Latest / Padre Alberto (Father Albert) / BE SALT AND LIGHT #FatherAlbertCutie

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BE SALT AND LIGHT #FatherAlbertCutie · Padre Alberto (Father Albert)

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  We had a teacher in high school that at the beginning of the
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  semester, the first thing she said is in this class you're
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  going to have many pop quizzes. He can handle my phone there.
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  The pop quiz. I forgot all the details of the
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  pop quiz. Did you have a teacher like that
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  with a pop quiz? Anybody really?
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  You didn't have the pop quiz teacher?
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  Oh, I had the pop quiz teacher and every time she announced it,
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  it was like pop quiz. So I'm going to start this
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  homily today with a pop quiz, a spiritual pop quiz number one.
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  And please just keep it to yourself.
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  Name the five wealthiest people in the world #2 name the five
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  last Heisman Trophy winners. I know one of them because he
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  happens to be a Cuban American. But name the last five Heisman
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  Trophy winners. Name the last five winners of
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  the Miss America pageant. It's hard, isn't it?
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  But what have I told you? That these are really the most
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  important pop quiz spiritual pop quiz questions number one, Who
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  fed and clothed you when you needed help as a child #2 What
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  was the name of your first grade teacher?
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  It's a great one. You know what happened to me in
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  first grade, right? My first day of first grade.
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  San Juan PR Sacred Heart School is an an American nuns from
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  Philadelphia ran the school. Sacred Heart School 1st grade
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  teachers has to meet is your name Alberto Coutier is your
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  grandfather. She was my granddad's girlfriend
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  back in the day. So of course, Miss Solaire, I
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  get home and I say to my grandfather in front of my
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  grandmother. Oh, my first grade teacher was
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  your girlfriend and my grandma's like what you talking about
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  Willis? Oh, it was, it was interesting.
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  I'll never forget her. Who is number 3?
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  Who is the first friend you would call if you had an
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  emergency? So today Jesus says you are the
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  salt of the earth. You are the light of the world.
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  Those people that you could name in that pop quiz, in that second
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  part of the pop quiz, those were people who were salt and light
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  to you. And so we are called to be salt
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  and light. Now, salt, you know, it's a
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  tricky thing because we think of salt as being a cheap thing and
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  a shaker. You know, in the restaurant,
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  Basam El Assad passed me the salt and you got a little thing
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  there. You pass it along, right?
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  Well, there's a great book that everyone should read.
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  It was written in 2002. And every once in a while I like
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  to, like, keep up with what are the best sellers?
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  What are they saying? And I love special.
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  If I'm not reading theology and philosophy, you're going to
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  catch me reading history. I love history.
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  As a matter of fact, I just read recently a book on the history
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  of rum. Come on, history of rum.
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  Did you know that the Jamesons, the Jamaicans taught the Cubans
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  how to make rum? Did you know that, Mister
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  Chambers? Did you know that the Jamesons
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  taught the Bacardis with the barrels how to make the room
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  about 100 years before? Salt has a history, and it's
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  part of the history of the world.
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  Salt, a world history. The author is Mark Kurlansky.
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  It's a fascinating story because he tells us how salt shaped
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  civilizations. It was it was it was key to
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  trade in wars in the world economy.
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  Salt, believe it or not, that we take so for granted.
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  We throw it in the streets to smell the to to to melt the
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  snow, right. Lots of salt of north right now.
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  But it was responsible for revolutions, for empires, and it
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  even served as a currency. Did you know the word salary
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  comes from salt salary? Because the Roman soldiers were
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  paid with salt men and showing up on Friday.
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  And instead of handing your wife the paycheck here, honey, here's
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  some salt. I should try that.
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  Maybe it'll work. The truth is, salt is very much
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  tied to human civilization and very much tied to our history.
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  The book covers the importance of salt all the way from ancient
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  China to the American Revolution.
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  Very, very important. And it wasn't until modern
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  chemistry, you know, made it very common that we were able to
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  just make salt so accessible. So salt was a preservative to
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  keep meats and fish and everything.
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  Before we had refrigerators, before we had Best Buy, salt was
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  the one that kept stuff from rotting.
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  So spiritually speaking, we say, oh, that person's salt of the
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  earth, or she's salt of the earth.
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  Don't we say that we're talking about a person of great
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  integrity, a person that is just so good.
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  Did you know salt is also a covenant in the Bible?
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  In the Old Testament, in the book of Leviticus, in the book
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  of Chronicles, people would eat salt with someone as a sign of a
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  lifelong loyalty and fellowship. Interesting.
