Saint Thomas Aquinas, Patron Saint of Philosophy, Angelic Doctor of the Church

When I finally made it to university, I went to a school named for Saint Thomas Aquinas in Saint Paul, Minnesota; I studied philosophy and theology, and the classics too.

The University of St. Thomas was a grand place. It felt like a university, with its tall stately buildings made from massive blacks of light-tan sandstone, a stone that is ubiquitous quarried from the river bluffs along the Mississippi. The moment I passed through the arches into the quad I felt like I had arrived.

My time at St. Thomas was reasonably well spent; my studies adequately prepared me for advanced studies elsewhere (barely); I continued my theological work when I had graduated from there.

My work thus far, in the philosophy and history of Christian soteriology, is not as exhaustive as our Patron Saint’s achievement with his Summa Theologica (thus far), which remains a unique accomplishment in the history of Western thought. Nevertheless, my work is ongoing, and may one day make the mark.

The Summa, it should be noted, is more important for the mode of thinking St. Thomas  transmitted his ideas in than for the conclusions he presented in its pages. His revolutionary mind was ultimately constrained by a careful, cautious and conservative approach to theology that made him a defender of Church’s errors, rather than a reformer.

Regardless, St. Thomas successfully bridged the gap between the ancient philosophers: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle et al, and the proto-renaissance period of Western Europe, re-discovering the use of intellectual tools such as formal logic and discursive reasoning; he re-employed them in a way that allowed Europeans to leave the Dark Ages, clearing a path for the Renaissance, the Enlightenment and the Age of Reason that followed.

Saint Thomas died on March 7^th, 1274.

In 1969 the Church moved the day we celebrate his feast to January 28^th, we celebrate his sainthood today.

Thomas Aquinas was Italian by birth and a member of the Dominican order; he is counted  among the “scholastics” and he was famous in his day. He died while making a pilgrimage, going along the Appian Way. Death took him at the Cistercian Abbey of Fossanova, and the monks there, fully cognizant of his fame, knowing that he would become a saint of great renown, coveted the relics of his body.

His hosts boiled his carcass down to the bones, and polished those to keep them clean and preserve them in good order. They kept all the water from the cauldron his body dissolved in for distribution in the relic-trade; they refused for years to turn his remains over to his Dominican brothers, parceling out his bones and the water bit by bit over years, keeping his skull until the very end.

The University of Saint Thomas has a vial of that water in its collection of sacred artifacts, a silly business, really, and beneath the dignity of the intellectual giant that Aquinas was known to be.

On his death bed it is reported that he gave an estimation of the value of his own contribution to the doctrine and dogma of the church, of which he said: everything is just straw.

There is a prayer that Thomas wrote, it is carved into a column of the main entrance to the school grounds at the University, the same arches that I walked through, my first day on campus, two stories below the offices of the Philosophy Department (which I belonged to). I recited that prayer aloud every day I attended classes.

It is a prayer that I carry with me, as if it were written in my heart:

Grant, O Merciful God

That I may ardently desire,

Prudently examine,

Truthfully acknowledge,

And perfectly accomplish

What is pleasing to thee

For the praise and glory

Of thy name

 

In the year 2024 CE, seven hundred and fifty years after the death of Saint Thomas, the world has become lost in another kind of dark ages, which is odd and sadly ironic because the current tide of anti-rational, anti-intellectual sentiment that has taken its grip on us has been seeded through the prevalence of digital media platforms that are in themselves a function of our mastery of light as a means of communication...there is some irony here.

We now find ourselves living in a milieu that disdains the truth, scientia, science and knowledge, and which undermines the roll of reason in public discourse.

It is saddening.

 In Western Europe the so-called dark ages are considered to have begun around the year 500 CE, with the reign of the emperor Justinian who insisted on a homogenous cultural throughout the empire, that all Roman citizens become Christian or leave. Tens of thousands of artisans, merchants, traders and teachers did just that…they left. This was roughly the same length of time, seven hundred and fifty years after the golden age of the philosophers, and roughly seven hundred and fifty years before Saint Thomas wrote his Summa.

 Let me be clear, I am not suggesting that there is anything inherently ominous in the pattern of years I have articulated, the numbers themselves are arbitrary and it would be unreasonable to suppose otherwise. However, we would be wise to acknowledge the trend, the descent of darkness has a cycle all of its own. We have fallen into this before and we are susceptible to do so again; this is what it means to be human.

