Thomas Griffin 1/20/25
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Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) was killed because he refused to stop speaking the truth and other people hated him for it.
Today, Dr. King asks each and every one of us: “When was the last time the truth cost you something?”
He is famous for his “I have a dream” speech and he is known as the greatest champion for equal rights for African Americans. What many people forget is that King was a phenomenal orator and writer. He had the ability to captivate large crowds with his choice of words and with his physical presence on stage. Some of this was simply a pure gift. However, most of it was connected to the fact that he was passionate and that he was convicted by the truth.
In today’s world – we desperately need more Catholics who are on fire with the passion for spreading the truth. In June of 1963, Martin Luther King explained the need for passion and truth in a speech in Detroit. He said, “If a man has not discovered something that he will die for, he is not fit to live.”
Ultimately, King was willing to risk his life pushing for the dignity of all Americans. He was willing to die for it – and he did. If a person does not have something that they would risk it all for, they are not truly alive. They are living for themselves or they are living for realities that pass away.
For this reason, Jesus says: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). Living in the truth requires that we passionately refuse to alter what we know is right, no matter the cost. Doing so makes us fully alive but it also makes us become like Christ and that is the entire mission of discipleship. The truth will set you free but it also might cost you something. Truth has a cost because of its rootedness in love. When we abide by the truth we are living in love.
In August of 1967, King delivered a speech in Atlanta, Georgia that highlighted love as the true anchor for his passion. He spoke about why he refused to act violently and show hate even in the face of so much vitriol:
“I’ve seen hate on the faces of too many Klansmen and too many White Citizens’ Councilors in the South to want to hate, myself, because every time I see it, I know that it does something to their faces and their personalities, and I say to myself that hate is too great a burden to bear. I have decided to love. If you are seeking the highest good, I think you can find it through love. And the beautiful thing is that we aren’t moving wrong when we do it, because John was right, God is love. He who hates does not know God, but he who loves has the key that unlocks the door to the meaning of ultimate reality.”
When Dr. King saw the hate in the eyes of others; he saw something that he did not want to become. He realized that hate enslaves us while love sets us free. Returning evil for evil does nothing – it also turns us into the evil that we despise. That does not mean that we act as doormats and that does not mean that we do not speak up in the face of injustice. King certainly spoke up. If he was not so vocal he wouldn’t have been murdered.
The logic of his words here are critical for Catholics today who know that the culture is broken. In spite of the darkness that surrounds so many facets of American society, we must respond with light and love. That means that we speak the truth with passion like Dr. King did. That means that we refuse to back down in the face of godless philosophies and false understandings of the human person. But, we must do all of that without bearing hate.
We can do so through a willingness to speak to others about the faith, especially when it is difficult. We can do that by speaking up about tough topics when they arise in our homes or places of work. As a point of reflection, we can always ask ourselves whether or not we tend to quiet down when we should speak up while also being honest in reflecting on whether or not we tend to sound hateful rather than loving.
In order to defend the truth in love, we must be people of deep prayer. The only way to ever view our enemy as a loving friend is to pray for them and to know Christ personally. Through a daily commitment to personal prayer we can become more in the habit of seeing with the eyes of Christ – who was killed because he refused to stop speaking truth.
On this Martin Luther King Day, may we be invigorated to never cease spreading truth. May we be willing to allow the truth to cost us something. And, may we be grounded in our relationship with Christ, so that we bear love in the face of darkness.
Thomas Griffin is the chairperson of the religion department at a Catholic high school on Long Island where he lives with his wife and two sons. He has a masters degree in theology and is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Empty Tomb Project: The Magazine. He is the author of Let Us Begin: Saint Francis’s Way of Becoming Like Christ and Renewing the World.
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