary work and extraordinary influence.

The 1986 film titled: Caravaggio was lovely and somewhat surreal, it familiarized me with Caravaggio’s significance to the history of painting, his foremost achievement being the mastery of foreshortening, a technique which allowed his images to leap from the canvass with the illusion of three dimensionality; and then there was his development of the chiaroscuro, the raw power and beauty of bringing light from the darkness which was his signature style.

In 1990 I stood in front of a Caravaggio canvas for the first time. I was in the Navy at the time and on weekend liberty while I was attending Hospital Corps School at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center just north of the city; standing in front of the giant canvas, titled of Mars whipping Cupid, I was stunned and amazed at the dramatic realism in his work.

From that point forward if somebody were to ask me who my favorite painter is, I would say Caravaggio, without hesitation. The more I learned about this masterful artist the more this remained true.

Five years later I was taking a course in art history as an undergraduate at the University of Saint Thomas, in St. Paul, Minnesota; it was then that I discovered what an anti-establishment hero he was, and because of that spirit within him, even more than his skill as an artist, I consider him a person of heroic stature.

As an Italian painter artist his principle patron was the Church, and the most common subjects he was commissioned to paint were scenes of religious devotion, but…he was imprisoned for his depiction of The Death of the Virgin, because he used the bloating corpse of a prostitute, which  he had taken from the river, as his model. He painted Mary as his model lay, in a state of corruption and decay, which was an act of heresy in his day, because the church taught that Mary was inviolate and incorruptible…even in death.

When he was commissioned to paint the Conversion of Saint Paul, he devoted seventy-five percent of the canvass to the ass of the horse Paul fell from when he was blinded by God while on the road to Damascus…another great joke Caravaggio played on his patron, a heroic gesture, for which he is now well loved.

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[1] Minneapolis Institute of Arts

A Homily – The Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

First Reading – Amos 7:12-15

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 84(85):9-14

Second Reading – Ephesians 1:3-14

Gospel Acclamation – John 6:63,68

Alternative Acclamation – Ephesians 1:17,18

The Gospel According to Mark 6:7-13 ©

 

(NJB)              

 

Listen!

 We do not serve God, the creator of the universe; we do not serve from fear of judgement. Serve from a place of love.

 Remember.

 All things belong to God: all lands, all seas, all planets, all stars, all galaxies; everything and everyone that is in them.

 Know this.

 God did deliver the Israelites from captivity, they delivered themselves.

 Be mindful…

 This is not hubris; it is greater hubris to think that God loves one group of people, a special people, above all others. It is far greater hubris to think that than to think that the Israelites escaped bondage under their own power.

 God will not rescue us from the plight and misery of this world; that is for us to do for ourselves or for us to do for each other. God does not intervene in our affairs, not because God is angry or indignant with us, but because God made us and the whole of creation free.

 God is the God of all people, whether we know it or not, nothing can alter this fundamental reality. Before the world was made God chose everyone, desiring that we live our lives in loving service to one another as a reflection of our commitment to the divine.

 We are the children of God, every-last-one-of-us, not children by adoption, we are born into this heritage.

 Know this.

 We are not forgiven for our many sins by rituals of blood-magic; we were forgiven for all of our crimes before the first moment of creation; God knew us then, and knew what we would do with our freedom, and in spite of all the harm we do to ourselves, to one another, and to the world itself, God called the creation good.

 God’s plan for the salvation of the world is not a mystery, it is an open secret, it only requires that you believe it to take strength from it, and that is the essence of faith.

 All things and beings exist within God’s Word, the Logos which is God’s own self; we bear a seed of the Word within us, the divine spark that animates us and gives us life, installed within us by God’s own breath, the divine spirit enlivens us and by which we share in the eternality of the creator.

 Consider for a moment when and where the early church began to stray from the simplicity of Jesus’ teaching, and the lived experience of the way.

 Peter would have us believe that he followed Jesus because Jesus had the secret of eternal life, as if this were the purpose of the gospel, as if “believing” that Jesus is the “Holy One of God” is the key to receiving the gift of eternal life.

 We are asked to believe that God parcels out access to Jesus and life everlasting, allowing some to come to it while refusing others according to some hidden purpose.

 This scheme is not true.

 The gospel is this: God loves you and you are saved.

 You are not saved for anything that you have done; you did not earn it. You are saved because God loves you, and for no other reason.

