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Cardinal John J. O'Connor

''[In the Lithuanian shtetl or town of Eisysky, the Jewish population of four thousand was liquidated on September 25, 1941.] In groups of 250, first the men and then the women, the people were taken to the old Jewish cemetery in front of the open ditches. They were ordered to undress and stand at the edge of the open graves. They were shot in the back of the head by Lithuanian guards with the encouragement and help of the local people. The chief executioner was the Lithuanian Ostrovakas. Dressed in a uniform, a white apron, and gloves, he personally supervised the killing. He reserved for himself the privilege of shooting the town's notables...and he practiced sharpshooting at the children, aiming as they were thrown into the graves.

''Among the Jews that September 25, 1941, in the old Jewish cemetery of Eisysky was one of the shtetl's...teachers, Reb Michalowsky, and his youngest son, Zvi, age sixteen. Father and son were holding hands as they stood naked at the edge of the open pit, trying to comfort each other during their last moments. Young Zvi was counting the bullets and the intervals between one volley of fire and the next. As Ostrovakas and his people were aiming their guns, Zvi fell into the grave a split second before the volley of fire hit him.

''He felt the bodies piling up on top of him and covering him. He felt the streams of blood around him and the trembling pile of dying bodies moving beneath him.

''It became cold and dark. The shooting died down above him. Zvi made his way from under the bodies, out of the mass grave into the cold, dead night. In the distance, Zvi could hear Ostrovakas and his people singing and drinking, celebrating their great accomplishment. After 800 years, on September 26, 1941, Eisysky was...cleansed of Jews.

''At the far end of the cemetery, in the direction of the huge church, were a few Christian homes. Zvi knew them all. Naked, covered with blood, he knocked on the first door. The door opened. A peasant was holding a lamp which he had looted earlier in the day from a Jewish home. 'Please let me in,' Zvi pleaded. The peasant lifted the lamp and examined the body closely. 'Jew, go back to the grave where you belong!' he shouted at Zvi and slammed the door in his face. Zvi knocked on other doors, but the response was the same.

''Near the forest lived a widow whom Zvi knew too. He decided to knock on her door. The old widow opened the door. She was holding in her hand a small, burning piece of wood. 'Let me in!' begged Zvi. 'Jew, go back to the grave at the old cemetery!' She chased Zvi away with the burning piece of wood as if exorcising an evil spirit...

'' 'I am your Lord, Jesus Christ. I came down from the cross. Look at me--the blood, the pain, the suffering of the innocent. Let me in,' said Zvi Michalowsky. The widow crossed herself and fell at his bloodstained feet... 'My God, my God,' she kept crossing herself and praying. The door was opened.

''Zvi walked in. He promised her that he would bless her children, her farm, and her, but only if she would keep his visit a secret for three days and three nights and not reveal it to a living soul, not even the priest. She gave Zvi food and clothing and warm water to wash himself. Before leaving the house, he once more reminded her that the Lord's visit must remain a secret, because of His special mission on earth.

''Dressed in a farmer's clothing, with a supply of food for a few days, Zvi made his way to the nearby forest...'' [pp. 53-55]

Why have I read that Hasidic tale this morning? For two reasons. First, because on the 5th of March I read in The New York Post this article which undoubtedly many of you read.

''The casting of a black actor as Jesus Christ in a New Jersey theater has prompted a racist barrage of death threats, hate calls and cancellations.

''...Desi Arnaz Giles has the starring role in the Park Theater Performing Arts Center's annual production of 'The Passion Play'--a role that has gone to a white actor for the past 82 years.

'' 'It is the spirit of Christ we should be concentrating on, not the color of the skin,' Giles, 34, told The Post.

'' 'My Bible tells me to love my enemy,' Giles said. 'If somebody hates me for the color of my skin, I can't hate them because of it. I invite them to get to know me.'

''One caller spewed profanities in a message left for [the director], branding him 'a lowlife and [other unmentionable things].'

''Another person phoned to say, 'I want to know when the white actor is playing. I don't want to see that black thing.'

''Four groups--including one church organization--have canceled their ticket orders and hundreds of callers have complained.

''The Rev. Reginald Jackson, executive director of the Black Ministers Council, said he hoped the controversy would educate people.

'' 'Jesus is not the blonde, blue-eyed redeemer that American culture often seeks to portray,' he said.

'' 'Nor is he the brother with the afro that African-Americans portray. He is a man of color, who happens to have been Palestinian.' ''

I agree with the Rev. Jackson and more. He is the Christ, the Son of God, in whose image every single one of us has been made. God did not hesitate in designing each of us in the image of His Son: black, white, yellow, brown; whatever our ethnic origin, whatever language we speak, whether we are men or women or children. Each of us is made in the image and likeness of God. This is a central teaching of Christianity. It is an utter disgrace to reject someone playing the role of Christ because he is black.

What did Christ look like when Pilate presented Him to the mobs who wanted to crucify Him? Pilate said, 'Behold the man.' What did He look like then? Was He recognizable with His face beaten to a pulp and the blood streaming from the crown of thorns down His forehead and His cheeks, with the flesh ripped from His bones? What did Christ look like then? The teaching of Christ is so clear.

In that beautiful depiction that Christ Himself gives us of the Last Judgment, He says,

''All will be separated, on My right and on My left. To those on My right I will say, 'Come you blessed of My Father. Receive the kingdom prepared for you for all eternity, for when I was hungry you gave Me to eat, when I was thirsty you gave Me to drink, naked you clothed Me, homeless you took Me in, when I was in prison you visited Me.'

