“Be gracious to me, O Lord! See my affliction from those who hate me” (Psalm 9:13).
Like many people, I was unaware of the Tulsa massacre. That it was not more widely known is revealing. One hundred years later? Rising murders, racial violence, and partisanship unto death is worrisome. Is a congregation’s preaching of justice only for eternity?
St. Ambrose got in trouble for selling communion vessels to ransom captives. He wrote, “It is a very great incentive to mercy to share in others’ misfortunes, to help the needs of others as far as our means allow, and sometimes even beyond them. For it is better for mercy’s sake to help someone’s case, or to suffer contempt rather than to show hardness of heart. So I once brought contempt on myself because I broke up the sacred vessels to redeem captives…. Who can be so hard, cruel, iron-hearted, as to be displeased because a man is redeemed from death, or a woman from barbarian prostitution, or boys and girls and infants from those things that are worse than death? … It is far better to preserve souls than gold for the Lord. For He who sent the apostles without gold (Matthew 10:9) also brought together the churches without gold. The Church has gold, not to store up, but to lay out, and to spend on those in need…. It is better to preserve Christ’s living vessels than gold ones. The glory of the sacraments is the redemption of captives. Truly the Eucharistic vessels are precious ones, for they redeem people from death … when the chalice redeems from the enemy those whom His blood redeemed from sin.” (“On the Duties of the Clergy, II:28, in “For All the Saints,” IV, 50).
“He who avenges blood is mindful of them; he does not forget the cry of the afflicted” (Psalm 9:12). That’s not talking about retaliation for injustices suffered; it is pointing us to Christ on the cross, both the ultimate injustice and the source of justice to our hurting communities. Perhaps more than ever in our lifetimes, the Church has a mission of life and death.