An annual Mass in remembrance of Martin Luther King Jr. attracted an overflow crowd of 250 attendees to Columbus Holy Rosary-St. John Church on Monday, Jan. 16.
Bishop Earl Fernandes was the principal celebrant for the Mass. Father Ramon Owera, pastor at Holy Rosary-St. John and Columbus St. Dominic churches, concelebrated, and Deacon Frank Iannarino assisted at the altar.
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Processing into the church ahead of Bishop Fernandes were the fraternal organizations from the Ladies Auxiliary Court 298 of the Knights of St. Peter Claver, the Knights of St. John and the Knights and Dames of the Order of St. John Hospitaller, whose members operate the Order of Malta Center of Care next door to the church in the parish community center.
The parish has commemorated the national holiday in honor of the slain African-American civil rights leader since it was instituted in 1986.
Portions of King’s prominent speeches were played before Mass, and local artists, including 85-year-old Holy Rosary-St. John parishioner Ruth Keels, displayed paintings along the outside aisles of the church.
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“Today is the day to celebrate the life and death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and what he stood for, which is really peace and justice,” Bishop Fernandes said near the beginning of his homily.
“St. Paul VI, who was the pope when I was a small boy, said, ‘If you want peace, work for justice.’ Well, what is justice? Justice is being in right relationship with one another, giving another person his or her due. And so, we have gathered, first and foremost for Mass, to give God His due.
“But being enlightened by the Scriptures and receiving Jesus into our soul in Holy Communion, we hope to be transformed, to be witnesses to His justice and, above all, His love in the world. And, therefore, we can give our neighbor his or her due.
“If we want to have peace, if we want to have harmony in our society, we need to work for justice. But we must recognize that charity goes beyond justice. In justice, we were rightly condemned for the sins of our first parents. But in His mercy and in His love, God came into the world, born a child, born to live for us, born to die for us, born to redeem us.”
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Jesus did that, the bishop pointed out, by suffering and dying on the cross for the salvation of those mired in poverty and misery and experiencing injustice.
“Sometimes the people of this world want to exclude,” Bishop Fernandes told the assembly. “Sometimes they want to exclude based on the color of your skin. It’s not so with Jesus.
“If we repent of our sins, if we unite ourselves with Him, He will have fellowship, friendship, share His life with us and therefore the life of the Father with us. Not only here below, but for all eternity.
“Jesus, too, knows your struggle from what he suffered: injustice. But He makes a promise for something better if we will unite ourselves with Him.”
The bishop turned to the Gospel reading for the Mass, saying that King, like God, extended an invitation to believe in “something new.”
“But it’s not just that he had a dream that we would be brothers and sisters to one another,” the bishop said. “His dream was, in fact – or what he articulated – was really God’s dream – for humanity reconciled to one another, through the blood of His Son. To be brothers and sisters, children of God by adoption, sons and daughters in the eternal Son, no longer Jew or Gentile, no longer slave or free, but one: one body, one spirit in Christ; one people – God’s people.
“This was God’s dream and His plan to save us from the beginning. And it was to this dream that Dr. King dedicated his life – in the imitation of Jesus who suffered greatly.”
Bishop Fernandes recalled the humble beginnings of his family in their native India and their experience as second-class citizens in that country’s caste system.
“And this is what this day, then, is about – to think about what it means to be free,” he said. “Jesus spent His whole life working for justice, to reconcile sinful humanity with His Father. He worked His whole life for this justice so that the foreigner and the leper and the tax collector and the sinner might have life.
“But as I said, charity, love is greater than justice. And He showed the depths of His love upon the cross. Do not be afraid of the cross if it comes to your life but embrace it. This is the sign and instrument of our salvation.”
The bishop continued, “We’ve been called to this feast to celebrate the new Paschal Lamb and to rejoice in the fruits of His sacrifice, which is life. And we are a people of life who cherish life and who nourish and protect life. Black lives, white lives, brown lives, everybody’s life, because we are children of God, worthy of care and respect.
“The Holy Spirit takes the different gifts of the different peoples of the land and brings them into a marvelous unity and harmony.
“Take all these voices in our choir – each voice is different, each voice is beautiful, each voice comes together in singing the praise of the living God.
“Every voice in this church should do this, and it’s not just our physical voices that must praise God, we must sing the song of the soul. A beautiful song which Jesus even sings from the cross with beautiful words in His suffering.”
The bishop then called upon the faithful to have merciful hearts, saying, “If we are to be the Church God wants us to be, then we must forgive even those who have harmed us. …
“Or when everything seems lost and everything seems dark and everything feels so alone in our suffering and no one will understand us, how about these words: ‘My son, my daughter, behold your mother. Woman, behold your son.’ How beautiful it is to have Mother Mary, who watches over us and protects us.
“No, we are never alone. Not in our sufferings and certainly not in our joy. We have one another in Christ’s Church.
“But we must now ask ourselves, ‘Do we want peace, do we want justice, do we want a better future?’ If so, what type of Church do we want to be? What type of Church does the Church of Columbus want to be?
“I hope, I pray, that we will be bold witnesses to the Lord Jesus Christ who shows us that there is a love stronger than death.
“For this, Dr. King gave his life – to be a witness to love. May every woman, every man, every child in this church say, ‘Yes, Lord, I am your servant. I will be your witness to the ends of the earth.’”
At the end of Mass, adults and students read some of King’s famous quotes referring to justice, peace and equality.
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