What to Say…?

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Martin Luther King Jr., possible, Sr. Thea Bowman, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, truth, with God everything is possible

On Sunday – the day before yesterday – I wanted very much to write something of value about Thea Bowman, but I failed. The night before I had participated in a zoom call prayer service honoring her memory and in preparation for Martin Luther King Day, a time for parades and the singing of such songs as “We shall overcome…someday.” I watched a video of Sister Thea’s address to the Conference of Catholic Bishops who were appropriately edified by the truth she spoke months before her death in 1989. I watched Doctor King’s address the day before he died when he assured the world that he had “been to the mountain” and was not afraid of what might happen to him as he continued to tell the truth of what was needed for the defeat of racism. I watched the news in disbelief and saw again and again the angry mob – different moments but the same hatred – breaching the Capitol building walls in Washington, D.C. on January 6th, feeling helpless and wondering how we could have sunk to such a state of chaos.

I could find nothing to write on either day as I considered the danger facing President-elect Biden and what should be deep joy for Kamala Harris as the first woman Vice-President. It seems that we are placing all of our hopes for “fixing” the country on them. Perhaps by tomorrow I will again find a hope without the fear for them and stand – on shaky legs but at least standing – to attend the Inauguration of those two honorable people.

I was drinking my coffee as I wrote the above and, because I think anything can speak, I noticed that I put my coffee mug on the small journal already sitting on my side table, so I picked it (the mug) up again to reveal the message on the flower-strewn cover. It says, “With God all things are possible.” I rest my case and offer my prayer to join with yours for our country and the world on this day and tomorrow.

For Martin’s Birthday

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Martin Luther King Jr., The Sophia Center for Spirituality

The first reading for this day ( 1 SAM 3:1-10) is perfect for this birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. The significant line in that reading rings out with King’s life purpose: “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening!” And so he was until his death on April 4, 1968, when he was assassinated as he prepared for what was to be a Poor People’s March to Washington in another of his non-violent events that characterized his life mission.

In the final months before his death, it seemed that his work had taken a toll on him. “I’m tired of going to jail,” he admitted. “Living every day under the threat of death, I feel discouraged now and then and feel my work is in vain, but then the Holy Spirit revives my soul again.” In like manner, on the night before his death, he told a crowd at the Mason Temple Church in Memphis,: “I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!”

May it be so for all of us as it surely was for him.

Our Brother Martin

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accidental activist, compelled, dreams, history, I have a dream, injustice, Martin Luther King Jr., Meg Wheatley, passivity, perseverance, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

There is so much to say about Martin Luther King, Jr. He was a “wake-up call” to our nation like no other, shaking us to the roots of our passivity in the 1960’s, and he paid the ultimate price for his courage. His own words still stir me when I hear his clear, booming voice proclaiming: I have a dream today…

Meg Wheatley speaks of people like “Brother Martin” as “accidental activists” – those who are compelled to do what they do. “In every case,” she writes, “they saw an injustice or tragedy or possibility when others weren’t aware of a thing. They heard a thundering call that nobody else noticed…They offer us dreams of bold new futures that others will never see.” (Perseverance, p.19)

Such was the life and death of Dr. King. One wonders today as we remember  his actions on behalf of racial justice how we can still be so far from his vision of “one nation under God.” When hatred and bigotry seem on the rise and we wring our hands in despair about the divisions in our country, let us seriously consider that “if we’re not part of the solution, we are part of the problem” and resolve to do our part toward directional change. It begins in our minds but grows to fruition only as it reaches our hearts and we come to understand that history chooses all of us in some way for the good.

 

 

 

 

 

A Better Question

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Good Samaritan, Joan Chittister, Martin Luther King Jr., mercy, Pope Francis, The Audacity of Mercy, The Monastic Way, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Year of Mercy

I just came across an old issue of The Monastic Way, a monthly thought-for-the-day offering by Joan Chittister whose theme was “The Audacity of Mercy.” Since we are still (hopefully) observing the Year of Mercy proclaimed by Pope Francis last December, I thought it would be a good read on a foggy morning. All the selections were thought-provoking but one toward the end of the month caught my eye as familiar and worthy of more reflection. I offer it here in the hopes that at least some will not see it as just a clever juxtaposition of phrase but rather an invitation to deeper contemplation.

Mercy takes us out of ourselves. It makes us one with the rest of the world. Or as Martin Luther King, Jr. reminds us, “The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was, “If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?” But the Good Samaritan reversed the question. He said: “If I don’t stop to help this man, what will happen to him?”