 Once we have fallen it could take centuries to find the light again, and we are teetering on the brink of disaster.

 The overall fragility of our situation, our sitz im leben, our setting in life, brings to mind St. Thomas’s final words when reflecting of the body of his work…it is all straw, he said, nothing but straw.

 Everything we have built since the St. Thomas paved the way for the enlightenment, including liberal-democracy and acquiescence to human rights, could blow away with the wind, or burn up in a flash.

 Reason save us!

A Homily – The Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year B)

First Reading – Deuteronomy 18:15-20 ©

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 94(95):1-2, 6-9 ©

Second Reading - 1 Corinthians 7:32-35 ©

Gospel Acclamation – Matthew 11:25

Alternative Acclamation – Matthew 4:16

The Gospel According to Mark 1:21 – 28 ©

 

(NJB)

 Listen!

 The priesthood is not ordained by God; this is true of any existing order of priests and priestesses, and it is true of every priesthood that has ever been. It will always be true. These institutions are not ordained by God, they represent the limits of the human imagination in its effort in our continuing efforts to order the point of contact human beings have with the divine.

Priests and priestesses were ordained to serve the interests of human beings, typically those of the ruling class, including their own. Even those priests who are well intentioned, nevertheless serve in hierarchical structures formed and governed by motivations. Even when an individual comes close to approximating the divine, it is only the image of the divine they hold in their hearts, an image they are attempting to approximate, while failing at every turn.

We are only human beings, and though the image of God dwells within us, representing the fullness of our potential in its perfection, none of us are able to see it clearly.

While human beings do possess an innate ability to recognize what is true. We are all compromised; every expression of the truth coming from a human being is conditioned by that compromise, only the most simple expressions may be trusted everything else is necessarily flawed.

Consider the words of the psalmist!

It is God who makes us well, it is God who creates in us the possibility of wellbeing. Our wellbeing is rooted in the divine, there are no gods save God, and God is not a king.

All creation belongs to God, all that is good and all that we fear; everything, no matter how blissful or troubling, everything comes from God and everything we endure will redound to the good in the end.

It is good to show our respect for the creator, to sing in praise of God, our loving parent. It is good to praise the divine, who has prepared the way for each of us.

Be mindful!

Even the apostle is liable to asserting his personal beliefs and foibles into the rubrics of the Church; not everything he says should be accepted on its face...he is not always wise and good.

Paul believed that people should withdraw from public life, stop procreation and wait on God to deliver humanity from the miseries of the world. If he could have, he would have had all of us living chaste and celibate lives behind the walls of a cloister, men living with men and women living with women…until the end.

The apostle errs.

The church is not obligated to follow him in his error, the more humble thing would be to acknowledge the truth…that we have erred, and move on.

This is the truth:

It is the desire of God, the creator of the universe, it is God’s desire that we follow the way that Jesus taught, to be merciful, love justice and walk humbly all the days of our life. It is God’s desire that in so doing we prosper and multiply.

Know this!

The teachings of Jesus cannot be treated like a shell game, though they often are, and have been since the beginning, as Matthew’s Gospel illustrates. The way of Jesus is not a long con, it is not a bait and switch, it is a simple teaching that cannot be controlled or owned by any one group of people.

God has hidden nothing from us; the truth is in the open for anyone to bear witness to, live by and understand. The wise and the powerful, the learned and the clever, the weak and the meek, everyone has access to the same truth, to the knowledge of God, of justice, of hope and love.

Who are the wise and powerful, who are the learned and the clever, who are the faithful and childlike?

In every generation, you will see a new group labeling the elder group as out of touch, blind, privileged, in the dark…corrupt.

It is an endless cycle, and the calling for us remains the same; we are called on to love justice, be merciful, do good, serve God through the loving service we provide to one another: to our families, to our friends, our neighbors, the stranger, even our adversaries.

Just because a person may be wise and powerful, learned and clever or a child of the Church, does not mean they recognize the truth when they see it, or that they will act upon it when they do.

It is not your station in society, it is not how other people regard you, it is not the titles you have earned or the ways that you have been marginalized that give you “the tell” on how you will fulfill the calling to follow Jesus. What matters is what is in your heart and your willingness to trust in the content of your hope.

Be mindful.

Take care when you speak from the scriptures.

