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Day 24: It’s All About Love

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus makes it very simple. It is all about love, love of God expressed in love of our neighbor, of the people we live with and meet in our home, in the grocery store, at work or on the street. And what is love? I understand it to be the decision, the choice, the willingness to give value in my decision making to what is important to the other person. So “to love your neighbor as yourself” tells me to make the needs of my neighbor just as important as my own needs. It doesn’t say anything about that person’s race or nation of origin or skin color or religious beliefs.

Journeying toward Repentance

The United States has had many “Jonahs” throughout its history. People who have traversed our cities telling us to repent of our sins so that we might receive God’s grace rather than the judgment we deserve for our racism. Rather than emulating Ninevah and listening to the prophets God has sent our way, however, we have often rejected the message brought by these prophets. Indeed, we’ve too often killed and imprisoned the “Jonahs” sent our way when they have spoken directly about the need for repentance of the peculiar evil of American racism.

Day 23: Separate, Unequal, and Hostile

The Urban League of Cincinnati recently published “The State of Black Cincinnati 2015: Two Cities.”[1] At 150 pages of careful statistical analysis, the report describes itself as a “bleak, possibly overwhelming snapshot of Cincinnati’s African American community and its economic and social challenges.” From health care and education to employment and incarceration, the picture of “Black Cincinnati” is bleak indeed, and not a little overwhelming to this white reader and citizen.