 The promise of salvation is not that you will be spared from suffering and torment in hell, or that when you are judged God will forgive you.

 God has already forgiven you. You are already saved.

 Believe it!

 God has prepared you and everyone for eternal life. Let the goodness of the promise flow through you now and start living according to this promise as if you knew it was true.

 We are not called to believe in the idea that Jesus is this or that, the Holy One of God, we are called to act on the principles of his faith, to live lives of charity and service to one another each other…this is the way.

 Remember Jesus, and God whom he called Father

 Is God glorious? Certainly. God is the creator of the universe, and yet God desire more than any other glory to be in a relationship with us as a loving parent.

 It is right to hope that each and every one of us comes to the full knowledge of God, this is the divine plan and it is right to hope in it. There is hope in this knowledge, hope for ourselves that we are called on to extend to everyone; even those we do not know and do not love…this is the way.

 If you teach that God has promised us riches and glories as the inheritance of the saints, remember this: the first will be last and the last will be first, and that spiritual riches are not counted in gold and silver and precious things.

 Consider the Gospel reading for today, it informs us about the ethos and ethics of the early church, weaving a little bit of mythology into the narrative, which the Gospel writers use to bolster their claim to an authority over the church which they were desperate to have.

 At the time Mark’s gospel was written the church had just recently been dealt a serious blow by the Romans who had sacked Jerusalem, destroyed the temple, and forced the people into exile.

 These events make it understandable that the leaders of the church would be motivated to claim an authority that was not their due. They were attempting to hold the people together out of a desire to protect the institution they were building.

 Therefore they instructed their missionaries to not waste any time; if people would not listen, they were to shake the dust off their sandals and move along…this was a simple injunction.

 We understand the desire to wrap the deeds of the disciples in a cloak of mystery and miracle, it makes for good story-telling. In this way their narrative extends the theme of miracle working which had already been applied to Jesus’ life, to his closest followers, thereby establishing a continuity of supernatural-power, never mind the fact that none of it was true.

 Remember.

 God is a God of law and order, not a God of miracles, magic and wonders; God does not play for an audience.

 Pay attention to the concrete thing in the reading for today:

 The Followers of Christ are taught to embrace poverty, they are ordered to take nothing with them on their journey, no money…not a thing that they do not need.

 Their mission is to preach the gospel; they are not meant to profit from it.

 All teachers of the faith should be humble enough to live this way.

 

First Reading – Amos 7:12-15

'Go, Shepherd, and Prophesy to My People Israel'

Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, said to Amos, ‘Go away, seer;’ get back to the land of Judah; earn your bread there, do your prophesying there. We want no more prophesying in Bethel; this is the royal sanctuary, the national temple.’ ‘I was no prophet, neither did I belong to any of the brotherhoods of prophets,’ Amos replied to Amaziah ‘I was a shepherd, and looked after sycamores: but it was the Lord who took me from herding the flock, and the Lord who said, “Go, prophesy to my people Israel.”’

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 84(85):9-14

Our Salvation is Very Near

Alleluia

Lord, you blessed your land; you forgave the guilt of your people.

You looked kindly, O Lord, on your land:

  you ended the captivity of Jacob.

You forgave your people’s unrighteousness

  and covered over their sins.

You reined back all of your anger

  and renounced your indignant fury.

Rescue us, God, our saviour,

  and turn your anger away from us.

Do not be angry for ever

 – or will you let your wrath last from one generation to the next?

Surely you will turn round and give us life

 – so that your people can rejoice in you?

Show us, Lord, your kindness

  and give us your salvation.

I will listen to whatever the Lord God tells me,

  for he will speak peace to his people and his chosen ones,

  and to those who repent in their hearts.

Truly his salvation is close to those who fear him,

  so that glory may dwell in our land.

Kindness and faithfulness have met together,

  justice and peace have kissed.

Faithfulness has sprung from the earth,

  and justice has looked down from heaven.

Truly the Lord will give generously,

  and our land will be fruitful.

Justice will walk before him

  and place its footsteps on his path.

Alleluia

 

Second Reading – Ephesians 1:3-14

God Chose Us in Christ Before the World Was Made

Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all the spiritual blessings of heaven in Christ.

