Nobody Knows the Troubles I See Nobody Knows but Jesus Nobody Knows the Troubles I See Glory, Hallelujah!

Black Spirituals tell the story of a people who kept faith in God amidst the most horrible and degrading sufferings. They also are profound reflections on the mystery of human suffering. Many of us clergy, and others in various professions, write, speak and offer advice on the religious approach to human suffering. But most of us who do this have never really undergone the suffering of servitude, abject poverty, persecution, unrelenting fear and discrimination, With their companion evils of sickness, lack of opportunity, and dead-end existence. It is those who have been in such conditions who are best qualified to evangelize us on the mystery of human suffering.

Since February is BLACK HISTORY MONTH, it can be profitable for us to listen again to the voices of our black brothers and sisters. They came to this country over 360 years ago and no segment of our population has endured more kinds of imposed suffering than they have. It is the worst blot on our history, and one of the worst blots in the history of Christianity and of the human race. The question presents itself: how has this been sustained by these people in a supposedly Christian nation, and how did the black people, originally forced to accept che religion of their slave masters, reconcile the Christian idea of a loving God with the terrible sufferings they were forced to endure? Did they feel that God was responsible for their suffering? Did they maintain faith in this God despite their suffering? Or did they repudiate the Christian God because of their suffering?

We conveniently forget ugly facts which make us uneasy, so let us in a spfrlt of honest recollection do a quick resume of U.S. Black History. Up to 15 million slaves were imported to America. Captured in their African villages, they were forced to desert their families, relatives and villages, beaten along treacherous routes and herded aboard the slave ships. Christian ministers on the wharf conferred wholesale baptism on these poor chained victims being forced in to the darkened, stinking, crowded, loathesome holds of the ships. Enroute to the new world, many suffered from horrible diseases, died, and with recalcitrants were fed to the sharks.

The unlucky survivors were auctioned off to slave-owners, so-called respectable religious persons who used the Bible to sanction slavery, and who forced their twisted version of Christianity upon the slaves, emphasizing that it was God's will for them to be the masters and for the slaves to be the slaves.

I've Got a Robe, You've Got a Robe, All God's Children Got a Robe, When I Get to Heaven, Goin' to Put on My Robe, Goin' to Shout All over God's Heaven."

Some of the slaves accepted this doctrine that it was God's will for them to be in bordage, but they did so with the understanding and hope that God would completely change their condition and would amply reward them in the life hereafter. They were sustained in their dehumanized, dawn to dark back-breaking labor, their beatings, their family separations, their hunger and thirst, by the belief that their good God would ultimately give them a robe of glory, peace and freedcm, and let them shout for joy.

"0 Canaan, Sweet Canaan, I Am Bound For The Land of Canaan"

But there were others, and their numbers grew, who recognized Ln the Scriptures that Jesus came not only for a redemption hereafter, but a REDEMPTION, a FREEDOM and LIBERATION in the present world. These were not docile, passive, and unconcerned about changing their social condition. They believed that slavery could not be compatible with the goodness and love of God and that it was their duty before God to undo it. It was out of this context of protest to slavery that the black church was born. The spirituals of this black church often had a twofold meaning, deluding the white masters, as in the spiritual quoted above "I am bound for the land of Canaan" meant to reach the North, as well as the heavenly Canaan.

"There Is a Balm in Gilead to Make the Spirit Whole There Is a Balm in Gilead to Heal the Sin-sick Soul."

Even after slavery was officially abolished, when their hopes for true freedom seemed to be in vain, some cried out in anger and anguish to God. Yet, they protested their faith and hope in Him, and renewed their courage to live on and continue their crusade against hatred and persecution. After the Atlanta riot of 1906, W.E.B. DuBois wrote his classic "A Litiny at Atlanta". He wrote: "Is this Thy justice, 0 Father, that guile be easier than innocence and the innocent be crucified for the guilt of the untouched?.,. Doth not this justice of hell stink in Thy nostrils, 0 god? How long shalt the mounting flood of innocent blood roar in Thine ears and pound in our hearts for vengeance ?..We raise our shackled hands and charge Thee, God, by the bones of our stolen fathers, by the tears of our dead mothers, by the very blood of Thy Crucified Christ: what meaneth this?" But his anguish abates and he cries: "Thou art still the God of our black fathers," and consoles himself with the text:"Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, saith the Lord." He transcends the reality of black suffering and revives his hope that God, through the help of people like himself will eventually eradicate all suffering.

"Were You There When They Crucified My Lord Were You There When They Nailed Him to the Tree?"

The most remarkable element in their consciousness and in their Spirituals expressing this consciousness was the relationship to Jesus Suffering, that God Himself "took on the nature of a slave and humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto the death of the cross." (Phil. 2,5) It was this "wisdom of God and the power of God" that formed the bedrock of their courage and strength to endure and to ultimately overcome. They had no complicated questions about how God could become a human, a sufferer like themselves. Jesus knew their condition. He was one of them. He made a unqualified identification with them and takes their pain upon Himself.

"Weep No More, Marta, Weep No More, Mary, Jesus Rise from De Dead, Happy Morning."

