Journal of Sacred Work

   Today is the 40th anniversary of a terrible moment in American history. Four decades ago, the man who was arguably the greatest American of the 20th century was gunned down by an assassin’s bullet. Moments later, a photographer captured the image at left.
   As always happens when a great figure is murdered, the earthly voice of the victim was stilled, but his legacy seemed to take on even greater luster. Today, every school child knows about  the man who had a dream, a dream which has yet to be realized as fully as it must be.
   I remember that day forty years ago. I was a law student in Washington, D.C.. On the afternoon of April 4, 1968, I was working in a ghetto on a law school program addressing juvenile delinquency. That night, in the minutes after the death of King was reported, that very neighborhood went up in flames…

  Violence was not the seed that King planted and he would have been deeply saddened by the angry reaction of some of his followers. It was the same when King’s model of non-violence, Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated in India in 1947. The news of Gandhi’s killing was met with anger, violence and more death.
   King and Gandhi, towering models of the "tough-minded/tender-hearted" leader, taught the message of Love. They called upon us to live Love in the face of bigotry, intolerance, and injustice. But the human ego has so much difficulty with this message.
   Jesus died for us as a way of begging us to live Love, not fear. Gandhi gave his life to free India not only from British rule but from hatred and distrust. King died preaching the gospel of Love. In each case, these figures were killed by people living in fear – fear of the idea that Love might triumph and that hate might no longer have its place in the human drama.

   Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could turn back the clock to April 3, 1968, to the happy moment captured in the image at left when King still lived? The "what ifs" are fascinating to contemplate. We needed King’s leadership – and we still need it.   
   Have we learned yet? Some of us have. Race relations in America are not as good as they need to be, but they are better. Meanwhile, today is a day we can honor a life given for Love by living Love with all those around us. And we may pause to remember a man who lived his short life of thirty-nine years on behalf of justice. In so many ways, he is alive to this day.

-Erie Chapman