Pax Christi – USA: January 13, 2023
HOPE AND COURAGE by Joe Nangle OFM
Where there is no vision, the people perish. (Proverbs 29:18)
Write down the vision
Clearly upon the tablets, so that one can read it readily.
For the vision still has its time,
Presses on to fulfillment, and will not disappoint;
If it delays, wait for it – it will surely come, it will not be late. (Habakkuk 2:2-3)
The institution of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday in 1983 speaks to the enormous impact this black preacher had on American life. At the same time there are areas in this country which use the day to minimize King’s greatness. In Mississippi and Alabama for example the day is officially recognized as honoring Robert E. Lee as well as Dr. King! In Florida and Tennessee, the King Day is observed on Lee’s actual birthday!
These aberrations, together with ploys to mitigate the impact of this prophet on American life, such as naming the holiday “Civil Rights Day” or “Human Rights Day” reemphasize the ongoing opposition to King’s accurate critiques of this country. More on that later.
Doctor King was a visionary, a person who had a dream, a desire, a conviction that the United States could become its better self despite our terrible failings.
This weekend we will rightfully enjoy and celebrate once again Dr. King’s soaring rhetoric in his 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech. To listen again to its delivery, unscripted and with the inimitable cadence of a black preacher, is to thrill to its vision for America:
“I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men (sic) are created equal”.
At the same time many are calling for reflections that go beyond those inspiring words. They point to Reverend King’s observations about American life which continue to infuriate people like those in the so-called Freedom Caucus of the Congress or those who describe themselves as MAGA adherents.
For this year’s celebration of our American prophet, it will be useful – even necessary – to reflect on those observations in the light of our country’s current history. They are as relevant today as they were sixty years ago.
“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.” [The recently confirmed federal budget allocates an astounding $847 billion for “defense”]
“We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of war but the positive affirmation of peace.” [In addition to the $28 billion rightfully spent on arming Ukraine, how much investment has our country made in achieving peace there?]
Capitalism: “…with this system a small privileged few are rich beyond conscience and almost all others are doomed to be poor at some level.” [720 billionaires in the U.S./total population: 333 million; 2,700 billionaires world-wide/ total population: 7.8 billion.]
As a religious leader Doctor King was scathing in his assessment of the churches in the U.S. This strikes one as equally relevant to the churches today – and for us in particular as members of the American Catholic Institutional Church.
“…so often the contemporary Church is a weak ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound…so often it is an arch defender of the status quo.” [Where is the voice of the Catholic hierarchy in the face of the current scandalous divisions in U.S. society?]
“…called to be the moral guardian of the community, the Church has at times preserved that which is immoral and unethical; called to combat social evils, it has remained silent behind stain glass windows.” [A commentary on our “feel-good” pastoral approach to ministry.]
Two final thoughts.
First, the recent custom of calling the third Monday in January a “A National Day of Service” with squads of volunteers doing public cleanup work across the country is both a fitting and practical. However, let it not distract us from recalling King’s still-relevant analyses of America.
Second, in the face of a largely domesticated Church, Pax Christi – USA continues to have the obligation to sound a Kinglike prophetic word today.