In recent days, many around the country have expressed justified anger and outrage about the killing of George Floyd, for which four Minneapolis, Minnesota police officers have now been charged. My views on this are well represented in statements issued by Bishop Kevin Vann, our Bishop of Orange (
click here for full statement), as well as Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (
click here for full statement).
As Archbishop Gomez said in his statement –
"The killing of George Floyd was senseless and brutal, a sin that cries out to heaven for justice. How is it possible that in America, a black man’s life can be taken from him while calls for help are not answered, and his killing is recorded as it happens?"
The protests around the country in the wake of George Floyd’s killing have highlighted what Bishop Vann in his statement described as a “profound national crisis”: “the immense suffering in the U.S. resulting from … the longstanding historical instances of oppression which find their roots in racist attitudes and practices which continue to dominate through political, legal, and economic structures.” Thus, as Archbishop Gomez said –
"We should all understand that the protests we are seeing in our cities reflect the justified frustration and anger of millions of our brothers and sisters who even today experience humiliation, indignity, and unequal opportunity only because of their race or the color of their skin. It should not be this way in America. Racism has been tolerated for far too long in our way of life… We should not fail to hear what people are saying through their pain. We need to finally root out the racial injustice that still infects too many areas of American society."
I am disturbed by how some people in the Los Angeles metropolitan area and across the country have chosen during this time to engage in looting and violence, which at times has seemed to drown out the voices of peaceful protestors and their important message. As Archbishop Gomez said in his statement –
"Legitimate protests should not be exploited by persons who have different values and agendas. Burning and looting communities, ruining the livelihoods of our neighbors, does not advance the cause of racial equality and human dignity."
I am also disturbed that some voices during this time have seemed to accuse all police officers and law enforcement personnel of racism and discriminatory behavior. As Archbishop Gomez said in his statement, “the cruelty and violence” that George Floyd “suffered does not reflect on the majority of good men and women in law enforcement, who carry out their duties with honor.”
How do we move forward from here? Fact is, there is only one way forward – the way of love, the way our Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, bound together as one God by their infinite love. In our celebration of Trinity Sunday this weekend, we meditate upon the mystery of the Trinity. But the mystery of the Trinity is not nearly as complicated as we sometimes try to make it, because the mystery of the Trinity comes down to one simple thing: love – how the three Persons of the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, are in a relationship of infinite love with one another as one God.
And our Triune God who made us human beings in his image and likeness also made us to be in a relationship of love with one another. So as human beings made in God’s image and likeness, we have the ability to receive the love that God is always pouring upon us and share that love with one another so as to come into ever greater love and unity with one another. Of course, as sinners, we human beings also have the ability to withhold that gift of God’s love from one another in words and actions of hatred and division. We certainly have seen too much of that in recent days.
So I pray on this Trinity Sunday weekend that we will allow God’s infinite love to form us and lead us forward toward greater love and unity with one another. We still have a long and difficult road ahead of us in addressing racism in our country. But if God’s love is so powerful that it can bind Father, Son and Holy Spirit together as one God, it is powerful enough to bind us together as a human family in loving relationship and unity with one another. Each of us just has to make the decision to receive God’s love and share that love always with everyone. Or as Bishop Vann in his statement quoted Servant of God Chiara Lubich, founder of the Focolare Movement, and I quote her here: “Be the first to love everyone – starting right now – and teach everyone to do the same.”