PHOTOS | Peace, Justice and the Call to Dream: Faithful Gather for Annual MLK Day Mass

Archdiocese of Denver celebrates unity, dignity and Christian hope at Cure d’Ars Parish in Denver on Martin Luther King Jr. Day

(Photo by Matt Walker)

By Matt Walker

Faithful from across the archdiocese gathered Monday for the 14th annual Peace and Justice Mass, held on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Sponsored by the Archdiocese’s Office of Black Catholic Ministry, the annual liturgy and event welcomed individuals into the warmth of community at Cure d’Ars Parish, even despite the cold.

“In the midst of today’s social climate, our Annual Peace and Justice Mass is an important moment for people in the Archdiocese of Denver to come together in prayer and solidarity,” said Kateri Joda Williams, the ministry’s director.

“You are the people that I see every year, that still have the capacity to dream,” said Denver Auxiliary Bishop Jorge Rodríguez as he began his homily. ”Today, our country observes this federal holiday to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr.'s birth, his legacy of nonviolent activism in the civil rights movement, his protesting racial discrimination in federal and state law and civil society.

“Unfortunately, there is a lot of work to be done yet,” the bishop added somberly. 

Concelebrated by Father Joseph Cao, pastor of Cure d’Ars, and Father Eric Zegeer, pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Denver, the Mass of Peace and Justice is an official form of the Mass for occasions such as Martin Luther King Jr. Day. 

“In the opening prayer, we cried out ‘God, who shows a father's care for all, grant, in your mercy, that the members of the human race, to whom you have given a single origin, may form in peace a single family and always be united by a fraternal spirit,’” Bishop Rodríguez continued. “This prayer recalls the truth that we, the whole human race, form a single family, united by fraternal love, because we all have the same origin, and we all have the same father.”

(Photos by Matt Walker)

The vision of harmony might sound a bit like a dream, but it can come true only with resolve and work. Care must be taken, however, to work towards the right dreams. 

“Martin Luther King is internationally known for his famous speech, ‘I Have a Dream.’ There are, as you know, nightdreams and daydreams. Nightdreams are fleeting. They don't have consistency. According to those who know everything,” he said to laughter from the pews, “we dream around 2 to 6 times every night. And our dreams can go from 5 minutes to 20 minutes. But when we wake up, all is gone.

“Daydreams, instead, are ideals and thoughts. Great projects that become consistent and real, as much as we work on them,” Bishop Rodriguez emphasized. “And this is the kind of dream we are talking about [today.] But these dreams require the capacity to dream big and to believe in our dreams. Christianity is for dreamers, not for conformists, couldn’t-care-less people, spineless people.”

Bishop Rodriguez drew on the Mass readings to show how Christians should determine which dreams to pursue. In the first reading, Saul disobeys God’s commandment to destroy all the Amalekites’ livestock after defeating them in battle. Instead, Saul’s men took a portion of the animals back to sacrifice to God. 

God’s reprimand to Saul came quickly, by way of his messenger Samuel: 

“Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obedience to the Lord’s command? Obedience is better than sacrifice, To listen, better than the fat of rams. For a sin of divination is rebellion, And arrogance, the crime of idolatry.  Because you have rejected the word of the LORD,  the LORD in turn has rejected you as king.” Samuel 15:22-23

In the day’s Gospel, Jesus speaks of the foolishness of putting new wine into old wineskins. In both cases, care must be taken to listen to God's will and then obey it. Specifically, Jesus calls us to love, and when we don’t obey, we can be like Saul, doing the opposite of God’s command, even if we think what we are doing is better. 

In short, Bishop Rodriguez said, “We must be the people that God wants us to be, not the people that we want God to want us to be.”

“The problem in Christianity is when Christians replace God’s dream with human dreams. When men try to force God's dream to match men’s dreams,” Bishop Rodriguez cautioned. “Are we going to praise God how God wants to be praised? By loving our neighbor? We’re invited today to be true Christians by retaking Jesus' dream, the church's dream, Martin Luther King's dream of a world healed from the sin of racism, inequality, discrimination, division and the overpowering of one group over the other. It is up to us if this one is to be a nightdream or a daydream. The first will never become real. The second will become real, inasmuch as we do something about it.”

For Williams and those gathered, the bishop’s message and the entire Mass served as welcome encouragement. 

“It reminds us that our Catholic faith calls us not only to hope for peace, but to actively live out justice, compassion and respect for the God-given dignity of every person in our communities,” she concluded.