Father Arturo Sosa, Superior General of the Society of Jesus
Homily Mass celebrating Nicholas Black Elk
August 17, 2022 Manderson SD
Readings: Rev. 7:2-4, 9-14; 1 Jn 3:1-3; Mt 5:1-12a

Our first reading from the Book of Revelation offers a magnificent vision of heaven. Christ stands before “ a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, tribe, and tongue.” It is clear that salvation in Christ is universal, meant for every ethnic group and people. And certainly for the Lakota tribe and tongue. 

That became the central purpose of Black Elk’s life. From the time of his first great vision at the age of nine, he felt called to be a healer, not just of bodily sickness, but as he often prayed: “That my people may live!”  To the end of his life, first as a medicine man, then a holy man in both the Lakota and Catholic senses, he prayed ceaselessly for others, for all the Lakota people, and even for all the world.  

During the recent diocesan process regarding his cause for canonization, one of the witnesses giving testimony was a woman in her nineties who lived near him as a teenager. She said he was known not just as a Holy Man but as a Prayer Man.  He would go out even in the middle of the night or a blizzard if he heard that someone was ill or dying, to pray with them. And he would pray joyfully every day with his sacred pipe and his rosary. He went to Mass every Sunday and went to sweats regularly. 

As he now stands before Christ in heaven, as our first reading envisions it, he “has washed his robe clean” by imitating Christ in being a constant and compassionate healer, praying always to spWakan Tanka in ways fully Lakota and fully Catholic. 

But there was another way he imitated Christ.  He never gave up hope, even in desperate times.  Just before Wounded Knee, he was dancing the ghost dance with so many Lakota in desperation, hoping for a miraculous return to the old ways of life. He told how he had a vision of Christ, wounded but shining with light. Soon after, at Wounded Knee, the hope of the ghost dance died. But Black Elk’s hope did not die. He believed in his visions, and gradually moved toward placing his hope in Christ. His wife was Catholic, and they had their children baptized Catholic. Finally Black Elk himself was baptized in 1904. And in 1907 he became a catechist, the most effective catechist on the Pine Ridge and Rosebud reservations for decades. 

We know where he placed his hope because he wrote a public letter to his people at that time:

“I will tell you that all of you (and myself), we are like sheep among the wolves ready to be eaten up. And you know when one sheep is surrounded by wolves, it has no place to go. That’s how we are. We are ready to be eaten up. So my friends and relatives, we should stand together and do what is right and be patient. That way the Saviour has something good for us all the time.  While we’re still living on this earth, we should be thankful to God for putting us here. And God has promised us a place when we die, and I’m pretty sure he’ll never forget us.” 558

Nicholas’ hope seems much like what our second reading tells us: “Beloved: See what love the Father has bestowed on us … what we shall be has not yet been revealed … when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”

So is Nicholas a saint? He is not yet canonized. But the Church does not make saints. God does. Most of the “countless multitudes” in heaven will never be canonized.  When the Church canonizes someone, it is to hold him or her up as a model of how to live the Beatitudes. A model of some particular extraordinary ways of “walking the good red road” which would inspire all the faithful in their own walk towards God.

As a Prayer Man, and as a man of hope in God, Nicholas Black Elk is such a model.  As someone who found God in indigenous spirituality and in Catholicism, he preached the good news that there was a Wanikiye, a redeemer, a Lakota Catholic Christ. He is a model of Christian faith that embraces the contributions of indigenous spirituality to the whole church, not just to the Lakota. A man of Spirit who found God’s spirit in all the two-legged, four legged, winged, finned, all of creation. In these days of environmental crisis, a man for our times.

Finally, since I come from Rome, you may want to know: how is the Cause for his canonization going? I can say that it is under active consideration by the Vatican Congregation of Saints, though as you know, things in Rome can move slowly. The Cause is being advocated by the General Postulator of the Society of Jesus, Fr. Pascual Cebollada, the official in our Jesuit headquarters who works most often with the Causes of Jesuits who might be canonized. I was happy to have him take up the advocacy of Nicholas Black Elk, who was such a close collaborator of Jesuits here on the reservations for over 40 years. Also aiding the Cause right now is Fr. Michael Steltenkamp, the Jesuit who wrote the book 30 years ago with testimony of Lucy Looks Twice, buried up the hill here next to her father Nicholas. I promise that as the Congregation of Saints moves ahead, we will keep you and Bishop Muhich informed.

But for now, let us all pray, Nicholas Black, Servant of God and our relative, pray for us!