''Then they will say, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, homeless, naked, or in prison?' 'As often as you did this to the least you did it to Me.' ''

It is horrifying to imagine that of all of the potential examples of racism, this could have been articulated with the man acting the role of Christ who was Everyman. I have a fair-sized library of scriptural literature. I have pictures of Christ as an Ethiopian, as a Melanesian, as Chinese, French, Swedish, German, Italian, as the people embraced Him, as the people see Him, as they identify with Him, as they long that He be their own.

There is a book called ''The Face of Jesus'' in which our Lord is presented in every imaginable color, every imaginable ethnic background. In my little bedroom in the house next door there is a wall hanging of Christ riding on a donkey into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. It is a silk screen done by the famous Japanese painter Watanabi, and, of course, Christ is Japanese. I have a beautiful book called ''Madonnas of the World'' in which Mary is depicted in every color and shade of color and with every different ethnic characteristic. Right here in our own archdiocese the Cubans celebrate Mary as Our Lady of Charity of Cobre, the Dominicans as Our Lady of Altagracia, the Mexicans as Our Lady of Guadalupe. It does not look much like the Lady that we might see in some European masterpieces.

Christ was a Jew. Perhaps there are some Christians, even God forbid some Catholics, who do not like that fact, who will not face that reality. There are black Jews. There are Russian Jews. There are Jews all over the world.

I read this story of Yaffa Eliach for a second reason. It is a fundamental teaching of our faith that every individual, regardless of color or any other distinguishing characteristic, is made in the image and likeness of Christ and is sacred, of inestimable worth to be treated with dignity unconditionally, whether this individual is a drunk, a drug addict lying out in the street, wealthy or poor. We look at the face of that person with the eyes of faith; we can see the face of Christ, of whatever color.

This is true also of the unborn, each fashioned in the image and likeness of Christ. We can speak cloning all we will, and we will reflect on that on another occasion. But always it is God who breathes the soul into this individual and makes this human being unique, unlike any other human being in the world, whatever, once again, the external characteristics. As we know, identical twins can look alike, talk alike, but they are different individuals, each unique, made in the image and likeness of God. This is true of every infant, every adult, including the helpless who are dying of cancer and those who are totally vulnerable in their mothers' wombs.

In an article in The New York Post on the 8th of March--and for the press, I do read The New York Times, Daily News, Newsday, The Wall Street Journal and other newspapers, but it just happens that these two articles were in The New York Post.

''President Clinton yesterday vowed a second veto on any ban on partial-birth abortions, insisting the controversial procedure saves the health of hundreds of women each year.

'' 'In the end, what it could do is every year take a few hundred women and wreck their lives and wreck the possibility that they could have further children,' Clinton said of the ban, which is usually performed in the later terms of a pregnancy.

''During a White House press conference, Clinton said he would sign the ban if it contained an exemption for the health or life of the mother.''

The Supreme Court of the United States has interpreted the term ''health of the mother'' to mean not simply physical health, but also emotional health, psychological health, financial health--in other words, whatever the mother or the doctor decides to be what the mother wants. This is killing on demand. We can use this euphemistic, rhetorical term, ''the life and health of the mother,'' but the term ''health'' can now legally include virtually anything.

Because of recent events, because of the revelations of a man named Fitzsimmons with whom many of you are familiar, the cardinals of the United States and Bishop Pilla, the President of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops and United States Catholic Conference, have again written a letter to the President of the United States. It is a very respectful letter in which we offer our hopes and our prayers.

''Dear Mr. President,

''We write to you again about one of the most urgent moral issues of this day--partial-birth abortion. We do so in the wake of recent revelations corroborating the arguments of those who seek a ban on this practice and contradicting the arguments of its proponents. Fortunately, the public has learned a great deal through these disclosures. [This is a reference, in large measure, to the disclosures of Mr. Fitzsimmons, the coordinator, if you will, of abortion clinics throughout the country.]

''The public has learned that partial-birth abortions are performed not a few hundred times a year, but thousands of times each year. It has learned that partial-birth abortion is used primarily in the fifth and sixth months of pregnancy, and that restrictions confined to the third trimester would therefore be inadequate. The public has also learned that the vast majority of these procedures are performed on the healthy babies of healthy women.

''Disclosures have also made clear, as those who seek to ban this practice have testified, that there are no published data to support a claim that partial-birth abortions may ever be necessary to preserve a woman's life, health or future fertility. To the contrary, hundreds of doctors, most specialists in maternal and fetal medicine, have explained why partial-birth abortion itself poses, not avoids, significant risks to women's health and future fertility. Clearly, any claim that partial-birth abortion must be available to protect a woman's health has no basis in fact.

''The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) recently reversed itself in this regard...The College is clear in saying that partial-birth abortion is never the only procedure that will preserve a woman's health or fertility in any situation.

''Mr. President, you are in a unique position to ensure respect for all human rights, including the right to life which is denied to infants who are brutally killed in partial-birth abortion.

''We urge you to seize the opportunity before you to explain that you were misled, as were most Americans. We urge you to ask Congress to pass a bill banning partial-birth abortions, and let it be known that you will sign it into law. For our part, we will continue to urge that such a bill is passed in both Houses of Congress with sufficient votes to ensure that it will become the law of the land.

''Hoping we will be together on this issue, we are,

''Sincerely yours,''

This letter is signed by the seven cardinals of the United States, including myself, together with the President of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops. You may wish to write to the president or not to do so. That is your privilege. You may wish to write to your representatives in the Congress or not to write to them. That is your privilege. But I plead with you to pray that this horror of infanticide will once and for all be banned from our land. It can not be called anything truly but infanticide. Pray for the members of the Congress. Pray for the President of the United States. He merits, he needs our prayers.

We pray that any infant, of any color, of any ethnic background will be recognized as the actor in ''The Passion Play'' as made in the image and likeness of Christ.