Guest priest from Washington celebrates MLK Mass in Buffalo

Family #21 representing St. Martin de Porres, St. Lawrence, Blessed Trinity as well as host church SS. Columba-Brigid showed in force and lent their talents, their voices and their energy to honor our country’s greatest civil right leader during the annual diocesan Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Mass held Sunday, Jan. 21 at SS. Columba-Brigid Church on Hickory Street in Buffalo.

Bishop Michael W. Fisher served a main celebrant with the theme “Called by Name to Serve” with guest homilist and Bishop Fisher’s mentor – Msgr. Raymond East, pastor of St. Teresa of Avila Parish in the Anacostia neighborhood of Washington, D.C.

Sister Roberta Fulton, SSMN, director of Cultural Diversity, in an introduction of Msgr. East quoted a New York Times columnist who described him as, “an insanely joyful man,” and a preacher in demand.

“We come from many tribes, and nations standing on central ground,” Msgr. East began. “And I would like to acknowledge the Iroquois federation who took care of this land for thousands of years.”

“A long time ago, God drew up some fine Western New York soil and blew into it the breath of life in his divine image … and God said it is good, and God does not make a mistake … take a look around and you will see all of God’s handiwork.”

He continued, “Sometimes we forget that all God’s children are made in the image of God. And where was that Garden of Eden?  I would maintain looking at computer evidence of the earliest human beings that it was the old divine gorge, or somewhere in the high plains of Ethiopia, or going down in the mountains of Tanzania, or in the top part of the Republic of South Africa.  Somewhere on mother Africa, the human race was formed. The oldest evidence we have is that a reminder to us that we are all Afri-kins under the skin.

“In today’s Gospel of Mark, he begins at the baptism of Jesus, coming out of the river Jordan. And you and I need to go fishing, Church of Buffalo, that is where the Gospel finds us today.

“We need to have an excitement about going fishing for Jesus, amen. Be part of Jesus’ posse, his crew, his people, his mob, his gang, his tribe. We are given an assignment to repent. What does that word repent mean? It means doing a U-turn, from doing it ‘my’ way to doing it ‘thy’ way.”  

What do we have to leave behind in 2024?  What bad habits do we have to leave behind? What enemies have we made that we need to turn into friends? What ideologies are we battling against? What toxic relationships and frenemies do we have to let go of. What change needs to happen in our hearts? Msgr. East wondered.

“Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. epitomizes the prophet Jonah who went reluctantly leaving his hometown to  preach to people that hated him and he hated them more.

“MLK followed in the way of Jonah’s footsteps and in the way of Jesus’ footsteps. Martin heard Jesus’ call. He was born in Atlanta to a father, and grandfather of a preacher. 

“Leaving the comfort of eventually taking over the Baptist church of his father, he went to seminary and then graduated early, and then receiving his doctorate he came back as Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. 

“He served in Montgomery, Alabama and he was only 25 years old when he took the pulpit. And because he was the youngest, he took the job that no one else wanted. It was to organize Christians around the concept to leave segregation behind, to leave racism behind, and to leave hate behind.” 

“This young Moses was perhaps a reluctant Moses, but he was elected at 25 to lead the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC),” Msgr. East said. 

As a young person in charge of SCLC, he knew it was going to a dangerous job, he was from Georgia. He had seen billy clubs, he had seen police dogs, he had seen fire hoses and he had seen jails, and he would later be arrested like John the Baptist and Jesus Christ, not once but 27 times in prison for the good news of Jesus Christ.  

“He followed Jesus all the way to the cross. And he had enemies … the KKK, the white citizens councils, preachers, and by bishops and elders and presbyters and all who said ‘segregation now and segregation forever.’ But he knew that God does not operate in a segregated heaven. 

“There is no white heaven or no black heaven. There is no heaven for this tribe or that tribe. God’s heaven is for everybody as Jesus makes an imperative claim upon all of his disciples and He gives them a new direction to their lives and that direction is to go fishing and bring them into the one kingdom of God.”  

When MLK was in Boston, he discovered the writings and the life of Mahatma Gandhi. The peaceful revolution of India was accomplished because of non-violence.

“We are in a time when in some political parties 40, 50, 70 percent believe that political gain must be achieved, if necessary, through violence.  That is people saying who are running for office that yes, if it takes violence, then we are going to get violent. That is not the gospel of Jesus Christ. Violence is the devil’s workshop. 

“The Montgomery bus boycott was largely successful, but unleashed a wave of horror in the struggle for civil rights. That reign of terror is unfortunately showing up again,” he continued. 

“You’ve been through it Buffalo. At the Tops supermarket, we were all horrified two years ago when a gunman came in armed to the teeth … and we still have a hard time trying to pass any significant gun safety regulations. And he unleashed a reign of terror on Buffalo and Bishop Michael had just come here from Washington, D.C.

“Bishop Michael was contacted immediately and he did what we are supposed to do. He walked through the doors and met the ownership, met the people, consoled the victims, and went to the funerals … as all of you had done.

“So that we understand that we serve a God of peace, a God of justice, a God of love, not a God of hatred and not a God who calls us to take up arms and kill people here or overseas.  

“Our immediate response must be a peaceful response of reconciliation. We need to be breaking down barriers between all of us because we are all Afri-kins under the skin,” he concluded. 

Choirs from St. Martin de Porres, SS. Columba-Brigid and St. Lawrence, as well as the Sudanese choir performed.

At the conclusion of Mass, the presentation of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarships were awarded to Lual Dut, Munachi Alaku and Ariel Nadine Faines. The Albert Lenhard Scholarships were presented to Emmanuel Agbo-Ito and Christian Gabriel Lee.