Something Brother Emile told me took on greater meaning just hours after we met.
It was Monday at a downtown coffee shop. We were talking about fear and trust, about the difficult process of breaking down barriers between people of different faiths, races and backgrounds, to build more unified communities that respect one another’s differences.
“Fear is the great enemy,†Brother Emile said.
A few hours later, news broke of the that had taken place over the weekend at Chesed Shel Emeth Cemetery, a historic Jewish burial ground in University City. Vandals toppled more than 180 headstones at the cemetery in an act that those with relatives buried there called “hateful†and “anti-Semitic.â€
What followed was a lesson in brotherly love. On Tuesday, people of all faiths flocked to the cemetery, asking what they could do to help. Thousands of miles away, in New York, a Muslim activist named Linda Sarsour started an to help pay for damage to the Jewish cemetery; within 48 hours the site had raised more than $90,000.
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On Wednesday, Gov. Eric Greitens, who is Jewish, and Vice President Mike Pence toured the cemetery and helped volunteers with cleanup efforts.
“There is no place in America for hatred or acts of prejudice or violence or anti-Semitism,†. “I must tell you, people of Missouri are inspiring the nation by your love and care for this place. You make us all proud.â€
It was a far cry from the message of division, most of it black and white, displayed to the nation in August 2014 during the unrest in Ferguson that followed the shooting of Michael Brown.
Ferguson is why Brother Emile came to ºüÀêÊÓƵ. The 60-year-old native of Ontario, Canada, came here to learn about our region’s historic division and, he hoped, do something to bridge the chasms that divide us.
A member of the who live in Taize, France, Brother Emile is a Catholic, like about half of his fellow 100 brothers. The others are of various Protestant faiths. The Taize brothers are a unique religious order that way, made up of brothers from different Christian faiths, with a mission of planting seeds of love and unity around the world.
In 2015, as a result of the racial wounds opened by Ferguson, Archbishop Robert Carlson invited the Taize brothers to host a Pilgrimage of Trust in ºüÀêÊÓƵ. For decades now, the Taize brothers have traveled the world hosting such pilgrimages. They went to Johannesburg, South Africa, behind the Berlin Wall, to Rwanda, Paris, London, Barcelona. They’ve been to the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota and inner-city Chicago.
For the next three months, Brother Emile will be living at Jesuit Hall on the ºüÀêÊÓƵ University campus and working with pastors and others from various Christian denominations to prepare for a that will include a march, several prayer services, and workshops put on by people such as the Rev. Starsky Wilson, who was co-chairman of the Ferguson Commission.
The goal is to ultimately get Christians from diverse backgrounds to come together in unity, open up to learning about those who are different than they are — black and white, Catholic and Baptist — and then to head back to their communities to plant the seeds that will help ºüÀêÊÓƵ grow into a less-divided place.
It’s a daunting challenge, Brother Emile realizes.
“It’s not just the racial divide,†Brother Emile says. “People tend to live here in silos.â€
Breaking out of them involves getting out of our comfort zones.
That was the point Nicole Hudson made on Facebook after she found out about the vandalism at the Jewish cemetery.
“When people talk about systemic racism, many only hear black and white, see individual people and acts, and that’s part of its power as a tool to keep the machine rolling along,†wrote Hudson, the lead catalyst at , the successor organization to the Ferguson Commission.
“What happened at the cemetery in U. City, what is happening at Standing Rock, what’s happening with immigration law — it’s all different dimensions of the same poison … It’s up to all of us who can maybe see the horror in one of those events to get really clear on how they are connected. To get uncomfortable and confused and upset and then clear again. Because it really is all connected. And it really is time for us all to say and mean ‘enough.’â€
At Chesed Shel Emeth Cemetery last week, a horrific act that could have divided was ultimately trumped by hope.
Fear lost. Love won. Come Memorial Day weekend in ºüÀêÊÓƵ, Brother Emile and his new friends hope to spread that message throughout the city, one uncomfortable moment at a time.