Oklahoma City (MLK Day inspiration)

As I wrap up a 24 hour pilgrimage yesterday, that was non stop grace and providence of God, I felt it was only appropriate to write this blog today, in reflection of Martin Luther King’s great comment, which through Jesus Christ inspired his peaceful resistance to injustice. "Darkness cannot cast out darkness, only light casts out darkness.” I emphasize this, because we do this holiday a great injustice, as the modern climate on all sides is violence in order to obtain justice, which never works as Pope Leo XIV, and Oklahoma City ended up being a bright reminder of this in a religious and unbeknownst to me, secular/political perspective.

To begin I experienced a great temptation to give up my seat for a couple of people on standby since my wife’s travel plans were canceled. I have learned however, the journey was planned, do not alter the path, unless God alters it. Move forward, especially since I had been experiencing a lot of turbulence in my life recently, and where there’s turbulence, that’s usually a good sign the devil is trying to distract me from something bigger. Ironically the day I chose to travel was the feast of St. Antony of the Desert who wrote on similar challenges circa 4th century.

With this foundation, a man sat next to me on the the plane, that I honestly had no initial intention of having a conversation with, but as I am always open to the Spirit and conversation. He eventually said something to me, and next thing you know we’re chatting it up for almost every moment of the flight. By the end, I knew I was exactly where I was supposed to be. Upon landing I grabbed my rental and went straight to the Blessed Stanley Rother Shrine, my initial reason for the travel. I wanted to take holy cards I wrote to his tomb, as a connection and blessing for the people of Guatemala, and farmers that I regularly encounter at markets. After wrapping up a moment of prayer, and turning my holy cards into 3rd class relics, I went checked into the hotel and took the lady’s recommendation at the front desk to visit Toby Keith’s I love this bar and grill.

As many know, I’m not a fan of going to a chain, but since Toby Keith was from Oklahoma, and this was a small local chain, she mentioned I would get some good Oklahoma staples here. In addition a friend of mine wrote an article on Toby Keith after his death, and since I enjoyed Toby’s music and American spirit, I thought it would be a nice homage while I was in the area. The meal was an Oklahoma experience, with country fried steak and calf fries, which come to find out the next day was not what I expected lol (baby calf testicles battered and fried, with French fries). This is life however, I tried something new, that I otherwise would not have, had I understood previously. This is a fine line of course. From here, I went to bed and prepared for a full day of moving around Oklahoma City.

Once I was up and going in the morning, I took the advice of my new friend I met on the plane, and I went to the Oklahoma City Memorial for the sunrise. I had done some research the night before, reading all the details on a Wikipedia page, which made this an even more moving experience. I parked at Old St. Joseph’s, which was affected by the blast and has a small memorial of a “Weeping Jesus” which stands in place of the rectory that was destroyed by the blast. I walked up and down all the chairs in the memorial, reading the names of all the victims as I prayed my rosary and Divine Mercy Chaplet, especially for Baylee Almon, and her mother. This was probably the most moving part of the story. There was a picture captured of this child being carried in a first responders arms, she later died. The mother shared the trauma she experienced seeing this photo everywhere she went. I can only imagine, my prayer however, was that over these last 30 years, she learned her daughter is now an extra guardian angel for her, helping in this life, with far more grace on the other side, than she can imagine.

I also prayed for Timothy McVeigh and others involved, who sadly thought political violence was the answer. During my time walking around the memorial, I met a homeless man named Greg, originally from California. We had a nice conversation, which only further made it a blessed experience, despite it being in the middle of a 20 degree sunrise. I made my way to a local coffee roaster for a nice cup of Peruvian coffee, and from here I began church hopping. I drove to St. Monica’s in Edmond, OK just to say a prayer of Thanksgiving for my wife Monica, who I met through this saints feast day, and then onto Our Lady of Perpetual Help Cathedral for mass. This the patronal devotion of the Redemptorist Fathers who were so influential in my life. From here, I went to Little Flower Catholic Church to thank St. Therese for her influence in my life and my daughter’s where I met a priest named Father Tim. We again had a nice interaction that otherwise wouldn’t have happened if I showed up during Mass due to the chaos of the crowds. I went to a Vietnamese parish as well, grabbed an onion burger (another local staple of the depression era), and I made my way back to Blessed Stanley Rother for a visit to the Shrine Museum and my final goodbyes.

As I watched the short documentary on his life, and eventual execution, I saw another person of Oklahoma City who died to political violence over a decade prior to the bombing. I’ll write a blog in July in honor of Blessed Rother’s feast day in more detail. The basics however is Blessed Stanley, a farmer from Oklahoma went to Guatemala to serve the poor in the middle of a long civil war. The government began targeting priests and Blessed Stanley after fleeing due to finding his name on a hitlist, went back to serve the people he fell in love with, and ultimately gave his life for them, never encouraging his people to be the aggressors, but instead to be a solution to the challenges (i.e. he was a farmer, who started a farm for the people to help provide much needed food). The civil war continued for another 15 years, and the country continues to struggle it’s way out of poverty due to dark divisions.

This brings me back to MLK, only light will cast out the darkness. This also reminds me of an understanding of God’s presence in the darkness I recently read. When the world is dark, it’s an absence of light. It doesn’t mean the sun doesn’t exist, but it’s simply it is absent in the moment. This too is how evil works in our world, where there is an absence of God, evil spreads it’s darkness. Only the light of God, the light of the true Son will cast away that darkness as He did on the Cross, conquering death and darkness. All the great reformers of real change in history understood this, and it’s why Christianity in it’s best and truest form to truly influenced Western Civilization to flourish through peaceful resistance, as Jesus does on His way to the Cross, rejecting political violence in trust of a Resurrected, redeemed and transcended new life. The violent times, only created divisions we struggle to reconcile, where as Jesus’ sacrifice united the whole human family that was divided previously by sin. If we see each other made in the image of God, we work to raise the dignity of all people, not just those politically convenient. In addition if ALL Lives are valued at the same level, then we like Mother Teresa taught, we will treat all lives with the same respect we would treat God, since we reflect His image.

In close I was in a bit of awe, over the prayer I wrote for Blessed Stanley Rother, the same prayer I scattered like seeds in Oklahoma, and will continue to do so in raising awareness for UNBOUND a very generous non-profit started by an American seeing the help lift Guatemalans out of poverty, and now working in 17 countries. I hope and pray you enjoy it too along with these photos.