MLK, The Drum Major Instinct As the note at the top of the attac

MLK, "The Drum Major Instinct"
As the note at the top of the attached speech makes clear,
Martin Luther King delivered this sermon just two months
before he was killed. Just as with his "Mountain-Top" speech,
it seems to reflect a premonition of his own death. The truth of
the matter, I believe, is that King knew very well that he risked
his life every day in taking a stand for justice. This speech is
included at the end of this course precisely because it reminds
us of so many of the themes we have dealt with and ends with a
stirring reminder of the call to service. MLK The Drum Major
Instinct.pdf
We have been stressing in this course that an essential
dimension of our humanness – one that is essential to our
human dignity and to who we are as human beings – is our
relatedness. From the moment we begin to exist, we are part of
a web of relationships. Respect for the dignity of every person
(including ourselves) calls for carrying out our responsibilities
toward these relationships. This is what the value of
SOLIDARITY is all about. This assignment calls for you to
synthesize and explain (cite relevant passages but also explain
in your own words) various facets of the significance of
solidarity that have been presented in a number of our readings.
You will need to go over these readings and “dig out” key
points being made about the importance of our human
connectedness.Be sure to follow the instructions for essay
assignments in the Syllabus and in the Important Course
Information folder. Your answer must be based ONLY on
material that is posted in this course on Blackboard. Each
question that calls for using a point made by Pope Francis must
use a DIFFERENT point, drawn from a different section of the
Pope’s message. This assignment calls for answering each
question as clearly, concisely, and accurately as possible. You
will be graded on the accuracty and approriateness of the
content of your answers. The question has several parts. You

need to answer each part, separating them clearly in your essay:
1. A principle that has received attention in Catholic Social
Teaching (CST) is SOLIDARITY. This principle underlines our
responsibility for our relationships/community. In
approximately 100 words, explain what this principle means and
involves, according to CST.
2. While solidarity includes a concern for all of our human
relationships, one very important aspect of its meaning is
expressed by the PREFERENTIAL OPTION FOR THE POOR.
In approximately 100 words, explain and discuss what CST
means by this principle. How is this related to the Felician
value of SOLIDARITY WITH THE POOR?
3. Identify, cite, explain, and discuss one specific, important
point made by Pope Francis in his 2014 World Day of Peace
Message on Fraternity that deals with or relates in an important
way with the meaning of SOLIDARITY.
4. Identify, cite, explain, and discuss one specific, important
point by Pope Francis that deals with or relates in a significant
way with the PREFERENTIAL OPTION FOR THE POOR.
Francis and the Pope
It was not long before Francis' way of life began to attract
attention. There was the problem that some people might have
mistaken his group for one of the several radical groups that
were highly critical of the institutional Church, as we read in
this week's section of Spoto. Francis, though, loved the Church.
In spite of all the flaws of its leaders, it was still the CHURCH,
founded by Christ, whose priests brought the sacraments to the
people. At his bishop's urging, he and his companions
journeyed to Rome, to seek the approval of the Pope for their
way of life. To the end of his life, Francis would be an
obedient and faithful son of the Church, serving it faithfully.So
we see his commitment to the COMMUNITY of the Church.
There was also his distinctive vision for COMMUNITY among
his group of brothers, which we will examine more closely
later. And, of course, there was the way his love for Christ

overflowed into his love for all his brothers and sisters in the
HUMAN COMMUNITY.
SOLIDARITY
PREFERENTIAL OPTION
FOR THE POOR
Responsibility toward Our Human Community
A Deeper Approach to Social Justice
Poverty and Wealth
The distribution of the material resources of the earth is
a reality that impacts every human being.
Poverty and Wealth
In this context, “poverty” does not refer to merely being out of
work or going through “hard times,” such as foreclosure, and
having to scale back. Rather, what is meant is “deep” poverty,
also referred to as “absolute poverty” – a severe deprivation of
the basic necessities of life.
Poverty and Wealth