Before the world was made, he chose us, chose us in Christ, to be holy and spotless, and to live through love in his presence, determining that we should become his adopted sons, through Jesus Christ for his own kind purposes, to make us praise the glory of his grace, his free gift to us in the Beloved, in whom, through his blood, we gain our freedom, the forgiveness of our sins.

Such is the richness of the grace which he has showered on us in all wisdom and insight.

He has let us know the mystery of his purpose, the hidden plan he so kindly made in Christ from the beginning to act upon when the times had run their course to the end:

that he would bring everything together under Christ, as head, everything in the heavens and everything on earth.

And it is in him that we were claimed as God’s own, chosen from the beginning, under the predetermined plan of the one who guides all things as he decides by his own will; chosen to be,

for his greater glory, the people who would put their hopes in Christ before he came.

Now you too, in him, have heard the message of the truth and the good news of your salvation,  and have believed it; and you too have been stamped with the seal of the Holy Spirit of the Promise, the pledge of our inheritance which brings freedom for those whom God has taken for his own, to make his glory praised.

 

Gospel Acclamation – John 6:63,68

Alleluia, alleluia!

Your words are spirit, Lord, and they are life; you have the message of eternal life.

Alleluia!

 

Alternative Acclamation – Ephesians 1:17,18

Alleluia, alleluia!

May the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ enlighten the eyes of our mind, so that we can see what hope his call holds for us.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to Mark 6:7-13 ©

'Take Nothing with You'

Jesus made a tour round the villages, teaching. Then he summoned the Twelve and began to send them out in pairs giving them authority over the unclean spirits. And he instructed them to take nothing for the journey except a staff – no bread, no haversack, no coppers for their purses. They were to wear sandals but, he added, ‘Do not take a spare tunic.’ And he said to them, ‘If you enter a house anywhere, stay there until you leave the district. And if any place does not welcome you and people refuse to listen to you, as you walk away shake off the dust from under your feet as a sign to them.’ So they set off to preach repentance; and they cast out many devils, and anointed many sick people with oil and cured them.

 

A Homily – The Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

The Feast of Saint Benedict

I earned my first Master’s Degree at Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota. The year was 2001.

Collegeville is the home of Saint John’s Abbey, named for John the Baptist, and it is the largest Benedictine congregation in the world. I studied Church History and Systematics at the School of Theology there.

Saint John’s Abbey was home to Godfrey Dieckmann, the monk who headed a liturgical reform movement that in the early to mid-twentieth century had significant influence on the Second Vatican Council and the future history of the entire Church. It changed the way Catholics celebrate the mass, the language it is conducted in, the music we sing, and in some cases even the bread we share at the eucharistic feast. These reforms were guided by the study of patristics, they represented a return to the practices of the earliest Christians, going all the way back to the Ante-Nicene and apostolic era.

While I was at Saint John’s I taught world religions at the preparatory school, I wrote my master’s thesis on the topic of universal salvation, its reasonableness and historical authenticity[1]. My work was also rooted in the Ante-Nicene world, in the theology of St. Irenaeus of Lyons, it challenged the theology of the Imperial Church and found support in other theologians from the early to mid-twentieth century, who like Dieckmann were interested in returning the church to its foundations in the way, that was taught by Jesus Christ.

My work was well received by my students, my peers and professors.

While at the School of Theology I took courses on medieval and monastic history, on monastic spirituality and one course specifically related to the Rule of Saint Benedict, from which I have taken a phrase that I use most often in my ongoing theological work.

Obsculta!

 It is the first word in Benedict’s Rule, written in Latin…it means, It is in the imperative mood, it is the command to listen.

 I use this word interchangeably with: be mindful, know this, understand and remember.

 Today we celebrate the feast of Saint Benedict, who purportedly lived between the late fifth-century and the mid sixth-century CE.

 Be mindful.

 What we know of the life of Saint Benedict comes mostly from the writing of Saint Pope Gregory the First, otherwise known as Gregory the Great. What Gregory wrote is not exactly a biography but rather a reflection on the idealized life of an abbot, most of which is a fiction written c. 593 CE.

 Benedict, whether real or imagined, produced a Rule (a guide for community living) that became the foundation of western monasticism. His rule enjoins the monk to a life of poverty, chastity and obedience, a commitment to work and to a studious-meditative reflection on the psalms…among other things.

