Hello, John! As we celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s life and legacy in January, these quotes show an uncanny understanding of the Franciscan spirit.
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” Dr. King drew upon Matthew 5:43–45 when he gave his “Loving Your Enemies” sermon in 1957 in Montgomery, Alabama, but much of it could have been written by Francis himself. The civil rights movement was in motion by then, and Black Americans faced mounting aggression.
In fact, even after the Civil Rights Act was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson in 1964, people of color faced poll taxes, literacy tests, and other forms of psychological or physical intimidation. But Dr. King insisted on social change through nonviolent protest. In his own time, St. Francis of Assisi saw political unrest and a brutal caste system. Born into a family of means, he shed his wealth for a life of radical simplicity, for which he would be known. But he was a saint with a tireless capacity for love as well: love of the natural world and all its inhabitants. And with that, he recommended that his early brothers go into the world with the same interminable love. “The friars are bound to love one another because our Lord says, ‘This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you’ (Jn 15:12). And they must prove their love by deeds, as St. John says: ‘Let us not love in word, neither with the tongue, but in deed and in truth’” (1 Jn 3:18). “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” While Dr. King was incarcerated in April 1963, he penned his famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” And though he never deviated from the path of nonviolent resistance, he could, at times, lose patience when he was met with resistance—even among fellow clergymen. Dr. King was a prophet, not a saint. Though the central theme of the letter is about countering racial injustice with love, Dr. King covers a lot of bases in 7,000 words. He rails against the civic lethargy of Black clergy as well as White clergy who “stand on the sideline and mouth pious irrelevancies and sanctimonious trivialities.” He also reminds us that God is the true keeper of history. Grace will always side with the righteous.
—Christopher Heffron from St. Anthony Messenger's January 2024 issue | 