How does social justice call us to respond to the poverty of the
world?
Poverty and Wealth
Throughout his pontificate, Saint Pope John Paul II frequently
discussed solidarity, as well as calling for Christians to make a
“preferential option for the poor.”
In the Encyclical SOLLICITUDO REI SOCIALIS (1987), he
speaks of “characteristic themes and guidelines dealt with by
the Magisterium in recent years,” and continues: “Here I would
like to indicate one of them: the option or love of preference for
the poor. This is an option, or a special form of primacy in the
exercise of Christian charity, to which the whole tradition of the
Church bears witness. It affects the life of each Christian
inasmuch as he or she seeks to imitate the life of Christ, but it
applies equally to our social responsibilities and hence to our
manner of living, and to the logical decisions to be made
concerning the ownership and use of goods.”
He specifically discusses SOLIDARITY in p. 38 of that
document: “It is above all a question of interdependence,
sensed as a system determining relationships in the
contemporary world, in its economic, cultural, political and
religious elements, and accepted as a moral category. When
interdependence becomes recognized in this way, the correlative
response as a moral and social attitude, as a "virtue," is
solidarity.”

Solidarity “is not a feeling of vague compassion or shallow
distress at the misfortunes of so many people, both near and far.
On the contrary, it is a firm and persevering determination to
commit oneself to the common good; that is to say to the good
of all and of each individual, because we are all really
responsible for all.” It involves “a commitment to the good of
one's neighbor with the readiness, in the gospel sense, to ‘lose
oneself’ for the sake of the other instead of exploiting him, and
to ‘serve him’ instead of oppressing him for one's own
advantage.”
He continues in p. 39: “The exercise of solidarity within each
society is valid when its members recognize one another as
persons. . . . Solidarity helps us to see the ‘other’-whether a
person, people or nation-not just as some kind of instrument,
with a work capacity and physical strength to be exploited at
low cost and then discarded when no longer useful, but as our
‘neighbor,’ a ‘helper’ (cf. Gen 2:18-20), to be made a sharer, on
a par with ourselves, in the banquet of life to which all are
equally invited by God.”
The Pope thus locates the preferential option for the poor within
the overarching call to human solidarity: we are called to
acknowledge our human interdependence – and our resulting
responsibility to the common good – and to commit ourselves to
the good of every human person. Every person is our neighbor,
every person is equally invited by God to share in the “banquet
of life.”
On the 100th anniversary of RERUM NOVARUM, the first
social justice encyclical, John Paul II wrote CENTESIMUS
ANNUS (1991). In it, he explicitly invokes the concept of the

“preferential option for the poor” when referring to the 1891
encylical:
“Re-reading the Encyclical in the light of contemporary realities
enables us to appreciate the Church's constant concern for and
dedication to categories of people who are especially beloved to
the Lord Jesus. The content of the text is an excellent testimony
to the continuity within the Church of the so-called ‘preferential
option for the poor’, an option which I defined as a ‘special
form of primacy in the exercise of Christian charity’.
“Pope Leo's Encyclical on the ‘condition of the workers’ is thus
an Encyclical on the poor and on the terrible conditions to
which the new and often violent process of industrialization had
reduced great multitudes of people. Today, in many parts of the
world, similar processes of economic, social and political
transformation are creating the same evils.”
Preferential Option for the Poor
What is meant by the “preferential option for the poor”?
It does NOT mean the non-poor are not important; it does not
imply a condemnation of those who are NOT poor.
It means a primacy of concern for the poor, following the
example of Jesus in his ministry.
During his entire ministry, Jesus reached out especially to the
poor, outcast, marginalized, vulnerable – those who were
considered the least. Of course, we ought not forget that this
emphasis is also found in the Old Testament, where the poor

and lowly are of special concern to God.
Note Pope John Paul II’s description: “a special form of
primacy in the exercise of Christian charity.” The poor are to
be considered first in the decisions and actions of Christians.
If the welfare of ALL human beings is of concern to the
followers of Christ, it means that the most vulnerable and
marginalized ought to be their top priority. The social justice
of a society is measured by the degree of well-being of its
“least-advantaged” members.
(A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.)
Social Justice
Much deeper than applying a “Band-Aid,” offering help, or
giving a hand-out.
Rather, making the political, economic, educational, health
care, etc. institutions of society more just – more inclusive,
more responsive to the needs of all, especially the poor.
Making decisions and policies that will work to the benefit of
all (not just some) and especially the poor.
Social Justice
Examining the impact of our decisions, our lifestyle, our
consumerism, our spending habits, our corporate and national
policies on the disadvantaged of our world.