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  It's in the Bible light, of course.
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  Well, we know you are the light of the world, he tells his
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  disciples. Imagine it was a time without
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  electricity. So a little single small oil
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  lamp. Jesus says you should put it up
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  so that everyone in the house can see.
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  You don't hide it. You don't put it underneath.
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  Well, spiritually speaking, people of faith must make their
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  faith visible. We should not hide it.
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  Jesus uses several examples of that.
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  So we must be salt, we must be light, we must have an active
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  Christian faith. Our faith makes a difference
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  because the saltiness is not just about flavour.
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  The saltiness is about integrity, purity, living out
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  the message. Light doesn't exist just for
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  itself. It's meant to reflect.
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  It's like the moon. You know, the moon doesn't
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  really have a light of its own. It gets that from the sun, and
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  then the moon reflects the light.
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  Like Christians, we must reflect.
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  Like the moon, we must reflect the light of Christ if we are
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  Christians, especially into the brokenness and darkness of this
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  world. I'm very sad to report.
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  Very, very sad to report. We are in a dark and broken
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  world. Did you see?
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  Did you hear what I saw and heard this week?
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  Did you see it? Because I did, and it happened
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  here in our nation in the 21st century.
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  Lord have mercy. Do you know what the Book of
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  Common Prayer says? I'm about to do a disclaimer.
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  You all know what a disclaimer is.
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  So I spent 30 years, I've, I've spent out of 31 years as a
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  priest, maybe 28 of them working in the media.
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  Somehow God puts me there. I don't know why, but he does.
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  And in the radio station, I hear these disclaimers all the time,
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  Peter, you know, the program you're about to hear does not
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  express the views of this station.
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  So I'm going to do a, a disclaimer because you know
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  what, the world today, it needs a disclaimer because we, we take
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  everything from one extreme to the other.
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  And we're so polarized and so crazy that now we need to do
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  disclaimers even at church. Lord have mercy disclaimer right
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  out of the book of Common Prayer, the catechism, the
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  pardon, the commandments. Listen to what the priest is
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  saying. One of our obligations as
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  Christians is to speak the truth, but listen to this and
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  not to mislead others by our silence.
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  Oh, so I talked to a bunch of my priest buddies and a few other
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  colleagues, and they said, oh, Albert, don't go there this
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  weekend. Don't go there.
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  Don't go there. Don't.
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  I said what? And I got out my catechism and
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  you know how hard it is for me to talk because I'm a very quiet
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  guy. Why are you laughing?
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  To speak the truth and not to mislead others by our silence.
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  That's the Holy Catechisms and the Holy Book of Common Prayer
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  version of it. But now you're going to hear
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  Father Albert's version. The views expressed here are
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  solely my own and do not reflect the views of my employer, the
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  Episcopal Church, any organization.
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  This is mine. I'm just doing that radio voice.
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  They do not reflect the views of any particular political party
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  or political tendency. What I'm about to say has
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  nothing to do, nothing underline, nothing with being
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  conservative or liberal, left or right, Democrat, Republican or
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  independent. Did you understand what I just
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  said? I hope you do.
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  What I'm about to say is for every person who is concerned
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  with following Jesus Christ, with following Jesus Christ and
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  being a Christian in the 21st century in the present context,
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  what I'm about to say applies to every baptized person who has
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  ears to hear, eyes to see. It's his way of love, the way of
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  love of Jesus, It's his gospel, it's his truth.
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  And this is what I need to say to God's people on this Sunday.
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  And it pains me to have to say it because I still can't believe
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  it. It's really happening this
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  overtly, this openly, in such a grotesque manner.
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  But I'm going to say it. Racism and bigotry in any form
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  or expression, whether it's words, a video, a speech.
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  Listen to me carefully, Jackie. You're not listening.
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  Are you listening to me, Jackie? OK, Racism and bigotry.
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  I got to pick on someone. You're right there.
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  Racism and bigotry in any form or expression is not compatible
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  with Christianity. So call yourself something else.
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  Call yourself whatever spiritual.
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  They love to do that. Now you know.
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  Oh, I'm spiritual but not religious.
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  Whatever. That's baloney.
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  Because if you don't go to church on Sunday, God's not that
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  important to you. OK, get over it.
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  If God's important to you, the way of Jesus is important to
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  you. Racism and bigotry in any form,
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  in any expression, is not compatible with being a follower
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  of Jesus Christ. The Bible, God's Word, says
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  this. In Galatians.
