Many will find it arrogant of me to pronounce myself in the same sentence with Dr. King. But I think all of us should from time to time pair ourselves with a great historical figure whom we admire and attempt to follow in one way or another. In my case, I was always proud to hear that MLK and myself were born in 1929, within a month of each other. MLK was born on January 15, 1929, and I was born on February 24, 1929. MLK had mostly African blood, and I, being a first-generation Sicilian/ American, surely had plenty of African blood in my veins. MLK early on found his vocation as a Christian minister, and so did I as a Catholic priest. We both attended Boston University, although my stint was just nine credits as a Vocational Counselor that could not be compared to Martin’s Doctorate in Ministry. Here the comparisons mostly cease, except for the fact that we both wanted to save the world: Martin, as a Southern Baptist Preacher, and I, as the ‘human savior’, literally translated from ‘salvatore humano’. No, the ‘Divine Savior” beat us both on that score.
But Martin Luther King surely was Moses to his people, the formerly enslaved Africans of the United States, just as Moses led the Hebrew slaves out of their bondage in Egypt. And just as the first Moses never made it to the promised land, MLK was assassinated before he could see the beginnings of liberation that continue to trickle down like his blood in that Memphis motel 56 years ago.
Will the blood of Martin Luther King continue to trickle down through the years, as the Blood of Jesus has continued to trickle down through two thousand years? Each of us has the answer to that question carved into our hearts: “Love God with your whole heart and soul, and your neighbor as yourself.” That’s Martin’s dream, that’s Martin’s message, that’s Martin’s Truth: Truth to Power. Yes, when the Love of Power is overcome by the Power of Love, there will Martin live, and shine, and soar.
A few years ago, I visited Martin Luther King’s statue on the shore of the Lake facing the Jefferson Memorial in Wash.D.C. Martin is facing Jefferson in his huge pink marble monument, across the lake, and he is silently saying to Jefferson, “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? When? When each of us listens to our hearts. Listens without the violent sounds of the barking of police dogs, of selfish greedy politicians, of righteous religious hypocrites, or worst of all, us good people who lack the courage to speak out against injustice in any form.
Sal Umana 