 The life of Benedict, and the writing attributed to him has influenced the lives of thousands upon millions of people. Monks under his rule built the university where I earned the title of theologian, where I honed my skills as a historian and philosopher, where I proved my thesis that we may have faith in the salvation of all people, simply on the basis that God desires all people to be saved, it where I became a member of the magisterium of the Catholic Church and I am grateful for that.

[1] RHADUS: the Reasonableness and Historical Authenticity of the Doctrine of Universal Salvation

Observation - July 9th, 2024, Tuesday

the clouds are tall and filled with rain

the sky is multilayered in shades of gray

sunlight streaming through blue patches

closing above the greenway

cool water falling as the train rolls by

the air is perfumed with clover and sage

red-sumac and goldenrod waving

grasshopper leads me up the stairs

to cross Hiawatha over the Sabo bridge

A Homily – The Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

First Reading – Ezekiel 2:2-5

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 122(123)

Second Reading – 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

Gospel Acclamation – John 1:14,12

Alternative Acclamation – Luke 4:18

The Gospel According to Mark 6:1-6 ©

                        

(NJB)

 

Listen!

 The true prophet speaks to the people on behalf of God, because the prophet hears the voice of God speaking clearly people within the secret chamber of the hearts. God speaks to all people there, do not doubt it, but the prophet is one who is attenuated to the divine and embraces the risk of telling the truth…even to those who do not want to hear it.

 The true prophet speaks to us about justice, mercy and humility, the true prophet conducts themselves lovingly and with compassion. When we hear the prophet speak we know the teaching is real, because it echoes what God is telling us, it strikes a chord and resonates. Within us

 Remember.

 We are all children of God, the creator of the universe, we are all in our own way obstinate, imperfect and rebellious...not even the true prophet is perfect.

 The creator desires nothing more than that we love God, and that we demonstrate our love for the divine through the loving service we provide to one another. God desires mercy from us in the furtherance of justice, that we offer these as gifts to God through the mercy and justice we demonstrate to one another.

 There is one thing that God desires of us, and that we give it directly to God without intermediary; God desires our patience. Therefore, be patient with God, who you will not see in this life, unless you search for the divine reflected in the spirit of your sisters and brothers.

 Know this!

 We are not persecuted by demons or devils that are not of our own making.

Do this:

 Teach from a place of humility, instruct from a place of servitude, lead from a place of gratitude.

 Be mindful.

 We are all flawed human beings. What power we have to light the way to the divine does not come from us, but from God’s spirit within us.

 Remember.

 We are born the children of God, we are not made this way by any power; we coming into being as children of God, in the Word, by the Word and through the Word we come into being, as rational beings in a rational universe. Our status as children of God is as unconditional as God’s love for us.

 Understand this.

 The purpose of the gospel, which means good-news, is to give comfort to the poor. The gospel is meant to free those in bondage, not to replace one set of shackles for another. If you are a teacher of the faith and your ministry is not pointed to this end, then you are failing in your duty. If you use the words of Jesus to shame the poor or to justify ignoring them, if you mistreat the prisoner, the captive or the man or woman bondage, than you are doing the work of someone other than God and you have abandoned Christ.

 Consider the gospel reading for today, which suggests that there are limits to Jesus’ power. It tells us that “he could work no miracles there,” because the people in his home town would not accept him, it is as if the gospel writer wanted us to believe that God’s power and God’s love, that God’s intention for the world was conditional on us.

 The reading tells us that Jesus left his hometown feeling despised, by most if not by all. Even though we know that his mother, Mary, followed him. We know that she was with him when he was crucified, and we know that his brother James was one of the twelve disciples, an apostle of the church and the first bishop of Jerusalem.

 We know these things and therefore we should be able to understand that whatever resistance Jesus met and the beginning of his ministry, at least in relation to his family, was overcome.

 What we are told regarding Jesus’ family relations is less interesting than the revelation that the healing and miracle work Jesus was noted for, could not take place in the absence of faith. This corresponds to other passages in the scripture where the faith of the individual is instrumental in the healing of themselves or their loved ones, some even draw on Jesus’ power without his knowledge or consent, as if it were activated by their faith and not by divine intention.

 This is instructive, for us, because Mark’s gospel is the earliest of the four and it represents a less nuanced apologetic for the “miracle-working” Jesus was often engaged in.

