In his "I Have a Dream" speech, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said that black people were "still languishing in the corners of American society" and were "exiles in their own land."
Jesus understood the pain of racism. He preached and gathered to himself the outcasts of society. He called these people the anawim, or poor in spirit. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God."
The relationship between Jews and Samaritans at the time of Jesus approximates contemporary examples of racism. Many of the people of Samaria were Jews who had intermarried with Gentiles during the Assyrian captivity. Jews bypassed the region altogether as they traveled between Galilee and Judea. With your students, cite Gospel passages that refer to this strained relationship: Luke 9:52-54; Luke 10:25-37; Luke 17:11-19; John 9:48. Next, read Jesus' response to this behavior: his healing of a Samaritan leper (Lk 17:11-19), the conversation with the Samaritan women at the well (Jn 4:4-42), and the telling of the parable of the Good Samaritan (Lk 10:30-37).
Discussion Questions
1. Why do you think people of different races have trouble getting along?
2. How do you respond when someone makes a racist statement?
3. Tell about a time you were excluded from an activity for no good reason?
Extending the Lesson
Ask an adult who grew up in the 1950s and 1960s to give a short presentation detailing society's (and his or her own) changing attitudes from then to now.
“Children and adolescents are being deceived by false models of happiness pushed by adults who lead them down the dead-end streets of consumerism,” Pope Benedict XVI said this past Saturday, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception and also the traditional first day of the Christmas shopping season in Italy.
In the United States, more evidence of this dire warning abounds and has for some time.
In 1967, Martin Luther King Jr. said, “We as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-orient society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”
Dr. James McGinnis, founder of the Institute for Peace and Justice in St. Louis, suggests several practical ways for teens and others to counter consumerism in his recent book Activities for Catholic Social Teaching. Share some of these ideas with your students. Ask them to suggest other ways to counteract rampant consumerism, especially during Advent and Christmas.
Some Practical Ways to Counter Consumerism
Use public facilities. Use the public library for books and videos and public parks for outdoor fun.
Critique advertising. As a way of resisting the appeal of advertising, talk back to TV commercials, magazine ads, highway billboards. Share some of this with your friends or family.
Enjoy the outdoors. The beauty of creation can delight far more than computer games and video arcades and lots of other consumer “stuff.” Walk or bike in nearby parks. Try hiking and canoeing, and camp out, even in your own backyard sometimes. Enjoy your local botanical gardens and arboretums and visit state and national parks whenever you get the opportunity.
Think before you buy. Are you an impulsive buyer or are you affected by the push to instant gratification? Is there a way you could slow down your shopping habits to allow for some time to reflect about whether you need an item before you purchase it?
Personalize your gifts. Personal “presence” can be more satisfying than purchased presents when we celebrate birthdays, holidays, and other special occasions. Surprise parties, albums with special photos and personal statements, homemade gifts, going to special places with the person being celebrated, etc., are all wonderful alternatives to consumer-oriented rituals.
Shop small. Shop at local stores and thrift stores, buy from local producers (e.g., open air or farmers markets), eat at neighborhood restaurants.
Consider the mall. Malls are everywhere, replacing many local stores and family-owned restaurants. How often and for what reasons do you go to shopping malls?
What functions has the shopping mall taken on in our nation? In your own life?
True or false: shopping malls have become the religious temples of America. Explain.
Institute an “Exchange System.” To reduce the amount of “stuff” you accumulate, for each new item you buy, give away a similar item to someone in need. This works especially well with articles of clothes but can also apply to books, games, CDs, etc.
Other Ideas
• Have the students visit the Affluenza and The Center for a New American Dream websites and come up with additional suggestions for combating consumerism.
• Read Psalm 34:1–11. Have the students consider what the Lord will do for the unfortunate who call out for his help.
• Use handouts from James McGinnis book that address this and other issues in social justice.
A stray letter was found at the post office a few years ago causing much worry and real concern. The letter, addressed to “Santa Claus, North Pole,” was not the problem. The date of the postmark—January 2—led to much discussion.
“Santa never answered the poor child’s Christmas letter,” one worker worried.
“I hope the little one hasn’t lost faith in Santa,” said another.
As such letters are, this one was routed to the Chamber of Commerce where a staff was set up to respond. When the letter was opened, everyone in the office was in for quite a surprise. The child, a six-year old boy named Edward, had written not to ask for gifts but to thank Santa for all the presents he received on Christmas Day. The staff was heartened by Edward’s letter.
Being thankful is a basic human response to all the good God has bestowed on us. St. Paul, for example, closed most of his letters with some expression of thankfulness: “In all circumstances give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thes 5:18).
Many nations, cultures, and religions have reserved special days in the course of a year to offer thanks for God’s blessings. The Jewish people have two such festivals, one near the spring harvest (Pentecost) and the other in the fall (Tabernacles or Booths) to offer thanks. In the Middle Ages, a thanksgiving day was held in Germany, France, Holland, and England in conjunction with the Feast of St. Martin of Tours on November 11. The day began with Mass and continued with a dance, parade, and huge feast highlighted by the serving of wild goose.
