04.04.68……Later On ………Today

Fr. John Cusick, Director
Young Adult Ministry Office

Late on the afternoon of April 4, 1968, I was on my way to the rectory of Holy Name Cathedral to meet a priest and drive him to a Lenten program. I was a 23 year old seminary student.  Spending time experiencing parish programs was part of my training.

As I approached the rectory, a bulletin came on the radio that announced Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had just been shot.  While driving to the Lenten formation venue, the radio made the announcement that Dr. King was dead.

While I was stunned, I looked over to the priest next to me and he sank into the passenger seat and put his head down about as far as it could go. He said nothing. He got out of the car in silence and we entered the meeting place. I walked. He limped.

He was totally silent, sadden by the murder of one of his heroes. He limped because his legs and other parts of his body were filled with lead pellets. Not too many years before, in the spirit of Dr. King, he traveled to the South. Along with a Protestant seminarian, he volunteered with the civil rights movement, attempting to get African Americans the right to vote. A sheriff stepped out of a building with a shotgun. He pulled the trigger. With one shot, he hit them both. The shotgun shell killed the seminary student and filled the priest with lead. The sheriff pled self-defense and was acquitted by a jury of his peers.

Fr. Dick Morrisroe was subject to a number of surgeries to save his life and to remove as much of the shotgun pellets as possible.  Too many of them remained too close to organs and nerves to remove. So he limped on 04.04.68 even more observably because of the lead and now the death of a true American hero in his life, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Later on, actually a number of years later, I stood directly in front of the burial site of Dr. King in Atlanta, Georgia. No one else was around but me and the sacred human remains of Dr. King. I stood silently staring at the sarcophagus surrounded by water in the middle of the King Center. I prayed for him and to him. I reflected on the memories that he left me. I thought of all the evil that was spoken about him in my neighborhood. I remembered all the hope he brought to Black People.

But then something caught my eye. It is directly beneath the letters of his name now etched in marble: January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968.

I did the math. Wow! Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was only 39 years old when a bullet ended his earthly life. 39. He began is public ministry of non-violence and social change when he was 26 – in 1956. From age 26 until his untimely death in 1968 he made an impact on the world that changed the world forever.

He accomplished all this during his young adult years: 26 to 39.

A great many of you who read this today find yourselves inside that age range. These are your young adult years. This is your time – in the name of God – to make an impact on the world in which you live.

Some questions for you to ponder this Lenten Day:

1. Where do you see your life making a positive impact on others?
2. Dr. King had a dream. What is your dream?
3. What are doing and what are you sacrificing to make it happen?
4. What words of Christ challenge you and call you to be more alive?

Before you shut this down, take a moment and pray to the Lord for the courage to take a stand against so much social evil and hate in our world.

Thanks.

-Fr. John Cusick