There’s No Time for Stopping
Along the Underground Railroad!

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Q U I C K S C A N

What Was ‘The Underground Railroad?’
The Struggle for Freedom Goes On
My Thoughts After Visiting the Freedom Center

Readers reflect on Friar Jim’s "The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary."

As you may know, this e-newsletter comes to you from Cincinnati, Ohio—a prominent U.S. city founded in 1788 on the northern bank of the Ohio River. Just four days ago, on August 23, in downtown Cincinnati a five-story building was publicly dedicated on the same riverbanks. It is the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.

The Freedom Center is a museum of sorts, but much more. This national learning center was built to commemorate a period in U.S. history when the institution of slavery oppressed hundreds of thousands of African-American brothers and sisters across our land. A primary focus of the Freedom Center is the special role played by ‘the Underground Railroad’ in eliminating this terrible, inhuman system from our midst. August 23 was chosen as the Center’s official opening because it is the International Day for the Commemoration of the Abolition of Slavery.

What Was ‘The Underground Railroad?’

The Underground Railroad was a network of people, places and escape routes that let more than 100,000 slaves move from slavery to freedom in the 1800s. During those years, Negro spirituals (songs) referred to the Ohio River, which separated the free state of Ohio from the slave-holding state of Kentucky, as the River Jordan—over which lies freedom’s “promised land.” Most scholars agree that some 40 percent of all fugitives fleeing slavery in the U.S.A. did so by crossing the Ohio River, making Cincinnati a natural destination or stopover point of the Underground Railroad.

Cincinnati is thus an appropriate site for the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. One of the Freedom Center’s main films is the dramatic story of a slave crossing the Ohio River to freedom. The film is narrated in part by African-American TV host and celebrity, Oprah Winfrey. The most notable artifact in the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center is a slave pen, a two-story wood building dating back to the 1830s found in Northern Kentucky and reconstructed in the center’s second-floor atrium. The pen was used to hold slaves before they were taken away in chains to be sold like merchandise for profit.

The Struggle for Freedom Goes On

An important aspect of the Freedom Center is that its information, films and displays are focused not simply on our past history but on our present and future. The purpose of the exhibits is to encourage visitors to take courageous steps to fight against human enslavement and to bring about freedom in our own life-situations today. That is what the heroes of the Underground Railroad—as featured in the Freedom Center—have to teach us: namely, that there is really no stopping point on this symbolic railroad; there is no resting place along the road to freedom.

One of the Freedom Center’s pertinent exhibits in this regard is “The Hall of Everyday Freedom Heroes.” By way of pictures and voice messages, the exhibit honors some 100 heroic people—local, national and international—who have fought for freedom, equality and human rights in recent decades and years (e.g., Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, Nelson Mandela). Their examples and words are meant to inspire and encourage us to keep struggling against the injustices and the multiple forms of slavery we encounter in our own communities and lives.

(To obtain a fuller treatment of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, read St. Anthony Messenger’s feature article The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center: Looking Back Moving Forward by Barbara Beckwith. Or visit the official Web site of the Freedom Center: www.freedomcenter.org)

My Thoughts After Visiting the Freedom Center

After recently making a two-hour visit (many more hours are needed for a full visit) to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, I asked myself what my own Judaeo-Christian heritage has to say about my responsibility and role in the struggle against slavery and toward freedom. Reflecting on the example of Martin Luther King, Jr., helped me in this regard. To a large extent, I’m sure that Dr. King, as a Christian minister and civil rights leader, looked to Jesus Christ as a pre-eminent model for bringing human beings out of slavery, bondage and oppression.

I firmly believe that you and I should do the same. At the beginning of his ministry, Jesus dramatically described his mission on this earth by reading boldly from the Prophet Isaiah in the synagogue at Nazareth: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me…to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free…”(Luke 4:18-19).

Jesus was not acting in a vacuum. He was part of a long tradition going back to Moses and the Hebrew prophets. Moses himself, as well as other prophets, was a great model of liberation. From the burning bush Yahweh told him that his (Moses’) mission was to set free an enslaved people. “I have seen how the Egyptians oppress them,” Yahweh told Moses. “So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt” (Exodus 3:9-10).

All of us who claim Christ or the Bible as our guides are called to a similar mission: to help rid the world of every form of slavery and sin—whether that sin be personal or social. Indeed, we are called to participate in Jesus’ mission of healing—healing, of course, being another word for liberation. In almost every page of the gospels, Jesus is liberating people—freeing them from blindness, deafness, disease, disability, oppression, exploitation, greed or anything else that enslaves them or hinders their full development as human beings created by God and endowed with great dignity. As I have already described elsewhere, to follow Jesus through the gospels is “to follow a trail of discarded stretchers, crutches, bandages and broken bonds of every kind” (from Lights: Revelations of God’s Goodness). That is an admirable path to follow!

Friar Jim’s Inbox

Readers respond to Friar Jim’s “The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.”

Dear Friar Jim: Welcome aboard, Friar Jim. I will anticipate many good messages of yours. God bless the whole crew. Chester

Dear Friar Jim: I was so happy to read about the “Reunion With Loved Ones” in the article about the Assumption. I have always believed that when we die we will be reunited with our loved ones and possibly meet members of our family that we only knew by name. I was fortunate on my mother’s side to have five living generations—twice in a row—and I sure would like to see them again. God Bless. Kate

Dear Kate: Yes, indeed, our reunion will be far beyond our wildest imagination. I’m confident there will be so many “relationship” surprises. For example, you and I may not realize it, but there are many people whose lives have been touched by us for good. We may not be aware of how God used us during our journey on earth to influence others. Some day it will be revealed to us.
Friar Jim

Dear Friar Jim: I loved your explanation regarding Mary’s Assumption and reunion with Jesus, Joseph, Anna & Joachim. When I was thinking about this for myself, it brought me comfort to think of reuniting with my nana, mom, sister brother and father. However, since we are a “family of sinners” and I assume they are (or were) in purgatory at some point, I was wondering when I go to purgatory (God willing) will my reunion with loved ones take place there, or is that reserved for heaven? Kathy

Dear Kathy: It is helpful to remember that all our relationships, both now and in eternity, are based on our relationship with God. If we are all united to God, even though imperfectly whether on this earth or in purgatory, then we are still linked to each other. Perfect union with God in heaven perfects all relationships.
Friar Jim

Dear Friar Jim: Thank you so much for your inspirations. I would like to know why don’t we, the Church, honor Joseph in the same way as we honor Mary. Joseph seems to be pushed aside and is forgotten about except for maybe one day a year. Dwain

Dear Dwain: The role of Joseph in the story of salvation is an essential one to be sure. And in fact, Joseph is patron of the Universal Church. But the role of Mary, the Mother of Jesus, is unique and no other human person is equal to her, though she is the most humble virgin mother. Joseph is honored on two days of the year: March 19, the Husband of Mary, and May 1, the patron of workers. Many people have a very special devotion to St. Joseph and, in fact, there is a Litany of St. Joseph. Friar Jim

Send your feedback to friarjack@americancatholic.org.

A Message From Friar Jack

Welcome! I hope you'll enjoy all of the news about what's happening at AmericanCatholic.org, as well as my “musings.” By the way, I am a real Franciscan friar, as is my coworker, Friar Jim. You can find out more about us here.

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