Carrying on the legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Catholic high school students from throughout the Diocese of Phoenix worked to establish his “beloved community” in their own neighborhoods through a service contest sponsored by the Office of Black Catholic Ministry. This is the second year the office has sponsored the contest. Student winners were recognized at the annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Mass and Service Awards Breakfast Jan. 18 at Xavier College Preparatory. The first MLK Mass was celebrated in 1992 and has been a rich tradition in the diocese ever since.
“The young people that are doing some of the projects that they’re doing, they truly have activated and are taking on the mission of Dr. King in such an amazing way,” said master of ceremonies Dr. Michelle Cromwell. “That’s what they’re doing – bringing people from the margins into the middle so they can thrive.”
Scarlett Clegg, a freshman at Seton Catholic Preparatory High School in Chandler, Ariz., had participated in angel trees, where people can choose an ornament and purchase an item for someone in need, at her home parish of St. Anthony of Padua in Casa Grande, Ariz., throughout her life. She decided to bring the idea to Seton, inviting her fellow students to participate and donate toys to Sunshine Acres Children’s Home in Mesa.
“It started off slow, but near the end, a lot of people started giving more and more and then we ended up getting 70 toys, which is a lot for the first year,” Clegg, who won third place in the competition, recalled.
Director of Campus Ministry, Robbie Peñate, helped Clegg obtain trees to place around the campus, inviting students to take a tag and bring back toys from that wish list.
First-place winner, Catherine George, a junior at Xavier College Preparatory, transferred there her sophomore year from what she described as an underfunded charter school. Attending Xavier helped her recognize the lack of resources at other schools.
“I was doing the orchestra concert at another middle school, and I saw that there were students who had to share water bottles and books, and they didn’t have the same sort of supplies that we do at our schools,” George said.
Helping provide school supplies and open educational opportunities to other students helped strengthen George’s faith, she said.
“For us, our beloved community is very important because every single child should have the ability to receive the same education as another child, and school supplies are so critical for that,” George, who attends Assumption Greek Orthodox Church in Scottsdale, Ariz., said. “Some children may not come from a background that has the money to buy those school supplies, so by providing that for them we are helping our community. We love our brothers and our sisters; we want all of us to succeed and become leaders of our country and future generations.”
Director of the Office of Black Catholic Ministry, Fr. Andrew McNair, who also serves as pastor of St. Josephine Bakhita Mission Parish in Downtown Phoenix, said he felt re-energized by the participation this year.
“There’s a whole group of young people that have a better idea of the vision of Rev. King,” Fr. McNair said. “If we can just – even if it’s just a few – imbue each generation each year with the vision of Dr. Martin Luther King, that is wonderful, and we’ve met our objectives.”
Sr. Caterina Joy Taioli, OP, brought members of the club she advises at St. John Paul II Catholic High School in Avondale, Ariz. – the Cultural Heritage Association, or CHA – to the MLK Mass and breakfast.
“I hope that they will see something thoroughly Catholic and something that can really inspire our CHA as we grow in awareness of the beauty of different cultures and of how to be thoroughly Catholic and also thoroughly grateful for where we’re from,” she said.
CHA’s mission is to celebrate cultures and educate other students about all the cultures that are present on the campus, President Avanna Anadu, a senior at St. John Paul II, said.
“We align with Dr. Martin Luther King because he started with love and peace to fight injustice,” Anadu, who attends St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in Avondale, Ariz., said. “At our club at school, it’s important that we also start with love and peace… if you meet them with love like Dr. Martin Luther King did, it’s a smarter way to do things.”
Fellow St. John Paul II senior and St. Thomas Aquinas parishioner, Miley Arellano, said she appreciated the “energy” of the Mass, and experiencing a traditional African-American worship with which she was unfamiliar.
“It’s something so different from what I’m used to,” Ariano said. “It’s so cool seeing how we’re connecting culture and our religion, and there’s something for every person, a group for everyone.”
Reflecting on the readings during the Mass before the breakfast, homilist Fr. Aaron Agorsor noted that God’s Spirit pours out justice, righteousness, peace, quietness and assurance forever upon His people.
“The context within which the prophet Isaiah prophesies is similar to that of Martin Luther King Jr: racism, prejudices, stereotypes, trauma etc.,” Fr. Agorsor, a priest of the Archdiocese of Accra, Ghana, who teaches at Arizona State University, said. “But it was also one of resilience and consolation in the Word of God.”
Fr. Agorsor, who also assists at ASU’s All Saints Newman Center, reflected on “agape” the Greek word for the love we should have for each other as children of God.
“When you rise to love on this level, you love all people not because you like them, not because their ways appeal to you but you love them because God loves them,” he said. “This is what Jesus meant when he said, ‘Love your enemies.’”
It’s important to note that Jesus didn’t say to “Like your enemies,” Fr. Agorsor said, because it can be difficult to like some people.
“Liking is an affectionate emotion, and I cannot like anybody who would bomb my home. I can’t like anybody who would exploit me. I can’t like anybody who would trample over me with injustices. I can’t like them,” he said. “But Jesus reminds us that love is greater than liking. Love is understanding, creative, redemptive good will toward all men,” a love the Rev. King preached.