When you observe the authors attempting to fit their narrative of Jesus’s into a picture that makes it look as if he is fulfilling a prediction someone has made about the future. Be wary; this is always a false. Even if a prediction had been made, and even if Jesus did the thing that was predicted, it is false to suggest that Jesus’ actions were in fulfillment of prophecy.

Prophets only speak of the future for two reasons; to engender hope and to warn of danger. The words of a prophet are always addressed to the people in their own time, in their own place.

Prophecy is never meant to guide the lives of future generations, except in the cases when the prophet is addressing an issue of universal truth, such as the nature of justice, which is itself unchanging.

Know this!

The Gospel writers were propagandists; they fabricated many of the details of Jesus’ life to suit their own narrative about who Jesus was, why he was necessary, and what his life and death meant for the early church.

In today’s narrative the Gospel writers place Jesus directly in the tradition of John the Baptist, with the words “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” This is an effort on behalf of the early church to subsume the ministry of John the Baptist into its own. It is a continuation of that narrative, meant to harness the energy of John’s movement after his arrest and murder.

Consider the Gospel for today, it is packed with nuance.

Begin by unpacking:

This is the first record of Jesus in his ministry as a public teacher, now depicted as picking up where the Baptist left off. He is still in Palestine, on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee. He is beyond the borders of Judea, half-way between Jerusalem and Damascus.

Jesus is a Rabbi, he begins his ministry in a synagogue

The synagogues are of the diaspora, Jewish communities outside of the Holy Land. Synagogues are the seat of the Pharisaic sect of Judaism. Pharisees are a distinct group of teachers; they promulgate the law, and Rabbis are teachers in that movement. They are different from the Scribes, and the priests of the temple. All of these distinctions are communicated in the opening paragraph:

Jesus the Pharisee, Jesus the Rabbi is teaching with authority, unlike the Scribes in Jerusalem.

One man calls him out. Not because he is possessed by demons, but because he afraid of what Jesus’ teaching represents.

He asks a good question, “What do you have to do with us?” Indicating that in this particular community, Jesus is an outsider. His teaching authority is recognized, but he is a visitor.

The man asks, “Are you here to destroy us?” Indicates that he perceives Jesus’ teaching to be a threat to the established order, and therefore quite possibly to his entire community.

He addresses the claim that Jesus’ followers are promoting: he addresses the claim that Jesus is the “Holy One of God.” His manner is unfriendly, even adversarial, it is quite possibly that he is leveling an indictment against Jesus: a charge of hubris at the least, though it is potentially a charge of blasphemy. By raising this charge he intends to undermine Jesus’ authority in the synagogue. Then Jesus commands the man to silence, and Jesus prevails.

This scene is depicted dramatically in the gospel, as if Jesus were commanding an unclean spirit to come out of the man, a spirit of disobedience and falsehood. It is presented as Jesus casting out a demon or demons, and healing a man who was possessed. This scene could be depicted with less drama, metaphor and allegory. It should be presented simply, as Jesus commanding his authority, to convert a dissident and make them a believer.

The narrative does not depict a supernatural challenge to Jesus’ authority, but an ordinary challenge from a member of the community. It was not easy for Jesus to convince the man, it was a convulsive struggle, but Jesus prevailed; he prevailed because the community had been ready to receive Jesus’ teaching at the outset, and his victory in the disputation with the man who argued with him was a foregone conclusion, but how Jesus managed the situation, as a healer, bolstered his authority.

Be like Jesus in your ministry, be a healer; it is the best way to serve the interests of the divine. Heal with humility, heal with love, heal in the interest of justice, as servant of mercy, in pursuit of the way to God.

First Reading – Deuteronomy 18:15-20 ©

I Will Raise Up a Prophet and Put My Words into His Mouth

Moses said to the people: ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like myself, from among yourselves, from your own brothers; to him you must listen. This is what you yourselves asked of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the Assembly. “Do not let me hear again” you said “the voice of the Lord my God, nor look any longer on this great fire, or I shall die”; and the Lord said to me, “All they have spoken is well said. I will raise up a prophet like yourself for them from their own brothers; I will put my words into his mouth and he shall tell them all I command him. The man who does not listen to my words that he speaks in my name, shall be held answerable to me for it. But the prophet who presumes to say in my name a thing I have not commanded him to say, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.”’

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 94(95):1-2, 6-9 ©

O that today you would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’

Come, ring out our joy to the Lord;

  hail the rock who saves us.

