CABRINI: SOME POINTS OF REFLECTION ON THE MOVIE
I had the chance to see the movie Cabrini at the beginning of this past weekend. And don’t worry—I won’t say much about the actual film here! The movie did inspire me to write this post, however.
What I was most struck by in the movie was the depth of the hatred for newer European immigrants by older European immigrants. This took place in the late 1800s, so it was not far after the end of the Civil War and American Slavery. Many people also do not know the tumultuous history of New York City during this period. The City nearly burned to the ground two or three times, if my memory serves me. When the movie “Gangs of New York” came out, I thought it was a historical fantasy. In later years of going to seminary and taking specific theological courses centered on Critical Race Theory, I learned that the history in that movie was entirely accurate. Before white people decided to stop hating and killing each other and lay down the false narrative of older European immigrants being more American, they picked up the mantle of whiteness. They invited most European immigrants who came here to join the club. That began what we are still under as a nation today.
The hatred Mother Cabrini dealt with was quite real and unending. Making matters worse, the patriarchy of both the Catholic archdiocese and the secular authorities of the city merged for a particularly virulent opposition. She was also gravely ill in the latter part of her life and illness. As I watched all of her triumphs and sorrowful defeats and setbacks, I was reminded of the power of faith. Her keeping hold of a bigger picture, a reality larger than her reality, made her keep going, one foot in front of the other. I think we can sometimes lust for burning bushes, much like how occultists lust for results sometimes. But the real strength of having faith, any faith, is the grit it gives you. It is the growing edge Rev. Dr. Howard Thurman speaks of in this poem:
All around us worlds are dying and new worlds are being born;
all around us life is dying and life is being born.
The fruit ripens on the tree,
the roots are silently at work in the darkness of the earth
against a time when there shall be new lives, fresh blossoms, green fruit.
Such is the growing edge!
It is the extra breath from the exhausted lung,
the one more thing to try when all else has failed,
the upward reach of life when weariness closes in upon all endeavor.
This is the basis of hope in moments of despair,
the incentive to carry on when times are out of joint and men have lost their reason,
the source of confidence when worlds crash and dreams whiten into ash.
The birth of a child — life’s most dramatic answer to death —
this is the growing edge incarnate.
Look well to the growing edge!
She called that growing edge God and seemed to walk closely with it until she couldn’t. Times are hard in our day and time, too. The movie actually could not have come out at a better time, where in America, racial hatred and xenophobia seem at an all-time high to me. In the face of that, Cabrini would probably ask us what kind of an America we want to create now? We have that opportunity right now. We can continue to repeat the toxic and hateful patterns of those in this country who went before us. Or we can acknowledge to ourselves and our communities that all that does is give us a false sense of security that eventually crumbles.
I think it’s time to look for the growing edges in our day—the places where weeds and plants stubbornly shoot through ghetto concrete. I know they’re there; I see them and sometimes feel them. My prayer is to perceive this more.
Where do you see the growing edges?
