What is your dream?

It is my custom each year around Martin Luther King, Jr. Day to read or listen to King's "I have a dream" speech (watch and listen here). I have to admit that I can never get through it with out shedding a few tears. Last summer, I stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and thought about what it must have been like to have been in the crowd that day. With the prophecies of Isaiah now in my mind (we've been reading from Isaiah in church since the beginning of Advent in early December), I can't help but think that King's voice joins that of the Hebrew prophets, Jesus, and so many others whose words transcend time and place. King's words offer hope to the hopeless and challenge to the comfortable. That challenge continues today.

We have spent a great deal of energy here at Emmanuel thinking and praying about one of our dreams - a world without extreme poverty. I dream of a world where no one dies because they have no food or because they have no access to basic healthcare. I believe, as do so many others, that the means to end extreme poverty are firmly within our reach. We just need the will.

As we celebrate the King holiday on Monday, take a few minutes to think about your dream for our world. It doesn't have to look like mine or anyone else's. It could be local or global. Whatever it is, it needs to be yours. It needs to inspire you to action. It needs to create a fire within you. It needs to be informed by your core values. Let your dream energize you - give you a sense of purpose and meaning. Let it shape the choices that you make, the way that you live, the way that you treat the people around you!

Thank God for Martin Luther King, Jr. And thank God for each of you who dares to dream of a better world for all people!

Peace,
Fr. Greg