Love God. Live the Eucharist.

Browsing Blog

2A January 19, 2014, by Fr. Kevin Anderson

 

OK, here’s the setting  . . . it’s 1955.  There are tensions everywhere over race, but especially in the southern states of the US.  Rosa Parks (a black woman) has just been arrested for defying the law because she didn’t give up her seat on a city bus to a white rider.  A young minister named   Martin Luther King Jr and some fellow ministers are organizing a boycott of the city’s bus system in Montgomery Alabama. 

Martin Luther King immediately becomes the object of threats and harassment.  Late one night, after his wife and kids had gone to bed, the phone rang.  The angry voice on the other end said, “Listen you blankedy-blank, we’ve taken all we want from you; before next week you’ll be sorry you ever came to Montgomery.”

In his book Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story, Martin Luther King recalls that night.  “I could not sleep.  I was badly shaken and I began to walk the floor trying to think of a way to move out of the picture without appearing a coward. “

On Monday we recognize this extraordinary man.  Of course his contribution to Civil Rights is legendary but I find great comfort in hearing that this crusade was not easy for him.  He, like most of us would be, was afraid.  But that is exactly what makes this so powerful.  It is not that he didn’t have fear . . . but that he still chose to act in spite of his fears. 

King’s contributions are much greater than just race.  The reason we have a national holiday for him is that his work impacts every single person born into the world, even those born well after he was murdered.  He has challenged us in three areas:

1. Dignity   He once said, "A man can't ride your back unless it's bent."

His activism was not just about black and white. It was about humanity. His call from the mountaintop was fundamentally about one word: dignity. All of us, no matter our skin color, our sexual orientation, where we come from, who we know,  how much money we have or don't have, what our abilities are . . . all of are entitled to dignity. This dignity especially flows over to the unborn, the aged and those facing the death penalty.  There are obstacles in all aspects of life . . . and the solutions begin with how each one of us offers dignity and respect.

2. Peace “I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear."

One of King's most enduring triumphs is that he fought a seemingly impossible fight without actually fighting. His insistence that the civil rights movement be based in non-violence was a triumph for all humanity. It is not possible to advocate for the dignity of all while simultaneously ignoring the rights of people opposed to your cause. Non-violence is the reason that King's call was ultimately heard. Had he permitted violence, he would have only provided ammunition for the status quo to deride the civil rights movement as extremist and further entrenched the forces of racism. King understood that characterizing blacks (especially black men) as violent has been a time-tested strategy for keeping racial oppression in place in our country. By making the movement non-violent, he ensured its long-term success.

3. Hope "And with this faith I will go out and carve a tunnel of hope

                        through the mountain of despair."

Back to that night of the death threat in Montgomery, King writes “In this state of exhaustion, when my courage had all but gone, I decided to take my problem to God.  With my head in my hands, I bowed over the kitchen table and prayer aloud.  The words I spoke to God are still vivid in my memory:  Here I am talking a stand for what I believe is right.  But now I am afraid.  The people are looking for leadership, and if I stand before them without strength and courage, they too will falter.  I am at the end of my powers, God.  I have nothing left.  I’ve come to the point where I can’t face it alone.” 

Then King adds, “At that moment I experienced the presence of the Divine as I had never experienced Him before.  It seemed as though I could hear the quiet assurance of an inner voice saying: Stand up for righteousness, stand up for truth; and I (God) will be at your side forever.  Almost at once my fears began to go.  My uncertainty disappeared. I was ready to face anything.”

In one of the darkest hours in his life, Martin Luther King Jr stopped to behold God in his midst; he lifted up his fears and terror to the Spirit of God and came to a new understanding of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus . . . of what his baptism called him to do: even in the face of fear to be a living testimony, as John the Baptizer does in today’s Gospel, to the truth of God’s compassion and justice in our midst. 

Isn’t that what we are all called to do because of our baptisms?  To trust God?  To trust that God has been and will continue to be in our midst.  We are called to take all three of those attributes (dignity, peace and hope) and apply them to our lives.  By our words, but more by our actions, we stand up for the dignity of all people, to strive for peace at every level (in the world and in our homes) and that not matter difficult or ugly things get, to be of courage  . . . for when we act for justice, God will be right at our side and the Spirit of God, which John speaks of, will remain upon us.

Of all that Martin Luther King Jr did for us, I would say his greatest legacy was his courage.  Courage does not mean not having fear; it means owning the fear and moving past it. 

In another setting King said,

“Courage is an inner resolution to go forward despite obstacles;
Cowardice is submissive surrender to circumstances.
Courage breeds creativity; Cowardice represses fear and is mastered by it.
Cowardice asks the question, is it safe?
Expediency ask the question, is it politic?
Vanity asks the question, is it popular?
But conscience ask the question, is it right? And there comes a time when we must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because it is right.”

Subscribe

RSS Feed

Archive