When the pilgrims settled in America, they remembered this day of thanksgiving. They decided to have a three-day feast in the autumn of 1621. There was plenty of food available. The native people brought deer. Lobsters, oysters, and fish were also plentiful. But the pilgrims remembered the goose they had once shared in Europe. According to historical accounts tinged with legend, "Governor Bradford sent four men on a folwing so that we might have a more special manner of rejoicing together.” The hunting party did find a few geese, but also many turkeys and ducks.
Early in our nation’s history, Thanksgiving Day began to be celebrated regularly. During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln declared the fourth Thursday in November to be a national holiday. It has been celebrated on that day in the United States in all the years since, except for 1939 and 1940 when President Franklin Roosevelt changed Thanksgiving to the third Thursday to allow for more days of Christmas shopping. Public opinion demanded Thanksgiving be returned to its original day.
Thanksgiving is not a holy day of obligation for Catholics, but many Catholics do attend a special family Mass on that day. Many parishes take up a collection of food products to benefit the poor. Some parishes even sponsor complete Thanksgiving meals for the homeless and homebound.
Usually, the Gospel reading for the Thanksgiving Mass is the account, unique to Luke’s gospel, of Jesus’ healing of the ten Samaritan lepers. After the ten had showed themselves to a priest, as Jesus instructed, one former leper returned to Jesus, fell at his feet, and thanked him. Jesus response was: “Where are the other nine?”
We, like the leper and the little boy who received all the Christmas gifts, have been abundantly gifted by God. In our Church, with the celebration of Eucharist (Greek for “thanksgiving”), every day is a day of thanks.
Discussion Questions
• What is your favorite Thanksgiving Day tradition?
• When was a time you were surprised by someone who thanked you for something you did?
• What are you most grateful for?
Additional Lessons
• Share more information on the Jewish autumn feast of Tabernacles or Booths. In Deuteronomy 16:13-15 it is described as a seven-day harvest festival. In Deuteronomy 26:1-11, each person was to offer a basket of harvest fruits while recalling in thanksgiving the saving actions of God.
• Read and discuss in more detail Jesus’ cleansing of the ten lepers (Lk 17:11-19).
• Provide information (considering inviting a guest speaker) about an agency that provides daily meals for the homeless. Share relevant details, including how many people are served, the number of families present, types of food needed, funding for the agency, etc. Encourage the students to volunteer as they are able to to serve the poor and homeless of your community.
The following "Litany on the Nonviolence of Jesus" is written by James McGinnis and included in Activities for Catholic Social Teaching published by Ave Maria Press. Use the litany with your students along with the questions related to the Scripture passages on peace that accompany the litany.Litany on the Nonviolence of JesusJesus, you wept over Jerusalem and its disregard of Samaritans and lepers, and you weep today over the escalating violence of racism and hate in our own society and world. Jesus, in the face of escalating violence,Let us escalate love.Jesus, you wept over Jerusalem and its humiliating occupation by the Roman Empire, and you weep today over the escalating violence of terrorism and humiliating occupation in your Holy Land. Jesus, in the face of escalating violence,Let us escalate love.Jesus, you wept over Jerusalem and its exploitation of the poor, and you weep today over the escalating violence of poverty in our own society and world. Jesus, in the face of escalating violence, Let us escalate love.Jesus, you wept over Jerusalem and its disregard of women and children, and you weep today over escalating violence against women and children in our own society and world. Jesus, in the face of escalating violence, Let us escalate love.Jesus, you wept over Jerusalem and its deadly use of weapons of violence, and you weep today over the proliferation of the weapons of violence, from handguns to nuclear bombs, in our own society and world. Jesus, in the face of escalating violence, Let us escalate love.Jesus, you wept over Jerusalem where capital punishment was rampant, and you weep today over the escalating use of capital punishment in our own society. Jesus, in the face of escalating violence, Let us escalate love.Jesus, you wept over Jerusalem where the forces of domination were everywhere, and you weep today over the escalating domination—all the ‘isms—in our own society and world. Jesus, in the face of escalating violence, Let us escalate love.
Scripture Passages on PeaceJohn 12:24John 15:12-13Ephesians 2:13-16Mark 8:35Matthew 5:44Luke 6:28Matthew 6:33Luke 6:37Matthew 5:38-39Luke 6:42Luke 6:29; Matthew 5:40-42Matthew 5:3-4, 7Luke 6:20-21, 24-25Matthew 5:5Matthew 5:9Matthew 5:10Questions1. Which of these Scripture passages challenges you most at this moment?2. Which most touches your heart and waht does it reveal about the things that make for peace?3. What is one thing you could specifically do to put this passage into practice?
