I want to tell you the story of some bananas.
Inside those banana I believe was hidden a message from the scriptures. Let me explain.
A week ago Friday we received a donation of a couple of boxes of bananas to use in preparing bag lunches to give to the hungry and homeless on Saturday.
A week ago Saturday we handed out many of those bananas with the bag lunches we prepared - about 200. We had bananas left over; there were a lot of bananas.
On Tuesday through Friday of last week, we included bananas in the bags of groceries we hand out as part of the modified Food Cupboard that we continue to run on those days. There were plenty; there were a lot of bananas.
This past Saturday the bananas were pretty ripe, but not too ripe to include in some of the bag lunches we packed to distribute to the hungry and the homeless. We made about 220 lunches that day. But there was a supply of bananas left over that had been too ripe to put in the bag lunches. There were a lot of bananas.
On Sunday I used some of those bananas to bake 2 loaves of banana bread. There are still some bananas left over, and Gabi will probably make some more of her vegan banana bread from those - it’s very good. There were a lot of bananas.
On Monday morning I had a slice of that banana bread with a cup of tea.
On Monday afternoon traffic on the Vine Street Expressway was blocked by a flood of protesters. Traffic on the Vine Street Expressway comes to a halt all the time for other reasons too.
But when traffic came to a halt on Monday because of protesters who are speaking out against racial injustice in a nation that too often feels impervious to such cries, State Troopers decided that those protesters needed to be dispersed with tear gas and arrested, if they weren’t able to scramble back up the hill to the street fast enough. I know there were people from this parish community in that protest. And any reports I heard, and any that I was able to watch after the fact indicate to me that the protest was peaceful. What reason was there to disperse the crowd in a confrontational and violent manner? Because traffic was backed up on the Vine Street Expressway?!?
While all that was going on I was here at the church with the Ministry Residents. We said Evening Prayer on Monday as usual. And afterwards, as I was leaving through the Parish House doors, I came across four young people sitting on our lawn. I think they had a small sign with them, so I asked if they’d been at the march. Yes, they said, until the police drove us off with tear gas.
At this news, I offered them a word of encouragement, and I promised not only to pray for peace and for a good outcome to all this trouble, but to work for such an outcome too. Then I went inside.
And I realized that in the kitchen there was an entire loaf of banana bread, so I put it in a bag, and I got some plastic knives and some napkins, and I went back outside and I give it to the young people sitting on the lawn, feeling so down after the experience of having their protest put down. I warned them that it was not vegan, and they took it gladly.
In the Epistle today we heard, on this Feast of Blandina and her Companions, when we hear of Christians who were brutalized and killed for their faith, we heard this: “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while you may have to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold which though perishable is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”
Now, I don’t know anything about those four young kids to whom I gave the banana bread, but I know there were people from this parish community in that protest. I know there were people of good faith, and of real faith in that march. And I don’t know how those bananas could have contained those words, or words like them, but I believe they did.
Without wishing to be flippant, if stopped traffic on the Vine Street Expressway is cause for the use of tear gas, then we are in big trouble. What else might have happened? The police could have and should have ensured the safety of those protesters. They might have held traffic back themselves to make sure the march could take place safely. They might have escorted them across the Vine Street Expressway to keep them safe. That’s what else might have happened.
Stopped traffic on the Vine Street Expressway does not threaten the soul of this city or of this nation. But the sin that those marchers are protesting does threaten the soul of the city and of the nation.
If a bunch of bananas can do so much good, imagine what we could do? Imagine what we will do!
Notes for a homily preached by Fr Sean Mullen
2 June 2020
Saint Mark’s, Locus Street, Philadelphia