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  There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free,
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  nor is there male or female, for you are all one, one in Christ
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  Jesus. Romans says this.
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  God does not show favoritism. You think God could care less?
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  He made everything beautiful. He made us all in different
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  colors. Today I decided I would not wear
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  my regular priest black pants. I decided to wear my colorful
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  pants. And the reason I'm wearing my
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  colorful pants that were given to me by my wife and she's on
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  retreat this weekend. Maybe your pants.
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  These pants were made in Guatemala by indigenous people.
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  I have a Jamaican Doctor Who's blonde, white, with blue eyes.
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  You know what it's like to be a Cuban and people look at you and
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  say, but you don't look Cuban. What does Cuban look like?
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  We have a bunch of ignorance in our mind, a bunch of garbage, a
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  bunch of garbage and we don't realize that at the end God made
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  us all his children in his image and likeness, regardless of what
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  you look like, your skin color, rich or poor.
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  John, what? First, John says whoever claims
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  to love God yet hates a brother or a sister is a liar.
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  And in 1963 / 60 years ago, Listen, 60 years is a long time.
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  I haven't gotten there yet. I'm I'm getting there.
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  Over 60 years ago, in 1963, Doctor Martin Luther King said
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  these words. Injustice anywhere is a threat
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  to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inseparable
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  network of mutuality. Mutuality was a big word in the
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  60s, but today we would say, if we translated it, we would say
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  connectedness. You know, we're all connected.
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  Mutuality. He was, of course, a very highly
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  educated, very eloquent man, and he was saying it right at that
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  time. But I just want you to connect
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  with what he's saying. Mutuality.
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  We are tied in a single garment of destiny.
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  Whatever effects one directly effects all indirectly.
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  And I don't know about you, but my heart is broken by what I
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  saw. My heart's broken.
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  I feel my heart's wounded. There's a great book by a
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  wonderful Roman Catholic priest, Father Henry Now, and he's now
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  with God, but Father Henry now and wrote a book called The
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  Wounded Healer. I read it.
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  I read it the first time at 15 and thought I knew what it
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  meant. I, I thought.
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  Then I read it again at 25 when I was ordained and started
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  getting it. Then I read it again at 40.
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  Every time I wrote, I read a completely different book, but
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  it was the same book. You know what I'm saying?
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  Every time I read it, it was a brand new book.
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  What does that tell you? We mature, we evolve, we grow.
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  Hopefully. Looks like some people haven't
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  evolved. But some people haven't evolved.
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  Have you noticed? But the truth is, this book
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  speaks of the priest as a person who often has to be a healer for
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  others. But in your own soul, you're
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  also wounded, the wounded healer.
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  And he spoke about being a wounded healer this week.
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  I felt that way. I have to bring hope to you.
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  I have to bring you the gospel, the good news.
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  And when you see some things you see in our world, it's not so
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  easy, is it? So I believe the great lesson
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  Jesus is giving us in today's gospel is this.
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  If we compromise our integrity or hide our faith, we too become
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  flavorless, like the bad salt that lost its flavor.
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  We may still be here, physically present, but spiritually absent
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  and spiritually useless. Today, we can not just be
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  Christians. Be Christian.
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  I'm a Christian. You're a Christian.
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  I'm a Christian. I'm a Christian.
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  Stop talking about being a Christian and start acting like
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  a Christian. I'm tired of people in our
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  society talking about Christianity like it's some kind
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  of private club. Christianity is about living out
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  our faith, about looking at the beauty of every human being,
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  especially created by God, and being able to respect the
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  dignity of every human being. If you can't do that, don't call
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  yourself a Christian. Call yourself something else.
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  We have to be salt. Salt and salt also helps to
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  bring about healing. Of course.
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  We have to be light to show that there's a better way.
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  There's a better way, better path without the light.
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  When you live in darkness, you can't see the better path.
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  Racism and bigotry are are perhaps the deepest and darkest
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  form of ignorance and sin and hatred.
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  You know what happened during World War 2?
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  The leaders of all the churches and a bunch of other leaders
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  didn't say anything about that crazy man who killed 6,000,000
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  Jews. They stayed quiet.
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  They wanted to be right. And then what happened?
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  Of course not just Jews were killed.
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  A lot of Christians were killed. You know, nuns and priests were
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  killed in those concentration camps.
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  Nobody talks about them. Maximilian Colby, a great St.
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  gave his, he gave put himself in the spot of a of a Jewish man
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  that had children and a wife. He wanted him to be able to go
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  back to his family. He put himself a priest, put
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  himself in that spot. But 6,000,000 Jews were killed
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  because everybody stayed quiet and did not condemn what was
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  happening. Are we going to do that again?
