In the latest JV Reflects blog post, current JV Maddie Murphy reflects on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s call for us to be Extremists for Love- and what this call means to her as a JV. Below is an excerpt from her piece on Ignatian Solidarity Network’s JV Reflects blog.
“On the celebration of the birthday of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., I left my service site and went home to promptly read one of my favorite writings from King, the “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” Every time I read this letter, something new resonates with me. King had been called an extremist by those that did not understand his desire for immediate action for racial justice. They meant this label of extremist to be an insult; King chose to wear it proudly.
Extremism is usually regarded with negative connotations – we often apply it to people who hold ideologies that we deem to be dangerous or hateful. But Dr. King saw two sides to extremism. He asks in his letter, ‘Was not Jesus an extremist for love?’ As JVs, we are told to be extremists for love, to extend the table. But what I have come to learn is that we will meet extremists for love in the most unlikely of places and, in the most surprising and blessed of ways, will have tables extended to us as well…”
Read Maddie’s full reflection on Ignatian Solidarity Network’s JV Reflects blog here.
