the 19th!

This coming Monday is a new holiday. Only the second time we’ve celebrated it. And this year it falls on the actual day. Juneteenth remembers the June 19th in 1865 when freedom for slaves was finally proclaimed in Texas. (Remember the Civil war had already been over a while at this time.) Of course it’s not really a new holiday. It’s been celebrated for years and years, just not by everybody. Perhaps that’s because it’s not an entirely comfortable holiday for some of us. I know that it seems like the end of the Civil War and the end of slavery were a long time ago, but they weren’t necessarily when you look at it in terms of families and generations. I had a parishioner at Immaculate Heart of Mary, a daily mass goer, who was the same age as my mom. His grandmother was born a slave. So for him when Juneteenth rolled around it wasn’t about something that happened to people long ago, it was about something that happened to his grandma. And as generations go, when MLK talked about the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners he was talking to actual people in his audience and their parents. That was 60 years ago. And when the National African American HIstory Museum was finished in DC in 2016, the women who rang the bell to open it was the daughter of a slave. That means that down through the years, just as it represented a freedom for people who were still with us, Juneteenth also represented a freedom from people who were still alive and their children.

Which is why it would be an awkward, uncomfortable event for many to celebrate, even today. I know that in my own case my family owned slaves. And I know how many generations back. And I know that in “degrees of” terms I’m only one degree removed from slavery. I count as a friend someone who remembers his slave grandma. But here in 2023 maybe I can celebrate and be uncomfortable at the same time.Maybe I should celebrate and be uncomfortable at the same time. After all, in Christianity don’t all of our celebrations come with a challenge? So let’s relax together and enjoy together and pray together. Pray in thanksgiving for that June 19th 1865, and pray in hope for all the long way we have yet to go.

A Happy and Blessed Juneteenth everybody!

–Fr Lou