July 30

On this day in 1811, Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla was executed for starting and leading the Mexican War of Independence. He is regarded as the Father of the Nation. Less than a year earlier, on September 15, 1810, this priest rang the church bells in Dolores and gave a famous speech which is now known as “The Cry of Dolores.” Mexico would finally achieve independence on September 28, 1821. 

Today is also the feast day of Thomas Abel, who was a chaplain and friend to Queen Catherine and opposed Henry VIII’s divorce of her. He was imprisoned for his opposition and executed on this day in 1540. 

He was burned at the same time as Lutheran pastor Robert Barnes, who likewise had made enemies of king and bishops alike for preaching about leaders’ hypocrisy. The joint martyrdom of this Protestant and Catholic saint again point out that religious intolerance and Christian betrayal of the gospel are not limited to any particular denomination or sect. 

Today marks the birthday, in 1924, of C.T. Vivian, pastor, organizer, and civil rights leader. Not only was he an organizer of nonviolent direct action in Nashville, Selma, and Atlanta with James Lawson and Martin Luther King, Jr., but he spent decades after doing ecumenical organizing with churches working for justice. 

Reflection:

Miguel Hidalgo said:

Father Hidalgo said this during his famous speech at Dolores, indicating to his followers that even speaking out against oppression is risky business. The sense of this quote is that one lives or dies by what one says. 

With wisdom that seems particularly timely at this point in our history, C.T. Vivan said, 

This reminds me of James Baldwin’s sentiment that the reason people cling so tightly to their hatreds is that giving them up means they will have to face their own pain.

Prayer: God of the oppressed, we know that a true word has the power to shake the foundations of oppression and coercion. Speak these liberating, revolutionary words again. Amen.