Celebrating Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The Civil Rights Movement lives on today through the spirit of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who gave his life in service to activism for equal rights and treatment of Black Americans in the United States. Dr. King led people to powerful rallies with a battle cry for social, legal, political and cultural changes to prohibit discrimination and end segregation. Because of his significant work for equality, he is a role model for the ages.

Dr. King worked tirelessly and inspired millions of followers to join in his great crusade; it is more than unfortunate that we must continue the work he began to fight against prejudice and injustice even today when—for over two-thousand years—the message of the Gospel has not prevailed: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person, there is not male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3:28) 

In celebrating the life of Rev. Dr. King, we would do well to immediately join in his powerful ministry and legacy. In 1968, he stated: "I'm frankly tired of marching. I'm tired of going to jail. Living every day under the threat of death, I feel discouraged every now and then and feel my work's in vain, but then the Holy Spirit revives my soul again." We should let that same Holy Spirit inspire us to educate ourselves and others—and move to make changes that often need to be radical. Dr. King further stated "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." These words should be the inspiration that propels the work we need to do.

On the night before he was assassinated, Dr. King expressed foretelling sentiments that formed a prayer. May we one day see the answer to his fervent prayer: "I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the promised land."

As caring adults working to protect children from sexual abuse, our mission is also to shine light upon darkness. Only by bringing the reality of sexual abuse into the light, and responding to those harmed by abuse with love, can we hope to achieve the mission of protection and healing.










^{This article is the copyrighted property of National Catholic Services, LLC. All rights reserved. To provide constructive feedback, or request permission to redistribute, please communicate with: editor@virtus.org}

This article is not part of your continuing training. To access your required bulletins you must log in using the form in the upper left-hand corner of the screen. Then go to the TRAINING tab.