First Reading – Ezekiel 2:2-5

These Rebels Shall Know that There is a Prophet Among Them

The spirit came into me and made me stand up, and I heard the Lord speaking to me. He said, ‘Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, to the rebels who have turned against me. Till now they and their ancestors have been in revolt against me. The sons are defiant and obstinate; I am sending you to them, to say, “The Lord says this.” Whether they listen or not, this set of rebels shall know there is a prophet among them.’

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 122(123)

The Lord Guards His People

Alleluia. Alleluia. Alleluia.

To you I lift up my eyes,

  to you who dwell in the heavens.

Like the eyes of a servant watching his master,

  like the eyes of a maid on her mistress’s hands,

  so we keep our eyes on the Lord our God,

  as we wait for his kindness.

Take pity on us, Lord, take pity:

  we have had our fill of contempt.

Our souls have had their fill

  of the laughter of the rich,

  of the contempt of the proud.

Alleluia. Alleluia. Alleluia.

 

Second Reading – 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

The Lord's Power is at its Best in Weakness

In view of the extraordinary nature of these revelations, to stop me from getting too proud I was given a thorn in the flesh, an angel of Satan to beat me and stop me from getting too proud! About this thing, I have pleaded with the Lord three times for it to leave me, but he has said, ‘My grace is enough for you: my power is at its best in weakness.’ So I shall be very happy to make my weaknesses my special boast so that the power of Christ may stay over me, and that is why I am quite content with my weaknesses, and with insults, hardships, persecutions, and the agonies I go through for Christ’s sake. For it is when I am weak that I am strong.

 

Gospel Acclamation – John 1:14,12

Alleluia, alleluia!

The Word was made flesh and lived among us:

to all who did accept him he gave power to become children of God.

Alleluia!

 

Alternative Acclamation – Luke 4:18

Alleluia, alleluia!

The Lord has sent me to bring the good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to Mark 6:1-6 ©

'A Prophet is Only Despised in His Own Country'

Jesus went to his home town and his disciples accompanied him. With the coming of the sabbath he began teaching in the synagogue and most of them were astonished when they heard him. They said, ‘Where did the man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been granted him, and these miracles that are worked through him? This is the carpenter, surely, the son of Mary, the brother of James and Joset and Jude and Simon? His sisters, too, are they not here with us?’ And they would not accept him. And Jesus said to them, ‘A prophet is only despised in his own country, among his own relations and in his own house’; and he could work no miracle there, though he cured a few sick people by laying his hands on them. He was amazed at their lack of faith.

 

A Homily – The Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

Independence Day, The Fourth of July!

I have always loved the 4th of July, the mid-summer holiday with its nostalgic look back at the victories won by the Continental Soldiers, the American revolutionaries who threw off the yoke of tyranny and the oppression of kings. I loved it uncritically as a child. I loved it in its simplest way, without thing about it or questioning the lore in anyway…and a part of me still does.

As I grew older however, I discovered the real history of the revolutionary war, the real politics of the founders and the philosophies that drove them, as well as the numerous ways in which they were morally and ethically compromised (though “compromised” is too light of a word); they were compromised by war mongering and profiteering, they were compromised by slave-holding and the exclusion of women from governance; they were compromised by religious intolerance and they were compromised by greed that drove them against the First People.

As I learned more about these historical-realities it became self-evident that the nation was founded on a carefully balanced set of ideals that the founders themselves did not have the courage to live up to.

Knowing what I know now, after a lifetime of study, it is fair to say that America was founded on a compact of lies, and though I do not love the real history with its countless tragedies, I do still love the American ideal as it was articulated by them in its simplest form.

The preamble to the constitution states that all people are created equal, endowed by the creator of us all with inalienable rights, the foremost of which are: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The self-evidentiary nature of these truths is the axiomatic principle upon which the American experiment rests.

We believe that these rights do not derive from government, they are an inherent feature of human existence; we hold that these rights do not belong to us because we are Americans, but that they belong to us because we are, and we understand the American purpose to be the defense of those rights, both within our borders and around the world…that is how it is supposed to be, and we are failing to live up to that responsibilities, both here at home and around the world.

The sad truth is this:

We have only ever paid lip service to these ideals, the articulation of which amounts to little more than wishful thinking and hope for a better tomorrow…today is the nation’s birthday…light the candles on the cupcake…close your eyes and blow.