Rethinking our relation to those who are “poor.”
Social Justice
Giving ALL a place at the table
SOLIDARITY-COMMUNITY We turn now to the
value of SOLIDARITY. We do not actually see the word
"community" in our list of values, but it is IMPLIED by many
of them. The Latin roots of the word “community” mean “union
with” or “one with,” implying an entity of individuals united
with one another. SOLIDARITY means unity with other
persons based upon our fundamental RELATEDNESS and
interdependence. It entails acknowledging that interdependence
and carrying out our resulting responsibilities to the common
good. The Felician Values include “Solidarity with the Poor,”
which is rooted in the human responsibility for community.
Solidarity suggests an image of "standing solidly in union
with." So the Felician value means “standing in solid union
with the poor.” We are emphasizing concern for the poor within
the context of our implied call to live in community with our
fellow human beings. Community and solidarity imply each
other and are significant human values. COMMUNITY
is an essential focus in the Judeo-Christian tradition and in
many religious traditions of the world. Recall that in the
Exodus and giving of the Covenant, God calls the PEOPLE, God
is concerned about what the PEOPLE are suffering, God frees
the PEOPLE from slavery, God makes the Covenant with the
PEOPLE: “I will be your God, you will be my PEOPLE.” The
Covenant requires right living among the PEOPLE: If they are

going to be God’s PEOPLE, they must do right by one another.
This emphasis continues in the mission of Jesus. Jesus
announces the establishment of God’s reign over the earth – the
healing of all brokenness, including brokenness of relationships
and community (e.g., the return of the leper to his family and
community). Many of his teachings emphasize love: “Love
your neighbor”; “Love your enemy.” He deliberately forms a
COMMUNITY of followers and sends them out to grow and
extend that community. His disciples carry his message to the
world, always calling people to COMMUNITY and fostering
their faith through forming a COMMUNITY. The Greek word
for “church” is ekklesia, which means “assembly.” The living
out of the following of Christ always is rooted in, takes place
in, and extends out from, the COMMUNITY (ekklesia) of
disciples (followers of Christ). In the Christian
tradition, salvation is never a purely private, individualistic
matter. It’s never “just between me and God.” It always
includes, and unfolds in the context of, COMMUNITY. As we
saw when considering human dignity, we are created for
relationship, for COMMUNITY. We are created to be in
relation to one another. We are placed into, and called to live
out our lives in, COMMUNITY with others.
Community is not only essential to who we are. It is what we
are called to be concerned about. We are social creatures, and
our lives are possible only because of other people and because
of the social institutions upon which we all depend – and which
depend upon us for their functioning. As people of faith, we are
called to be concerned about what is happening to other
members of our human community and to take responsibility for
it. If this sounds like a tall order – it is! It IS a
specific challenge offered by religious FAITH. As we saw with
Gaudium et Spes, concern for the dignity of every person calls
us to care for the COMMON GOOD. It calls us to stand in
solidarity with all persons, but especially with those who are
poor, marginalized, and vulnerable. And many other faith
traditions besides Christianity issue that same call.Community –

in the sense we are using it here – is not something optional or
extrinsic to us, but something essential. In our 21st century,
first-world society, we may tend to assume that we can take it
or leave it, that being involved in community is a CHOICE. It
is not. Our culture’s emphasis on individualism may cause us
to forget how deeply interconnected we are, from the very
moment we begin to exist.Community – meaning, again, our
essential connectedness to one another – is part of who we are
and part of our human vocation. We are ESSENTIALLY related
to one another, created to be in relationship with one another.
Because of our close interconnectedness, our thoughts, words,
actions – our very existence – have a profound impact on the
persons around us, just as theirs do on us. Most faith traditions,
not only Christianity, acknowledge this fact and believe that we
have serious responsibilities because of it.A sense of
community, of relatedness, of connectedness with others has
characterized many societies throughout human history. Many
cultures have had definite expectations about social roles and
social obligations. In some cultures, social obligations take
precedence over individual freedoms. OUR culture, on the
other hand, emphasizes individual rights and freedoms to such
an extent that our awareness of our essential connectedness (and
the responsibilities it entails) often takes a back seat.
Reflections on Service Our fundamental human call is to live in
relationship with one another and to be of service to one
another. Jesus’ words remind us of the centrality of service. In
the “Last Judgment” story in Matthew 25, he is explicit that the
way we treat our fellow human beings, the ones he calls his
brothers and sisters, equates to the way we treat him. That
treatment is to be SERVICE: feeding the hungry, giving water
to the thirsty, welcoming the stranger [read: alien], clothing the
naked, giving shelter to the homeless, caring for the sick,
visiting the imprisoned. (These acts of service are referred to
as the “works of mercy” in some Christian traditions.) Jesus
himself is the supreme model of service to others, ministering to

those in need throughout his life and going even to the extent of
giving his life for the sake of others.Christians throughout the
ages, as well as people of many faiths, have recognized the
importance of serving others in fulfilling our human calling.
Service became the key to Saint Francis’ conversion, when he
realized profound meaning, joy, and union with Christ in
touching, embracing, and nursing the lepers. And although he
did not actually write the famous “Peace Prayer of Saint
Francis,” it expresses well his foundational orientation toward
serving others.Chapter 2 of Gaudium et Spes reminds us of this
fundamental vocation, as well. (I encourage you to go back and
reread this chapter of the document.) Paragraph 25 states it
explicitly: “So we humans, in order to fully discover ourselves,
must donate ourselves to one another in love.” Paragraph 27
lays out our responsibilities to our fellow human beings
explicitly, centering around its affirmation that “we have a
special obligation to make ourselves the neighbor of every
person without exception and to actively assist them when we
meet them in the path of our lives.” And paragraph 33 brings it
full circle: “The lifestyle, friendships, and social engagements
of Jesus point the way for us: we are to live as one Body,
members of one another, rendering mutual service to each other
based on our gifts.”This is a call we hear echoed today in the
words and example of Pope Francis, as well as in those of
Martin Luther King from only a few months before he died in
1968.
Service and AbuseChristians are all too painfully aware of
human failure and sinfulness. These are especially serious when
they cause suffering inflicted, intentionally or not, by those who
claim to act for God, for the church, or for good causes.
Unfortunately, this has happened all too often. Because of this,
it is crucial to distinguish “good” and “bad,” positive and
negative implications of the meaning of service.
Service is supposed to mean offering support and assistance to
others in order to make it possible for both giver and receiver to
achieve authentic human fulfillment. It should be both freely

given and freely received. It should be carried out in a way that
honors the human dignity of all parties. It should not lead to the
undermining of human dignity or freedom. If it does so, it has
turned into a form of abuse. Such abuse may take several forms.
Service may be a means of oppression and exploitation. That is,
the requirement of serving may be imposed arbitrarily upon a
vulnerable or exploited person or group – and then justified as
being something virtuous. The poor, marginalized, and,
especially, women have suffered such oppression, often being
taught that it was “God’s will” for them to sacrifice themselves
for others at the cost of their own welfare. Slavery is an extreme
example of the oppression caused by enforced service
(servitude). The history of European colonial expansion in the
Americas is another. The Christianity that was preached to the
indigenous peoples emphasized the suffering of Jesus, and his
meekness and obedience in serving others. In other words, the
obedient, serving, suffering Jesus was held up as a model for
the already oppressed people to pattern their lives after. Just as
Jesus had submitted meekly, the conquered peoples were told to
be meekly subject to their overlords and to accept their
hardships as God’s will; they could be assured that God loved
them and would reward them in heaven for their virtue and
submission. Thus the meaning of the gospel was distorted into a
justification of their suffering and a strong persuasion for them
to submit to their lot in life. Unfortunately, Christianity has too
often overemphasized expectations of service from those who
are already culturally and socially conditioned to deny their
own well-being and autonomy for the sake of serving others. In
contrast to this, service is something that should be freely
given, not forced, coerced, or extracted from someone to the
detriment of their human surviving and thriving.If imposing
expectations of service can be a form of exploitation – denying
human dignity and well-being – the correlative problem is
inappropriate subservience on the part of the one from whom
the service is expected or demanded. Unfortunately, it is often
the case that the “victim” is powerless to change the situation.

But it can also be the case that this person passively submits to
being exploited in this way, perhaps because it gives them a
feeling of being somehow important. Knowingly and culpably
failing to resist abuse of oneself makes one complicit in that
abuse.There are additional, more subtle problematic
implications. Deeds performed in the name of “doing good” can
sometimes be performed from motivations that are quite self-
serving and self-centered. Serving may be a means boosting
one’s own ego and feelings of self-worth and importance. It can
also be a means of manipulating and dominating others: doing
something for them in order to make them feel beholden, to
impose one’s own agenda on them, or to influence them toward
choices or actions determined by the “giver.” (Have you ever
had the experience of someone “helping” you in a way you do
not want or giving unwanted advice because they think they
know better than you what is good for you? You might have felt
as if they were trying to control you or to impose their wishes
on you.) This sort of “service” may be more about the giver
projecting their own views and desires on the one served (even
when great personal sacrifice may be involved) than about what
is really in the long-term best interest of the recipient. Serving
may even go to the extreme of undercutting the recipient’s self-
determination and self-agency by taking away from them the
opportunity of deciding and acting for themselves. The recipient
is prevented from exercising their own personal strengths and
autonomy. These distortions have the impact of undermining the
dignity, autonomy, freedom, and authentic self-actualization of
both giver and receiver.Another possible problem is a misplaced
attitude of “superiority” on the part of one “doing good” or
rendering service. It is as if the giver feels that they are
somehow “better” or more fortunate because they think they
have something that the receiver needs and does not have.
Conscious or not, there may be a feeling of regarding the
recipient as somehow “less than” and the giver as their
“savior.”All of these are distortions of what authentic service is
supposed to be. Service should never be a means of oppression,

exploitation, manipulation, self-aggrandizement, or passive
submission. True service should never be an abusive
undercutting of human dignity. True service happens when both
the giver and receiver see each other on the same level of their
common humanity, acknowledge their interdependence, and
honor each other’s dignity. Service should be an enactment of
human solidarity – celebrating the worth of each person,
recognizing their unique gifts and contributions, standing with
them in their need, and powerfully resisting their
dehumanization.
Religious Roots of Service Interestingly, unlike with
the value of justice or of reverence for creation, there is not a
great deal in the Old Testament that APPEARS to directly relate
to the value of SERVICE. Its importance is more implicit than
explicit. There is one section of the Book of the Prophet Isaiah
(the section known as Second Isaiah, or Deutero-Isaiah) that
contains four so-called “Servant Songs”: 42:1-4; 49:1-6; 50:4-
9; and 52:13-53:12. These passages are about the “Servant of
the Lord,” a figure who seems to be specially chosen and
designated by God to carry out a special God-given task or
mission to the people. In the last of these four passages, the
servant is seen to be a “Suffering Servant,” whose suffering is
used by God for the salvation of others. Because of this, the
earliest Christians applied these passages to Jesus. They were
struggling to understand the meaning of what had happened to
him, and found meaning in these texts from their Scriptures that
described how the Servant carried out God’s will by giving
himself in service for others – a description that seemed very
apt when applied to Jesus. There are a couple of places
in the Gospels where Jesus speaks of service. In Matthew,
chapter 20, the mother of James and John has come to Jesus and
asked that her sons might sit in places of honor beside him in
his kingdom; he has replied that this is not his to give. He goes
on to say, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over
them, and the great ones make their authority over them felt.
But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be

great among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be
first among you shall be your slave. Just so, the Son of Man did
not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a
ransom for many” (Mt. 20:25-28). (“Son of Man” is a phrase
used by Jesus in the Gospels to refer to himself.) In the parallel
passage in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus says, “For who is greater:
the one seated at table or the one who serves? Is it not the one
seated at table? But I am among you as the one who serves”
(Lk. 22:27). Jesus’ disciples seem to share a mistaken
impression that his goal is to achieve a military victory for his
homeland of Israel against their hated Roman overlords; they
are looking forward to their own greatness through sharing in
his resulting victory and glory. Jesus needs to correct their
false ideals. In the Kingdom of God, greatness is not about
wielding power over others (“lording it over them”). Rather, in
GOD’S Kingdom, greatness is about SERVING others. This
would have been a total inversion of values in Jesus’s – or any
other – culture. It totally contradicts our usual, self-centered
assumptions. But for Jesus, the ultimate “greatness” is serving
others, even to the point of giving one’s life for them. Service
is what he is all about, and it is what he expects from his
followers. Service is emphasized in a very dramatic
way in the Gospel of John. At his last supper with his disciples
on the night before he died, Jesus took a towel and a basin of
water, and washed his disciples’ feet. After doing this, he said,
“‘Do you realize what I have done for you? You call me
“teacher” and “master,” and rightly so, for indeed I am. If I,
therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you
ought to wash one another’s feet. I have given you a model to
follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do’” (Jn.
13:12-15). The washing of someone’s feet upon their
entering a house or at the beginning of a banquet was a way of
honoring an important person and was a customary practice in
the ancient Middle East (as it still is, in some parts of the
world). But performing it was one of the duties of a wife for
her husband or of a slave for his or her master. In other words,

it was customarily performed by someone who was in a
subordinate position for one who was a social superior. Jesus
does something that is totally unheard of; in fact, it scandalizes
his disciple, Peter, who is so upset that he tries at first to
prevent Jesus from washing his feet. Jesus demonstrates –
through actions that speak much louder than words – that in
God’s Kingdom, no one is “superior” and no one is “inferior,”
and that his followers are to go to the extreme extent possible in
order to truly serve others.
In these stories, Jesus is explicitly subverting cultural
assumptions about what constitutes human worth. The worth of
the person is not dependent on social status: one in a socially
“superior” position is not of more worth than a social
“inferior.” Under God, ALL are called to serve others, and
doing so is not a sign of inferiority, because all human beings
are equal in dignity. Jesus explicitly shows that true greatness
consists in serving others. Service is a form of personal
excellence because it fulfills our call to imitate God in caring
for one another. “We have a special obligation to make
ourselves the neighbor of every person without exception and to
actively assist them when we meet them in the path of our
lives” (Gaudium et Spes, 27). Service must be
something that is freely given. When it is forced or demanded,
it becomes a form of oppression. Unfortunately, Jesus’ words
have sometimes been twisted to support the oppression of the
vulnerable, by convincing them that “good” Christians submit
and obey their “superiors” meekly. But this is not the model
that Jesus himself presented. He did not allow people to jerk
him around or treat him as a “doormat.” He was strong and
courageous in confronting evil and standing up for what was
right, even when it cost him his life. His actions model a mode
of service to others that is a RESISTANCE against evil and
against the exploitation of fellow human beings. He calls for
serving others because he truly cares about PERSONS.

MLK, The Drum Major Instinct As the note at the top of the attac

MLK, The Drum Major Instinct As the note at the top of the attac

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MLK, The Drum Major Instinct As the note at the top of the attac