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Dear St. Christopher’s Family,
Today we’re remembering the first steps a human being every took on the moon. For many who saw it in real time, it’s a moment seared into our memories. Even for those of us too young to have seen it, the idea has captivated us and been our inspiration to learn and explore. And it doesn’t take much to set our imaginations to work. Apart from the technical challenges that made a moon landing a daunting task, the possibility of travel to the stars sparked a once-in-a-generation drive to discover and create. We’ve never looked back from space travel, and the possibilities it opens for us. And of course, the first words ever spoken on the surface of the moon challenge us still: “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”
I thought for a long time that the ‘small step’ was some requisite false humility from Neil Armstrong. I’m sure I’d have had something more self-serving to say; after all, I’d have worked pretty hard to get there. But Armstrong’s words weren’t uttered in a vacuum. That summer, 1969, was full of vivid reminders of ongoing struggles: protests against the Vietnam War, Civil Rights marches, the aftermath of the prior year’s assassinations of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy, and only weeks prior to touchdown, the Stonewall riots in New York. Apollo 11 is a reminder that we as human beings can be capable of both conquering great challenges while we are still reckoning with the pettiness and cruelty we are able to heap on each other when the other is just a little different. To be clear we need change as a society, a giant leap, if you will. But there are also steps each of us must take toward loving mercy, doing justice, and walking humbly with our God.
In a sense, we are both the wheat and the tares Jesus is talking about this week. Why don’t we go through and root out everyone we think is evil among us? Why don’t we make it a mission to purge cruelty? Quite simply, because God is trying to cultivate each of us good fruit for the harvest.
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