August 13, 2014

Greater Love

Jonathan Myrick Daniels holds the honor of having fulfilled the greatest love attested by our Lord Jesus Christ himself: to lay down one's life for one's friends. The story of his self-sacrificial placement of himself between a bigot's arms and the body of a young African-American co-worker in the struggle for civil rights is well enough known to obviate the need for me to tell it once more here. Suffice this to be a moment to give honor to this honorable young man, fervent in faith, steady in resolve, and sudden in action to do what was right in the face of grievous wrong. May we all contribute a glimmer of such light by our own feeble candles.

Tobias Stanislas Haller BSG
ikon of Jonathan as the seminarian he was

1 comment:

  1. Deacon Charlie PerrinAugust 15, 2014

    A few years back his feast day happened to fall on a Sunday on which I was scheduled to preach. I decided to incorporate that fact into my sermon.

    After recounting his story to the congregation I said that with our gun culture in this country it wouldn't surprise me if someone didn't point out that if Daniels had been armed he could have shot the man and saved not only the girls life but his own.

    I then said that if that were to happen, I would respond that the result would have been an act of selfishness and judgment, rather than one of selflessness.

    It would have been an example of what our Lord meant when he said that those who save their lives will lose them, and those who lose their lives for his sake would have eternal life.

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