Let us come before him, giving thanks,

  with songs let us hail the Lord.

O that today you would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’

Come in; let us bow and bend low;

  let us kneel before the God who made us:

for he is our God and we

  the people who belong to his pasture,

  the flock that is led by his hand.

O that today you would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’

O that today you would listen to his voice!

  ‘Harden not your hearts as at Meribah,

  as on that day at Massah in the desert

when your fathers put me to the test;

  when they tried me, though they saw my work.’

O that today you would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’

 

Second Reading - 1 Corinthians 7:32-35 ©

Give Your Undivided Attention to the Lord

I would like to see you free from all worry. An unmarried man can devote himself to the Lord’s affairs, all he need worry about is pleasing the Lord; but a married man has to bother about the world’s affairs and devote himself to pleasing his wife: he is torn two ways. In the same way an unmarried woman, like a young girl, can devote herself to the Lord’s affairs; all she need worry about is being holy in body and spirit. The married woman, on the other hand, has to worry about the world’s affairs and devote herself to pleasing her husband. I say this only to help you, not to put a halter round your necks, but simply to make sure that everything is as it should be, and that you give your undivided attention to the Lord.

 

Gospel Acclamation – Matthew 11:25

Alleluia, alleluia!

Blessed are you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for revealing the mysteries of the kingdom to mere children.

Alleluia!

 

Alternative Acclamation – Matthew 4:16

Alleluia, alleluia!

The people that lived in darkness has seen a great light; on those who dwell in the land and shadow of death a light has dawned.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to Mark 1:21 – 28 ©

Unlike the Scribes, He Taught Them with Authority

Jesus and his disciples went as far as Capernaum, and as soon as the sabbath came he went to the synagogue and began to teach. And his teaching made a deep impression on them because, unlike the scribes, he taught them with authority.

In their synagogue just then there was a man possessed by an unclean spirit and it shouted, ‘What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are: the Holy One of God.’ But Jesus said sharply, ‘Be quiet! Come out of him!’ And the unclean spirit threw the man into convulsions and with a loud cry went out of him. The people were so astonished that they started asking each other what it all meant. ‘Here is a teaching that is new’ they said ‘and with authority behind it: he gives orders even to unclean spirits and they obey him.’ And his reputation rapidly spread everywhere, through all the surrounding Galilean countryside.

 

The Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year B)

Ursula K. Le Guinn – Author, Hero

It has been six years since this great thinker moved on to the next world; she was a hero of mine.

The first book of hers that I ever read was her novella titled: The Lathe of Heaven, the genre was science-fiction and it was so much more. Through this brief masterpiece she spoke to me about the nature of reality, the function of consciousness, of what it means to be human.

She took the title for this book from the writings of the Taoist, Chuang Tzu (book 23, paragraph 7), which says:

 

~ To let understanding stop at what cannot be understood is a high attainment. Those who cannot do so will be destroyed on the lathe of heaven ~

 

Her book dramatized this sentiment and recapitulated this warning, the consideration of which took me outside of myself and allowed me to see the world…the whole of it, in an entirely different way.

I was fifteen years old at the time, and without realizing it I found that I had been introduced to Taoism (the esoteric tradition), which provided me with a perspective that would subsequently shape the future-history of my life.

Later, when I was in the Navy I found comfort in the Earth Sea Chronicles, a series of four short books in the fantasy genre, complete with wizards and dragons. She introduces a hero, Sparrowhawk, whose greatest enemy is himself and forces him to address the existential dilemma expressed in the question: How do we live with ourselves?

In the Earth Sea Chronicles, the hero’s enemy is not exactly himself, rather it is the shadow of the specter of guilt, a shadow that most if not all human beings carry with them because we are unable to ask for and accept forgiveness for the things we have done that have hurt or harmed those near to us…even our adversaries. The shadow is relentless on account of the fact that we are not able to forgive ourselves.

The Earth Sea Chronicles are so simple and brief that they can be engaged as fairytales, they can be read to children (which is why I found them comforting…I think), they can be read on that level. Yet, her writing is so masterful that adults may also find them engaging/ They communicate a depth of insight into the human condition that is hidden below the surface of the narrative.\   

Six years ago this luminary departed from our world, leaving a legacy of literature to light the way for us. We need this light more than ever.

