By Fr. Glenn Jones:

This weekend we celebrate one of the great leaders of our nation: Martin Luther King, Jr.—one of the greatest orators and leaders of justice this nation has had in modern times.

But why was he so effective? Well, for one thing, he had truth on his side: no person should be treated as a lesser being, especially not for superficial things of birth circumstances, skin color, height, etc., which are beyond anyone’s control. If we do dare judge another, should it not be as MLK expressed—by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin … and we might add height, beauty of appearance, etc. We will always admire beauty because of the natural physical attraction toward the healthy due to the instinctive desire for procreation, but who among us has not known those beautiful on the outside, but not so much on the inside? And, as the Bible reminds us, beauty is fleeting and charm deceptive. (Proverbs 31)

Yet prejudice and bigotry live on, and no one has a monopoly on them … or on the absence of them, for that matter. For instance, in the last few days I encountered videos of whites hating blacks, and blacks hating whites … of Christians hating Muslims, Muslims hating Christians, etc. … all sides citing past grievances of injustices toward those of their own ilk—sometimes many centuries past.

Well, we can’t change the events and injustices of the past, and in any event those in the present are not responsible for such in times when they did not even exist. As a famous author has said, we live in the irony of our times in which some in the present are found culpable for things they did not do, while others are not punished for the crimes which they have done.

The only thing that will heal such rifts is the absolutely “radical” idea of seeing all persons as created equal (hmmm … some Declaration has that somewhere!), and forgiving the sins of the past for which those of the present are not to blame.

Yes, many were treated unjustly; but what good does it do to treat others unjustly in supposed retribution when they had no part of the initial injustice? Does that not only foster continued resentments … piling one more stone atop the pile of historical grievances.

So we see the wisdom of Jesus once again … He who called for, and died for, the uniting of all people under God. We hear His exhortation of forgiveness and to love one’s enemies—or, rather, love those who consider themselves our enemies; the good Christian will not consider any other person as an “enemy”  per se, but rather as a friend and brother he simply has yet to befriend.

Similarly, we might remember of the episode of Jesus with the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4. The Samaritans and Jews of the time had an ancestral and religious hatred of one another which had lasted for centuries at that point, but Jesus—in an example we should take from Him—shatters those boundaries by initiating a conversation—and thus relationship—with a Samaritan woman and, by extension as described later in the episode, with her people. When we do the like, we—like Jesus—may encounter opposition by others, but we should do the right nonetheless and courageously “eat and drink with the tax collectors”—not to gloat or to berate, but rather to befriend and to persuade. Hatred begets hatred, but friendship and kindness—even when they don’t beget reciprocity, at least plant the seed for it, and pray that God give the growth. But the unplanted seed certainly will not grow … and the desert remains as bleak and lifeless as ever.

MLK knew this, and that he would have to endure persecution, jail, etc., for the ideals he espoused. Are we ready to do the same, or will we capitulate at the first sign of challenge. Do we leave doing the right to others only? It is a poor soldier indeed who flees in the face of the enemy, and yet when we seek to do what is right, such struggle will virtually always materialize—from external, and sometimes even from our own internal, oppositions.

One of the ironic problems we have is our desire for sociability: we are a social species, and over the millennia survival often depended on getting along with and having amicable relationships with our community—especially with those whom we admire. But in our discernment, allegiance must be to the good and to the right. If that other person espouses something that is wrong or even evil, we must have the fortitude to resist “simply going along”. To “go along to get along” can be destructive for the soul if it leads to doing evil. Will we have the character to stand up for what is right and good?

And it’s not hard to determine that which is good; we just need read the scriptures—in particular the New Testament—which describes those virtues which are not only Christian, but recognized throughout the world—kindness, virtue, courage, etc. We need only be humble in spirit, sit at the feet of Jesus as Mary did, and repeat earnestly with the prophet Samuel: “Speak…your servant is listening.” (1 Samuel 3:10)

Editor’s note: Rev. Glenn Jones is the Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and former pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Los Alamos.