They knew the meaning of the Resurrection too, the ultimate conquest of evil and suffering.

"We Shall Overcome, We Shall Overcome Someday."

This heritage of faith, trust in God, and collaboration with God in righting the wrongs in society found its most renowned proponent in our period of history in the person of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He championed the theology of vicarious suffering, that is, suffering on behalf of others, like Christ. "Nonviolence for King was more than a strategy or tactic for effecting social change - it was a fundamental philosophical principle which he perceived as grounded in the truth of reality. He related black suffering to the cross of Jesus Christ. He believed that suffering, if properly understood has redemptive possibilities for both blacks and whites... Basic to King's philosophy of nonviolence is the principle of the inherent worth of each individual. It does not seek to humiliate or defeat the opponent but to win his friendship and understanding. The end of the nonviolence process is toward redemption and reconciliation... Nonviolence is a willingness to accept suffering without retaliation..."Things of fundamental importance to people are not secured by reason alone, but have to be purchased with their suffering." At the center of his nonviolent philosophy is the element of love. He said: "He who works against community is working against the whole of creation. Therefore, if I respond to hate with a reciprocal hate I do nothing but intensify the cleavage in broken community. I can only close the gap in broken community by meeting hate with love."

"Where He Leads Me, I Will Follow"

The struggle to understand the mystery of suffering, and the goodness of God goes on. It goes on in many quarters, but we can look to the black community once again in these times as in the past to teach us, for it is the black community which still is the segment of our population bearing the heaviest burden of suffering. While the social problems and crimes in black ghettoes get so much publicity, the religious spirit, virtues, perseverance, accomplishments get precious little.

We can learn so much about suffering by listening to these special people. This came home to many of us at Catholic Theological Union on the birthday of Martin Luther King when two of our black seminarians - Arthur Anderson OFM, and Melvin Shorter, CP conducted our worship service. Arthur has the voice and the spirit to recreate the mood and the tradition of the Black Spirituals, which he did, and Melvin has the words and the cadence to recall the great black preachers, which he did. They carried the torch of their black heritage, showing that same spirit existent today. I quote some of Melvin's words.

"Through the efforts of Dr. King and others, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 also was passed. Blacks and poor folks were gaining ground in the American dream. Racial tensions were lessening. Doors to white-only universities were opening. Blacks were being considered and hired in positions other than civil service. And black people were gaining self-respect. The black child need not be ashamed any longer of his or her blackness. The black man was gaining respect as a human being. In essence, the decade of the '60's provided an outpouring of new laws and pronouncements ostensibly guaranteeing not only freedom but also socio-economic progress. But 'where are we today?'

"Don't Leave Me, Lord, Don't Leave Me Behin'."

INSTITUTIONALLY, blacks in government, military, family, church, schools, are under attack for either real or imagined defects. POLITICALLY, less than 1% of all elected officials are black. We are experiencing the realities of redistricting, which will make us question if we have representation as we know it. ECONOMICALLY, it is clear that the 'haves' have more; the 'have-nots' have not at all; the 'must haves' are relegated to the 'maybes', and since the 'maybes' are not the 'would bes', the 'would-have-beens' simply won't be.

The price of existence remains too high. Unemployment has reached over 10% and in the black neighborhoods the figure is 20%. Unemployed young blacks is over 50%. Our black schools are over-crowded and ill-equipped and drugs are more available than books. Black children are being promoted because of age and size. Many have matriculated for 12 years but at the end, can neither read nor write. At the end of 12 years they are being awarded a certificate of attendance rather than a high school diploma. In higher education, black colleges are fighting for survival.

It is clear that we cannot sit back and feed off the progress of the '60's. The lessons of the '70's and the painful realities of the 'SO's clearly indicate that the fight of justice, equality and freedom is not over. We have come a long way, but we have a long way to go.

Whatever segment of our history from 1619 and beyond we select, there were always those who sometimes stumbled but refused to fall. Bent, but refused to break. Tried but refused to quit. Burdened but unbowed. Historically, we struck out with little more than a nickel or a nail in our pockets, and we rose against the odds as giants in our times.

Today, I stand before you and challenge you to look about you and realize that the chains of slavery and bondage are still about us. Until we learn to love one another, to understand one another, to respect one another, we will never be free.

We will never be free in a country that allows defense spending to increase while spending for social programs decreases. We will never be free in a country that allows 20,000 people to stand in a line all night trying to get one of 2,000 jobs. We will never be free in a country that allows nuclear warfare stock piles to build up while food pantries are closed because of lack of food, while social security benefits are decreased, while people have to resort to stealing food and money to raise a family. We will never be free as long as we refuse to recognize, to talk to, to reach out and to help one another."

Editor's Note:

• Material in this article has been taken principally from Dr. Henry James Young's "Redemption In And Through Or Despite Suffering?" in THE MEANING OF HUMAN SUFFERING (Ed. Flavian Dougherty), Human Sciences Press, NY. Also used: H.J. Young, PREACHING ON SUFFERING AND A GOD OF LOVE, Fortress Press, Phila., Pa., and James H. Cone, THE SPIRITUALS AND THE BLUES, Seabury, NY.