Martin Luther King, Jr Receives Memorial on Mall

Whenever I think of Martin Luther King, Jr., I immediately think about social justice. I think of fairness for all people. I think of hope. I think of doing the right thing in the face of all types of oppression. I think of making the ultimate sacrifice for the higher good.

As a Catholic I can use Martin Luther King as a model as I think about and work for change.

As an American there is something uniquely special about Martin Luther King, Jr. His fight for civil rights was very personal, lasted many years, was a plea for justice for all. His concern for humanity was universal. His concern for life was unconditional. Justice was not only for the privileged few, it was for all. His words were inspirational.

His life ended before his work was completed. The struggle for civil rights still continues today.

There is a new memorial dedicated to Martin Luther King, Jr. located on the Mall in Washington, DC.

In Your Prayers

Although some of the faces may not be familiar, remember that all believers become adopted children through baptism. There are no foreigners in a house of God, we are all members of the same family.

As we journey toward the Lord, learn to control anxious imaginations. Let our eyes seek what is good, what is fair. Let our actions and deeds be honorable and charitable. Live each day seeking salvation, wanting salvation. God is always with us. He is always making his presence known. Seek goodness, share mercy and charity and God’s justice will arrive.

Love and revere the name of the Lord. Encourage your neighbors to join in praising his name. Allow time to minister for the Lord, to praise God, to give thanks to the Lord. Become a servant of the Lord filled with goodness, kindness, holiness.

Have reverence for the sabbath; have reverence for the Lord. Remember that the sabbath is an important day. Remember that it is a day of rest, a day for the Lord. Do God homage, remember to offer thanks and praise. This day is both a memorial and sacrificial celebration. Bring all of the emotions in your heart and offer them to God with humility. Enjoy each visit to God’s house, each visit to God’s house of prayer.

Share this joyful moment with all your neighbors. Remember that all who believe are welcome at the altar. Remember that all prayers and sacrifices are both welcomed acceptable when done with charity, humility, obedience, and love. The house of God is open all. It is a shelter from the anxieties and fears of the world; it is a place of love; it is a place of learning and guiding.

Return to this house of prayer as much as you can and always keep it in your prayers.

Oscar Romero

Each moment of our lives presents a chance for us to proclaim God’s works, to praise him, to offer him thanks. Each moment of our lives presents an opportunity for us to seek fairness for everyone, to seek social justice for everyone. As Christians it is not enough to have definitions for words; we must also have understanding. We hear so many words every day, with so many being lost, misunderstood.

How often do we hear freedom, liberty, dignity, peace, liberation? How often do we really truly understand the context. It is not enough to have dictionary definitions; these words must ignite something within our souls and hearts; these words must provoke some universal thoughts for all mankind; these words ask us to look beyond our neighborhood, beyond our town, beyond our state, beyond our country; all human beings deserve the same basic things, freedom, peace, liberty, dignity.

Thirty years ago today, Archbishop Oscar Romero was assassinated while saying Mass. He became an advocate for justice for everyone including the poor.

Technology does not change man’s basic instincts; human beings have always been sinners controlled and influenced by all types of desires and impulses. Jealousy, greed, selfishness can lead individuals and entire nations in the wrong direction. Archbishop spoke out against the injustice and the abuse of the poor people in El Salvador. By doing so he became a role model for us, reminding us to have compassion and empathy for our neighbors, reminding us to seek the Truth, share the Truth.

“A PREACHING THAT DOES NOT POINT OUT SIN is not the preaching of the gospel. A preaching that makes sinners feel good, so that they are secured in their sinful state, betrays the gospel's call. A preaching that does not discomfit sinners but lulls them in their sin leaves Zebulun and Naphtali in the shadow of death”—(Jan. 22, 1978).

Insomnia 101

We live in an age of insomnia. Our computers have a sleep mode; we have multitasking. Temporal ideas constantly shift around us, causing angst, releasing anxiety. We want to believe that our daytime dreams, inspirations are individual, personal, specific only to us; we want to accept that our nighttime fears, apparitions are also specific to us. But neither are completely correct.

Our cultural insomnia leads us into a wasteland, into a desert, not for purification or to become closer to God but to gently, quietly, clandestinely break our relationship with God. It occurs easily, naturally. Society numbs us with all types of temptations which we try to resist. Science ever the handmaiden to sin and vice provides an objective truth which in popular culture can easily supersede moral and ethical concerns. Quickly reductionist ideas are introduced and spread throughout a culture in search of leisure, pleasure, relaxation, sleep. Anything that requires extra effort, extra thought is discarded. This can lead to both intellectual and spiritual confusion.

Popular culture exists only to entertain. If education occurs it is incidental. Pop culture wants to inspire laughter, tears, and gasps. Pop culture wants to be remembered. Pop culture understands that it is always temporary; it is cyclical creating and destroying. Ideologies and idealism bob in the currents of popular culture before sinking in the current of a new, fresh trend. Pop culture reminds us that nothing lasts forever. There are syndicated television shows from various eras, radio stations playing oldies songs. Pop culture exists to keep us awake. It presents aspirations to us in living color, high definition. And sadly many humans are nothing more than laboratory rats in brilliantly appointed cages, running on treadmills, chasing thinks we do not completely want, saying things we do not completely believe. Pop culture provides information, provides doubt. Pop culture becomes an amoeba, dividing itself again and again until it encompasses so much space in our lives filled with sinister trivia about celebrities deified and defiled in quick order, trivia about sporting contests which leads spectators to rowdy, violent behavior, trivia about political programs which misinform and confuse the electorate, trivia about interpersonal relationships which cause divorce, loneliness, anxiety. Pop culture never presents the truth, merely a representation of the truth.

Where can any human being find the truth? What one thing is based upon the truth?

Religion is based upon truth. As Christians always remember Saint Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, “One God, one faith.”

Our baptism ordains each of us to God. It is our duty, our obligation to learn how to use our entire lives to show reverence to God. Our religion maintains faith in God and instructs us to maintain faith in God. By attending Mass regularly we experience the varied actions of religion; we learn how to suffer, to make sacrifices, to make vows, to worship, to serve, to pray, to love and how to think and contemplate about our lives, our actions, our world. Consequently we learn about God’s power and God mystery each and every day of our lives. The actions of religion deepen our relationship with God, allow us to hear his call, provide a guide to a virtuous life of goodness. We are asked to allow our lives to become permanent adoration vessels for God, projecting our love and reverence for the Eucharist, sharing our love and reverence for God.

We must never forget the significance of Jesus Christ in the role of the Church and in our lives. We must always strive to do the right thing, the fair thing, the just thing. Justice based upon the Beatitudes should always be our guide. We must allow our ears to listen for God’s call. “Hear my voice: I am the Lord your God.” We must allow our hearts and souls to respond to God’s call.

Christ instructs us to love God with our complete heart, complete mind, complete soul, complete strength. Christ instructs us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.

Christ provides a simple lesson of love which he knows will be difficult for us to do always but he wants us to try and fail and try again and again. Failure should not become an obstacle, our failure should encourage us to redouble our efforts.