If we liken our civilization to a garden, the garden we live in has been long under shadow; the fruit of our progress has been wilting on the vine, fellowship and common purpose have suffered accordingly. Such themes of discontent are the ideas that she explores in her collection on the Hainish cycle, beginning with the fifth book in the series, The Dispossessed.

 We need heroes and teachers like Ursula K. Le Guinn to light the way for us, to guide us into the cloud of unknowing…I miss her.

A Homily – The Third Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year B)

First Reading – Jonah 3:1-5, 10 ©

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 24(25):4-6, 7b-9 ©

Second Reading – 1 Corinthians 7:29-31 ©

Gospel Acclamation – Mark 1:15

The Gospel According to Mark 1:14 – 20 ©

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

 God, the creator of the universe, God is not the destroyer.

 The prophets proper role is as a teacher; the prophet is not a herald of doom.

 Consider the words of the psalmist:

 Lift-up your spirit, give your life to God, but do not expect God to take sides with you in any conflict.

 Know this!

 God loves all of God’s children equally; God does not discriminate or pick favorites.

 If you ask God to punish the faithless and the promise breakers, you must know that you are asking God to punish you for your own transgressions.

 Rather than engaging in prayer as a supplicant for worldly favors, pray for wisdom and guidance; know that God desires your wellbein , but God has made you and all of creation free, God will not intervene in your life or the choices you make that lead to error.

 Be mindful of God’s mercy.

 God allowed for your existence even knowing the extent of your crimes; God knew you from the beginning of time, God willed you into being even in consideration of all your errors.

 Remember.

 All the ways of God are kindness and mercy.

 Consider the words of the apostle.

 The epistle speaks to Paul’s awareness of how easy it is to err. It shows us that Paul’s expectations regarding the coming end of the world were not fulfilled. Then it reveals how Paul’s prescription for managing those expectations was contrary to the purpose of life.

 Never forget how easy it is to err and how impossible it is to predict the future. The future is not written, and it is not the role of the prophet to pretend to know it.

 If you wish to follow the teaching of Paul, do this:  

    Honor your marriages or dissolve them with integrity.

2.           Whether you are mourning or not, be true to yourself.

3.           Allow joy and laughter to flow over you, but do not seek them as an end in themselves.

4.           Give of your surplus and be fair to your workers.

 The world may not be passing away anytime soon, but it will eventually come to end. Well before that we will all be gone; when and we leave the earth we take nothing with us.

 Consider the Gospel reading for today.

 The time has come, the time is always now; therefore repent!

 The Baptist calls us to repent, which means to turn; repent and turn towards God, turn toward justice and toward the good.

 Remember this!

 God is not a king.

 Jesus revealed the face of God, showing us that the divine comes to us as a loving parent, a mother or a father, a sister and a brother.

 The spirit of God is wisdom, and the will of God is reason.

 God does not seek to rule over us as a king does a kingdom; rather, God cares for us as a gardener cares for a garden. God tends to the needs of the living, preparing a place of beauty and the opportunity for joy, inviting us to the same.

 When the Baptist calls us to repent, we are being called to return to the garden.

 Listen!

 Believe the Good News; believe that you are loved by God and that God has a plan for your salvation. God intends for you to be well; Christian faith is trust in this proposition.

 Believe, not so that you can be saved, believe that you are saved already. Believe that your salvation was God’s plan for you from the beginning of time. The movement of grace cannot be reduced to a transaction.

 If you follow Christ, share the way of love and hope, the way of humility, the way of justice and mercy; if you do this, you will be fishers of women and men.

 

First Reading – Jonah 3:1-5, 10 ©

The People of Nineveh Renounce their Evil Behaviour

The word of the Lord was addressed to Jonah: ‘Up!’ he said ‘Go to Nineveh, the great city, and preach to them as I told you to.’ Jonah set out and went to Nineveh in obedience to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was a city great beyond compare: it took three days to cross it. Jonah went on into the city, making a day’s journey. He preached in these words, ‘Only forty days more and Nineveh is going to be destroyed.’ And the people of Nineveh believed in God; they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least.

God saw their efforts to renounce their evil behaviour, and God relented: he did not inflict on them the disaster which he had threatened.

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 24(25):4-6, 7b-9 ©

Lord, make me know your ways.

Lord, make me know your ways.

  Lord, teach me your paths.

Make me walk in your truth, and teach me:

  for you are God my saviour.

Lord, make me know your ways.

Remember your mercy, Lord,

  and the love you have shown from of old.

