Christian Slaves

Just two hundred years ago, the African slave trade was near its peak.

Regrettably, the Church had not yet become a staunch opponent to slavery.

It did however hold that slaves should be baptized before being taken to market.

Those slaves knew little or nothing of Christianity.

They hadn’t expressed any desire to become Christians.

But they would be gathered together and baptized in assembly-line ceremonies.

Those baptisms don’t seem like particularly holy or noble acts by the Church of that time.

They look more like forcing Christianity on uninterested or unwilling people.

People without the power to resist or object.

But part of the justification was that the baptism clearly established the personhood of the slave.

It refuted the position popular among some slave traders and slaveholders.

That these were sub-human creatures.

It’s a shameful thing to have to admit.

But it was mostly Christians who were buying and selling those poor slaves.

Most of those poor souls were destined to lives under the absolute control of a Christian master.

So the baptisms were intended to have an impact on those buyers, sellers and masters.

Even if many Christians of that era were blind to the fact that slavery was evil and un-Christian,

Their treatment of the slave might be tempered by acknowledgement that the slave was a person.

And not only a person, but a fellow Christian.

One significant benefit for the Christian slave was the entitlement to a rest from his or her labors.

Rest on the Sabbath.

As Jesus tells us in today’s Gospel.

The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath.

We do have one of the Ten Commandments (the Third) directing us:

Remember to keep holy the Lord’s Day.

Physical rest was only part of the intended holiness of the Sabbath.

It was also a time set aside for other special human needs:

Worship, community, family activity and quiet contemplation.

Keeping the Sabbath holy is indeed a command, and we are supposed to obey it.

But not, as the Pharisees viewed it, merely for the sake of obeying the law.

That Third Commandment is there, just like the other nine, for our benefit.

Not just as a test, or as a requirement for entry into the next life.

But as wise divine guidance for happiness in this life.

Tuesday Second Week of Ordinary Time

Mk 2:23-28                                  Read this Scripture @usccb.org