These reflections are offered by Sister Mary Berchmans VHM of Georgetown Visitation Monastery.

Reflections for the Month of January

The month of January offers many reminders for us to live a more concentrated, spirit-filled life. We begin a new year and, as with all beginnings, we set new goals for ourselves. In mid-January we celebrate the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King and the Church Unity Octave. The feast of St. Francis de Sales and the March for Life towards the end of the month follow these other significant moments in the life of our church and country, all of which are directed to preserving and strengthening human life.

Dr. King’s,” Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” a clarion call to “act justly, to love tenderly and to walk humbly with our God “ contains poignant reminders of the basic issues of human life, issues often reflected in the teachings of St. Francis de Sales. Francis urged his readers to respect the dignity of persons created in the image of God, worked for church unity, and encouraged a gentle, nonviolent way of meeting challenges.

Respect for the Dignity of Every Person:   Dr. Martin Luther King

“I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that the present tension in the south is a necessary phase of the transition from an obnoxious negative peace, in which the Negro passively accepted his unjust plight, to a substantive and positive peace in which all men will respect the dignity and worth of human personality.”

St. Francis de Sales on the Dignity of the Human Person

Salesian spirituality has a deep appreciation for the innate dignity of the human person who is created in the image of God. From this basic assumption flows the essence of this spirituality: to “Live Jesus” in a spirit of optimism.

The Optimism of Dr. Martin Luther King

“I hope this letter finds you strong in faith… I also hope that circumstances will soon make it possible for me to meet each of you, not an integrationist or a civil-rights leader but as a fellow clergyman and a Christian brother. Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear-drenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty.”

Nonviolent Movement toward Recognition of this Dignity

“We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied to a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.” Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

“I have tried to stand between two forces, saying we need to emulate neither the “do-nothingism” of the complacent nor the hatred and despair of the Black National. There is a more excellent way of love and nonviolent protest.”

“Where were the voices of support (from the churches) when bruised and weary Negro men and women decided to rise from the dark dungeons of complacency to the bright hills of creative protest?

St. Francis de Sales on Human Relationships

We can store up gentleness by making a conscious choice to deal with others in a calm, gentle and compassionate way. In difficult situations, we are to be clear, gentle and peaceful, rather than angry.

Do you want to know with what kind of love you should love your neighbor? With the same love with which God loves us. We must draw this love from the heart of the Eternal Father, so that it will be pure, firm, solid, constant and unchanging.

Gentle nonviolence is a light that illumines life, it is the way of being a person and dealing with persons which Jesus lived and taught. It is the only way we can make sense out of the challenge to love our enemies and to do good to those who hate us.

Dr. King’s Thoughts on the Church, the Body of Christ

“I see the Church as the Body of Christ, but, oh! How we have blemished and scarred that body through social neglect and through fear of being non-conformists.”

“Was not Jesus an extremist for love? The question is not whether we are extremists but are we extremists for love or for hatred, for the preservation of injustice or an extension of justice? Jesus was an extremist for love, truth and goodness; in this he rose above his environment.”

“The early Church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society.”

St. Francis de Sales on Unity

Jesus Christ himself said, “Love one another. Such as my love has been for you, so must your love be for each other. You must give a lot of thought to this statement, because it means that we must love others more than we love ourselves.”

The supreme order of the divine act is opposed to confusion and disorder, but not to distinction and variety. On the contrary, it uses these last to bring forth beauty by reducing difference and diversity to proportion, proportion to order, and order to the unity of the world, which comprises all created things, both visible and invisible. All these things together are called the universe, perhaps because all their diversity is reduced to unity, as if one were to say, ‘unidiverse,’ that is, unique and diverse, unique along with diversity and diverse along with unity.

Today praying for Christian Unity seems to be a matter of praying for and working toward tearing down divisions while building up diversity. The common ground for such an endeavor is love of God …the love of self…the love of neighbor. Love is both the hope and the means of this unity.