In your love remember me,

  because of your goodness, O Lord.

Lord, make me know your ways.

The Lord is good and upright.

  He shows the path to those who stray,

He guides the humble in the right path,

  He teaches his way to the poor.

Lord, make me know your ways.

 

Second Reading – 1 Corinthians 7:29-31 ©

The World as We Know It is Passing Away

Brothers: our time is growing short. Those who have wives should live as though they had none, and those who mourn should live as though they had nothing to mourn for; those who are enjoying life should live as though there were nothing to laugh about; those whose life is buying things should live as though they had nothing of their own; and those who have to deal with the world should not become engrossed in it. I say this because the world as we know it is passing away.

 

Gospel Acclamation – Mark 1:15

Alleluia, alleluia!

The kingdom of God is close at hand: repent, and believe the Good News.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to Mark 1:14 – 20 ©

I Will Make you into Fishers of Men

After John had been arrested, Jesus went into Galilee. There he proclaimed the Good News from God. ‘The time has come’ he said ‘and the kingdom of God is close at hand. Repent, and believe the Good News.’

As he was walking along by the Sea of Galilee he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net in the lake – for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, ‘Follow me and I will make you into fishers of men.’ And at once they left their nets and followed him.

Going on a little further, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John; they too were in their boat, mending their nets. He called them at once and, leaving their father Zebedee in the boat with the men he employed, they went after him.

 

The Third Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year B)

Martin Luther King Jr., Reverend Doctor...Prophet and Saint

Today we celebrate the life and work of the Reverend Doctor, Martin Luther King Jr., a prophet in our time. His was a voice of conscience and like so many prophets before him, he was killed in the service of the good, murdered for speaking the truth.

Martin Luther King held the mantle of prophet, not in the sense that he saw the future (though he did foresee his untimely demise), prophecy is not prognostication, that is not what a prophet does. A prophet is not a seer or an augur, a diviner or a fortuneteller; a person is a prophet who delivers the word of God.

Martin Luther King did just that, but he was not a prophet in the sense that he had a unique channel to the creator of the universe, or because God spoke to him in a privileged way. The Reverend Doctor made no pretensions to being that sort of person. He was an ordinary man who answered and extraordinary call, in so doing he became transformed…he became transformed and pointed the way for us to follow in completing the work of transforming our society, the greater portion of which has yet to be done.

God speaks to all of us in the same way, this is one of the things that the Reverend Doctor spoke to us about, clarifying for us the responsibility we each have to listen to the demands of our conscience, when we hear it speaking in our hearts; he called on us to do more than listen…the Reverend Doctor called on us to act.

Martin Luther King had no more and no less access to supernatural powers than any of us, what made him different than most was the choice he made to comply with the demands of his conscience, even to the point where it cost him his life.

He listened to the voice of God, the same voice that speaks to each and every one of us. He heard the voice of God and he responded to the call by cleaving to the message and sharing it with the world.

Like Jesus whom he followed, the Reverend Doctor loved mercy, he worked for justice and he walked humbly, setting an example for the rest of us to follow.

Today we are given countless opportunities to reflect on martin Luther King’s likeness, to consider his words, to reflect on their meaning and on the life of an American Saint, and we are wise to do so.

We are wise to remember the man, Martin Luther King Jr., a rare person whose measure in our society exceeded the ordinary flaws that make us all human; he lived with his flaws and he reached beyond them.

Reverend Doctor transcended even death, though he was taken by the assassin’s bullet. He lives now in our collective consciousness, in our collective-conscience; he lives in the global psyche, speaking to us from the dimension of myth, a human being who was more than human, a child of God overflowing with grace and wisdom.

Today we are called to service, to share his cup, so that upon drinking from it we may aspire to do the same, to live the same, to be the same.

The Reverend Doctor spoke truth to power and offered hope to the powerless; for that he was murdered. He was once considered by the director of the F.B.I. to be the most dangerous man in America and from that status he became our most beloved hero, the prime exemplar of what it means to be an American, a radical-freedom-fighter, unparalleled and unforgotten.

He was beaten and arrested dozens of times for the crime of seeking justice. His life was threatened daily. His reputation was smeared without regard for the truth or appreciation for his selfless works. He was killed for his efforts, shot down but not destroyed. He was, and continues to be, an example to us all.

The Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr., our prophet, he still points the way, lighting the long journey along the arc of justice that still lies ahead of us…justice that will not be denied.