Within our own borders we are trampling all over said rights, rights of self-determination that belong to everyone, to all citizens (women and men), including the immigrant and the resident-alien, our black and brown skinned sisters and brothers, the working poor, the homeless and every human being struggling to have their basic needs met…this is Un-American.

In America we have stripped women of their right to control their own bodies, of the right to consult privately with their doctors in regard to family planning, to use the best science and medical technology available to both prevent pregnancy when it is unwanted and to advance pregnancy when it is desired…and America women are dying because of this.   

In America out courts have declared against all good reason and judicial precedent that a president is above the law and immune from criminal culpability if they violate the law in connection with their official duties as president…never mind the fact that a president’s official duties can never be construed to include law-breaking, as the chief law enforcement officer the president’s duty is to uphold the law, to support and defend the constitution, not to undermine it.

America has always failed to live up to our ideals…maybe it is wrong to expect that we can do better…maybe this is America.

The entire rationale for the American experiment rests on the rights we see as belong to personhood, to each person and to every person, not more or less because of any group of people that they are members of.

The expression of these truth…truths which we hold to be self-evident as stated in the Declaration of Independence and codified in the United States Constitution, together with all of its amendments and the Bill of Rights, did not at the same time they were made into law abolish the institutions of slavery, give women the right to own land, to vote and many other modes of self-determination that we had come to take for granted by the end of the twentieth century; neither did it make illegal our aggression expansionism and the many wars we waged against the sovereign nations of the First People. Our stated belief in these self-evident truths and our inalienable rights, did not prevent the United States of America from entering a campaign of genocide and extermination against them.

The founders applied these principles to themselves and to their “peers” (land-holding white males of European descent), they used those principles to justify their separation from the dominion of the British Empire, they used these principles to protect their property after the War of Independence had been won, but they refused to extend these principles to everyone within the aegis of American power, and we continue to live with the repercussions of those basic failures today.

When I reflect on the 4^th of July…Independence Day, I see a day to celebrate our freedom, and our victory in the Revolutionary War; I still believe there is much to celebrate in that.

As a veteran, I know that war and combat create many opportunities for selflessness and displays of courage that most human beings cannot help but admire and applaud, even though the antecedents of war and the causes of conflict are always unjust, morally vacant and abhorrent.

I know in my heart that war, always and without exception represents a failure of human beings to live up to the purpose we were created for. In my heart, I want to celebrate the revolutionaries, their courage, the flag which unifies us as a nation, but I find it increasingly difficult.

The story of America, beginning on July 4^th, is one that has many bright moments, but we remain a foolish, cold-hearted and ignorant people if we do not at the same time recognize the millions of slaves who built our first cities, who farmed the plantations that fed the country and served as the foundation of international trade.

We must recognize the laborers who established our first industries and the millions of people belonging to sovereign nations that we crushed in our westward expansion, as we starved and slaughtered them without mercy, displacing them, outlawing their religion and customs, erasing their languages as we attempted to eradicate their heritage.

I find it difficult to celebrate, and I would like to know who among us, knowing that history, finds it easy?

A person would have to be a monster to be unmoved by the tragedies that ensued after the signing of our Declaration of Independence.

Today one of America’s two major political parties is advocating policies that have stripped women of bodily autonomy and criminalized any action that might be taken to assist them with a relocation to another state where they might be able to exercise their freedom. They are openly discussing ways that they might ignoring the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution and the principle of birthright citizenship. They are not talking about amending the constitution further, they are talking about ignoring the law, rounding up migrants, and those who they deem to be dissidents and putting them in camps to be disposed of. They would raise the voting age, disenfranchise the young, make it more difficult for the elderly and the disabled and the poor to cast their vote…today all American’s are in grave peril

The 4th of July should be a time of soul searching and deep reflection and community, forget about the flag waving and jingoism.

Ask yourself what it means to be an American; consider the immigrant and the refugee, the stolen people, the enslaved people, the conquered people, the vanquished people…and then consider the revolutionary.

We are their descendants…all of us come from all of them, the immigrant, the refugee, the stolen, the enslaved, the conquered, the vanquished; we are their children and grandchildren and great grandchildren…we are one people with a common history, and a common set of ideals.

We are a great nation, if and only if we remember the whole story, the real story…save the fireworks for the moment when we can embrace the truth of it without fear…though not without shame.