Rosa Parks and Courage

By Bishop Paul S. Loverde
Special to the Herald
(From the issue of 11/10/05)

This past week our nation laid to rest the great civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks. I was a 15-year-old high school student in Pawcatuck, Conn., when, on Dec. 1, 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, Ala. Those who were alive at the time can never forget it. Indeed, her simple yet courageous act shocked our nation out of its complacency and set us on the course of needed change.

Looking back on that December day, we cannot help but see the logic of the Gospel at work. The victory of the cross is that of humility over pride, of the weakness of Christ over the power of evil. Rosa Parks’ simple insistence on her dignity as a person made in the image of God was no match for racism, prejudice and unjust laws. Her courage inspired countless others, and will continue to do so for generations. How often God uses the small of stature to reveal His truth.

Reflecting on her momentous decision 40 years later, Rosa Parks said, "As I look back on those days, it’s just like a dream. The only thing that bothered me was that we waited so long to make this protest and to let it be known wherever we go that all of us should be free and equal and have all opportunities that others should have."

We too might ask ourselves — what are we waiting for? Will we look back on our lives and lament "waiting" to make a stand on critical issues of the day, including abortion, embryonic stem-cell research, euthanasia, racism, domestic violence and the death penalty? What courageous yet simple stands might He have us make in order that "all of us should be free and equal?"

How beautiful it is that the Lord has given us faithful individuals whose lives seem to answer these very questions. Indeed, these lives often reveal to us that we — acting on our own — do not have to solve the world’s problems. We just have to be faithful, and God will meet us halfway.

I think of another woman small in stature but immense in heart. Blessed Mother Teresa, as a foreigner in India, heard God’s call to serve the poorest of the poor. She worked in a poverty that many of us in the West cannot begin to comprehend. Yet, she also remained faithful to the call given to her at baptism to become holy. Indeed, the life of Mother Teresa was a response to two great calls: holiness and mission. Her humility and simplicity became a bright light in a world of so much darkness.

You and I may feel a world away from a 43-year-old African-American woman on a bus in segregated 1950s Montgomery, Ala.; or from an Albanian nun serving in the slums of India. But the upside-down logic of the Gospel — where Christ meets us in our weakness — is the same today as it was for them. We too are called to simple, daily acts of faithfulness and courage. We too must respond to the Beloved’s challenge, "This is my commandment: love one another as I have loved you."

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