Memorial of Saint Maximilian Mary Kolbe, priest and martyr

One of Brother Hugo's
many birdhouses. 

Ezekiel has been called “the Father of Judaism” because of his pivotal role in the development of the Jewish religion. As the people surrendered their beloved Jerusalem to history, they learned to live as a people scattered over the entire earth. Their religion would not be the patriotic cult of king and country. They could participate in the social, intellectual, financial and political life of any nation and yet practice their religion in home and synagogue. A person’s identity was rooted in his genealogy and race rather than the place of his birth.

But even that would be challenged as the new generation born in Babylon, unfamiliar with Jerusalem, formed in the languages and customs of their new home, complained of the burden of guilt they carried:

Fathers have eaten green grapes,
thus their children’s teeth are on edge.

Americans would find this complaint very familiar. Why should we carry on the feuds – religious, racial, or national – of Europe or Africa or Asia? Let them go! We have a new beginning here!

This new generation wants to be judged by its own merits, not the accomplishments or sins of the past.

Ezekiel recognizes the justice of that complaint and promises:

As I live, says the Lord God:
I swear that there shall no longer be anyone among you
who will repeat this proverb in Israel.
For all lives are mine;
the life of the father is like the life of the son, both are mine;
only the one who sins shall die.

And for the just one:

…if he lives by my statutes and is careful to observe my ordinances,
that man is virtuous—he shall surely live, says the Lord God.

This “new” proclamation addresses an issue that is still very much with us 2500 years later. Every new generation is more than eager to enjoy the benefits they’ve inherited from their parents – the wealth, opportunity, security and culture. But they’re not so willing to inherit the burden of guilt enmeshed in those blessings.

If a man built a fortune in the Prohibition era by rum running and managed to turn that wealth to legitimate business through the ensuing decades, should his children renounce their accustomed way of life in atonement? If a family built its wealth on the back of slavery before 1865, should they hand over their opportunities to African-American neighbors?

Of course those families, by and large, have disappeared long ago, their wealth distributed to countless children and lost through the vagaries of time.

But the oppression of black slavery remains, as do the institutions of organized crime. We all know that, although most African-Americans count themselves among the middle class, a disproportionate number live in poverty. We remember too well the segregation that was endorsed and enforced by state laws throughout the South. I have classmates who had to watch a popular movie from the theater balcony, and could not drink the cold water from refrigerated bubblers.

The promise Ezekiel made to the Babylonian Jews remains as a responsibility for us. We owe to every child born in this country, poor or wealthy, native or naturalized the opportunity to receive the blessings of citizenship; and to give his and her own energy, talent, generosity and courage to the American Experiment.