De Martin Luther King ab Amico in VultuLibro

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Amici, Americani, Compatriotae,

A very devout and perceptive friend on Facebook  - James P. [the last name is designated with an initial so as to protect his anonymity] - posted the following text today regarding the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Please note before we begin that the term Reverend prefaced the title and name of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This man was a Christian minister - NOT a secularist, NOT an agnostic, NOT an atheist, NOT a humanist, BUT a Christian. And it is Christianity which first recognized (in the face of Rome's libertine paganism and Athens' secularist philosophy) universal equality in dignity some 2000 years ago when St. Paul wrote in Colossians 3:11:

Here there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scyth′ian, slave, free man, but Christ is all, and in all.

It is ONLY because we are created in the image and likeness of God that we are equal in dignity. If we are mere animals as the secularist atheists assert, then it is strength of the fittest to survive which rules and no equality in dignity exists. Indeed, it is from a lack of God that we get racism and prejudice and stereotype and all the other social justice ills which plague mankind. Those are the things which secularism, atheism and humanism bring.

Nevertheless, before I get carried away again and without further ado, here is what my friend so wisely wrote:

"But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force."

The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 8/28/63

It has taken me most of my life to appreciate what Rev. King said and did. Watching the events of the Presidency of Barack Obama has made me realize what was said back then is being unfortunately played out now. We have turned a real and rational struggle for equal rights and equal opportunity into the march of racism and vengeance. 53 years later we have had black Supreme Court Justices, Senators, Representatives, CEOs. A black man has run for and achieved the highest political office in the land. Yet we are called racist every day... Rev. King in almost a prophetic moment said:

"The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom."

Yet today we look around and see white people blamed for everything from global warming to micro aggressions. We have black activists calling for the death of all whites. We have black representatives claiming a white man cannot be president and it's racist to simply disagree with him.

Instead of all this Rev King challenged us with:

"Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.

Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,

From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that:

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

"Free at last! Free at last!

Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Now on this day I will honor Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King by doing my job, working, doing my best to remember to love my neighbor, and I will continue to have hope in our future.

Encenium - Hanukkah

Amici, Americani, Compatriotae,

This year the Feast of the Dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem runs from Sunset, 6 December to nightfall, 14 December during the Christian Advent Season. Its Biblical basis may be found at the following:

1st Maccabees 4:36-61
2nd Maccabees 10:1-9
John 10:22

The short story is this. Centuries before Christ's birth the Empire of Alexander the Great had broken apart into four or five separate parts. This can be read in the Old Testament books of Daniel (later half), and 1st and 2nd Maccabees. The greater of these was the Ptolemy Empire in Egypt and the Seleucid Empire in Syria. The Seleucids had conquered much of Israel and Judah. They were forcing their pagan Greek culture on the Jewish people, requiring sacrifice to Zeus Olympus, the eating of pork, the foregoing or reversal of circumcision, and all that the Mosaic Law required. This was not, however, simply a matter of clashing cultures between so-called enlightened Greeks and Jewish religious zealots. The Seleucids were cruel and abusive people. For example, when Jewish mothers had their male babies circumcised, the Seleucids would murder the infant, and with rope tie the dead infant around the mother's neck, strangulating her to death. Additional examples include where 2nd Maccabees records that the Greek pagans beat to death a scribe of old age, Eleazar, for refusing to eat pork, and burned alive a mother and her seven sons also for refusing to eat pork (the Mosaic Law forbade the consumption of pork because swine were regarded as unclean animals).

A man by the name of Matthias and his sons then rose up to challenge the Seleucid overlords. When he died he had placed his son Judas Maccabeus in charge of the freedom fighters. There were many battles where the Jewish contingent was outnumbered, but God always gave them the victory over the pagan Greeks. In the battle of 1st Maccabees chapter 4 Judas and his followers defeated Lysias, one the Generals of evil Seleucid Emperor Antiochus IV Epiphanes. After Lysias retreated to Antioch, Judas and his contingent went to restore the violated Temple in Jerusalem where the Seleucid Emperor had sacrificed to Zeus Olympus a swine on the altar in the Holy of Holies. Our Jewish heroes thus found devastation and ruin everywhere. But while they had rent their clothes and pleaded for God's mercy and forgiveness, they persevered in restoring the Temple, and made a rededication. They found according to the Babylonian Talmudic a jar of oil for fueling a lit Menorah that had not been made unclean by the pagans. But the amount of oil was only sufficient for one day. Yet when used the Menorah continued burning for a full eight days. Thus, starting on 25 Chislev (approxinately 25 December, though the Jewish date varies with the Jewish calendar that is based on the lunar vice solar cycle), the Feast of Dedication was instituted for eight days in perpetuity to commemorate the restoration of the Temple from the pagans. This was the same feast for which Jesus in John 10:22 had returned to Jerusalem almost two centuries later.

Now some things are important here. The Temple was restored from pagan uncleanliness to holiness on or about 25 December. In the same way the Christ child came into the world to restore mankind from uncleanliness to holiness on 25 December (at least that's when we celebrate his birth, though the actual birth date is likely in springtime). It was the Temple of the Most High God which was cleaned out and rededicated, and St Paul in the New Testament calls our bodies the Temple of the Holy Spirit which we likewise are to keep clean and un-defiled. The celebration that the Jews made at the rededication of the Temple was much like the celebration that they would make much later when Christ Himself would come riding on an ass into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. And the oil that did not run out for eight days at the first Hanukkah is reminiscent of the Holy Spirit whom we receive at the Sacrament of Confirmation by anointing with oil, and who heals us on the anointing of oil at the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick.

There are many allusions to Christ in the Old Testament. This is but one example. Here an ostensible Jewish Holy Day celebrated in parallel with the Christian Christmas point to that very event of the birth of the Christ child. Unfortunately, the Books of the Bible which talk about this particular Holy Day are missing from the Protestant Bible because in their rebellion against the Church in the 16th century AD, Martin Luther and John Calvin removed them on their own recognizance.

Hanukkah Menorah

Affatus Praefeci Reagan in Die Eucharistiae Anno Domini MCMLXXXV

Amici, Romani, Compatriotae,

President Reagan's Address on Thanksgiving Day in the Year of the Lord 1985: