Almost 30 years ago, John Paul II reminded us just what is at stake. Each person “is called to a fullness of life which far exceeds the dimensions of his earthly existence, because it consists in sharing the very life of God. The loftiness of this supernatural vocation reveals the greatness and the inestimable value of human life.”

We are all called to that great life, to the communion of heaven where “a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people and tongue [stand] before the throne and before the Lamb.” That Lamb, showed us that the very life of God is love, and love requires something of each of us. We pray that the reader will join us in striving for the end of racism in all its forms, that we may walk together humbly with God and with all of our brothers and sisters in a renewed unity.

For there is no place for racism in the hearts of any person; it is the perversion of the Lord’s will for men and women, all of whom were made in God’s image and likeness.

(to be continued)