Pears of Great Value: Today you are special!

 Pearls of Great Value: You Are Special Today!

In 1936, Hailie Selassi, Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974 gave a speech before the League of Nations in 1936. Ethiopia was a member state. The far-right Fascist Benito Mussolini of Italy had invaded and made Ethiopia part of the Italian Empire. The speech is considered by many one of the most important of the 20^th Century, despite the failure of the League to rush to Ethiopia’s  aid. In addition to his prescient declaration, “today it is us, tomorrow it will be you,” he said the following:

“On the question of racial discrimination…that until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned; that until there are no longer first class and second class citizens of any nation; that until the color of a man's skin is of no more significance than the color of his eyes; that until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all without regard to race; that until that day, the dream of lasting peace and world citizenship and the rule of international morality will remain but a fleeting illusion, to be pursued but never attained.” The result: no response. We now know that much of Europe would soon be under Axis-Fascist domination, and later under the Totalitarian domination of The Soviet Union. In October, 1963, Emperor Selassie renewed his call to equality and human rights at the United Nations, acknowledging the progress the Kennedy administration was making in civil rights. Just a month later, President Kennedy was assassinated.

Fast forward: In Jamaica, 1976, Bob Marley echoed the words of Selassie in his song, War:

Until the philosophy which hold one race

Superior and another Inferior

Is finally and permanently

Discredited and abandoned

Everywhere is war

Me say war

That until there are no longer

First-class and second-class citizens of any nation

Until the colour of a man's skin

Is of no more significance than the colour of his eyes

Me say war

That until the basic human rights

Are equally guaranteed to all

Without regard to race

There is war 

Marley was correct. Human rights had and have continued to be an unattainable dream, and the result is still,  “everywhere is war.” 

On the night of October 3^rd, 1992, a young woman who had been abused as a child by her mother; who had spent time in one of the infamous Irish Magdelene laundries for “fallen women;” was invited to sing on Saturday Night Live. Sinead O’Connor sang acapella, in what sounds like Gregorian or Anglican chant, as she delivered her own version of Marley’s War, adding a verse about child abuse:

Until the ignoble and unhappy regime

Which holds all of us through

Child abuse, yeah, child abuse, yeah,

Subhuman bondage has been toppled

Utterly destroyed

Everywhere is war

Children, Children

Fight

We find it necessary

We know we will win

We have confidence in the victory

of good over evil 

At that point she ripped a photo of Pope John Paul II three times, then said:

“Fight the real enemy!” Silence. The audience was stunned. Her career in music effectively ended that night. She knew it would. But she did not want to be a pop star. She did not want to make money for the music industry. She wanted to fight evil, and in particular the evil of child abuse. She was banned from NBC for life. Her performance has been removed from the official SNL video Archives. A week later SNL made her performance the subject of a skit as Joe Pesci held up the photo, taped back together, and said, “It wasn’t my show, but if it had been my show I would have gave (sic) her a smack!” That video remains in the SNL video archive. Sinead died this week at the age of 56. Far short of seeing meaningful attempts to eliminate child abuse. 

In her 2021 memoir, Rememberings, she writes, “A lot of people say or think that tearing up the Pope’s photo derailed my career. That’s not how I feel about it. I feel that having a No 1 record derailed my career and my tearing the photo put me back on the right track.” That track was to work for a world that recognizes the rights of every person. To put an end to child abuse. She believed in the words of the late Emperor of Ethiopia, “that until that day, the dream of lasting peace and world citizenship and the rule of international morality will remain but a fleeting illusion.” 

It would be sixteen years after her SNL appearance, , July 19, 2008, that the Catholic Church issued an apology for the ongoing child abuse by Catholic clergy. As of Sunday, July 30, 2023, it has been 11,257 days since Sinead made her prophetic demonstration on SNL, not unlike the kinds of demonstrations of the prophet Ezekiel. Those of us in Maryland know we are still trying to get a fully unredacted account of what has happened in the Baltimore Archdiocese over the last century. It’s a shame that Sinead died before a full confession and accounting will be made. 

I bring this up because in our gospel for today Jesus says, “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.” The Reverend William Rich, a priest from our diocese, once suggested in a meditation at a silent retreat in the Diocese of Connecticut: God values every single one of us. We are God’s beloved! Each and every one of us is the Pearl of Great Value. If there is anything that the church can teach us, it is just this: every single person is a Pearl of Great Value. For whom God “sold”, gave, everything to purchase us. To redeem us. To keep us. To free us from all bondage. To heal us from all harm. To remind us just who we are and whose we are. We are all, in God’s eyes, pearls of great value. 

In a related posting on Facebook this past week, an elementary and high school friend posted a photo of a cake plate her mother had painted years ago. It was her birthday, and she was having strawberry shortcake on this plate. Around the rim of the plate her mother had painted the words, “You are special today.” How wonderful is that? I thought. 

Since seeing that photo I try to imagine all of us having such a plate. I imagine all of us having a piece of cake, or pie, or strawberry shortcake on such a plate every day as we look at the words, “You are special today!” I try to imagine how much easier Sinead O’Connor’s life might have been if she had had such a plate as a child. I try to imagine how much closer we might be to Emperor Selassie’s dream of that day when the world recognizes the rights of every person. I try to imagine how much closer we might be to Jesus’s dream of the kingdom of heaven on earth, if each of us just had a plate that says, “You are special today!” Jesus says to us, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” If only we could hold such a plate in our hands every day, and believe just how special each of us is. We would know we will win. We would have confidence in the victory of good over evil. A dream that has persisted since 1936, since 1976, since 1992, since the time of Jesus Christ, will one day become a reality, thanks to the lives of people like Haile Selassie, Bob Marley, Sinead O’Connor, and the community of Saints. Amen.