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  Are we going to go into the silence mode again or just stay
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  quiet? What are we afraid of?
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  We have to speak up. We have to speak the truth.
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  There are certain behaviors that are being displayed in our
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  society today that are not acceptable.
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  I don't care how many millions of followers you have, Mr. or
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  missus influencer, if what you are saying is degrading human
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  beings, you're wrong. And you may have a million
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  followers and you may have all this, you know, podcast
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  listeners and great. There's so many crazy people out
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  there saying so many crazy things, and our young people are
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  watching. Our young people are consuming.
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  They're watching and consuming. Oh, that's acceptable.
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  OK, let's laugh about it. Ha ha, ha.
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  What I saw this week made me cry.
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  Jesus says at the end of today's gospel that the people will see
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  the good things you do. It's about being the light of
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  the world, and they're going to give praise to your Father in
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  heaven. That's true.
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  You're a good Christian. You give witness to Jesus.
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  Amen. God bless.
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  You give the praise to the Lord, Right.
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  People tell me, oh, Father, you preach a wonderful man.
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  Say, yeah, it's all about God. It's not about me.
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  So Jesus says that. They may see the good things.
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  And give praise. To your Father in heaven.
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  But I want to remind us of something God is also seeing the
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  bad things. We do.
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  God is also seeing the not so good that we do.
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  God is seeing our nation. God is seeing our leaders.
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  God is seeing the example that we are giving, the horrible
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  example we are giving future generations.
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  Hate crimes are. Up.
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  Listen to me, 10 years consistently being measured up.
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  anti-Semitism is up 200 plus percent.
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  Not on the other side of the world, not in Palestine, not on
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  that conflict you saw here in America.
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  Here in the US, our Jewish brothers and sisters are
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  terrified. They're living in fear.
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  The hatred is. Up the anti-Semitism is up and
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  today in the Anglican Communion, when you know it, we are
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  celebrating Racial Justice Sunday.
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  It started in the UK and then went to the Church of Ireland
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  and now we we kind of talk about it in America, but not enough.
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  I noticed in the UK they have all kinds of resources and
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  beautiful things. I'm going to share some of them
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  with you today here at the service.
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  I want to tell you this. We have a lot.
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  To do we have. A lot to.
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  Do we cannot be indifferent to expressions of hatred.
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  Do not spend any time any of your precious time on Facebook
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  and X, are they changing any of these things?
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  The other one, don't fighting and arguing with people who
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  think it's all OK, that it's all OK.
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  Don't, don't waste any time with that because you know what if
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  they don't get it, don't waste your time fighting.
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  Pray for them. Pray for the soul of our nation.
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  Pray for the president and his whole staff and that little
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  staffer, whoever he was, the staffer that did that, you know,
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  I don't care if it was a staffer, if it was your
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  neighbor, if it's a Co worker, it's wrong.
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  Wrong is wrong. Wrong is.
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  Wrong every. Once in a.
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  While it's good to apologize when you make a mistake or you
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  allow someone to make a mistake saying I'm sorry, you know,
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  it's, it's pretty important. But today we celebrate Racial
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  Justice Sunday to make us aware as Christians that we cannot
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  tolerate these things. So I want.
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  To share this little prayer with you, that is a resource.
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  That I found. From the Church of England,
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  Church of Ireland and it's. A way?
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  To say I'm sorry and I'm going to invite all of us to kneel
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  with me as we say this prayer. Oh God of.
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  Love. We ask for.
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  Forgiveness for the things that we have done and the things that
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  we may continue to do. To dehumanize, to oppress.
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  When we speak words that would curse and condemn.
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  When we are party to the sins of racism and oppression in all its
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  forms. When we stay silent or walk away
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  because it is the easy option. Forgive us, Lord.
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  As we remember. Your death.
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  In the midst of all that we're going through, systemic
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  violence, corruption. We ask for forgiveness for all
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  the choices that we make that sometimes make us complicit in
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  their evil. When we choose hate over love,
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  violence over peace, division over unity.
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  Comfort us, O God of love, that your light, Your love, Your
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  grace, and Your mercy will help us.
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  Forgive us, we. Pray in the name of Jesus, who
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  is the Prince of Peace and the hope of all the nations, and the
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  Savior and Redeemer of all. My sisters and.
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  Brothers, let's pass on the salt, pass the salt.
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  Turn on that light in the name of Jesus, Amen.