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June 30
Alberta Williams King, Mary the mother of John Mark, and the Feast of the 12 Apostles.
David Barnhart
June 30, 2025
Okra bloom, 2025. Own photo.
Today in 1974, Alberta Williams King, the mother of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated while playing “The Lord’s Prayer” on the church organ. Her killer was a Black Hebrew Israelite named Marcus Wayne Chenault. Although he was sentenced to death for his crime, the King family interceded for him because they opposed the death penalty, and instead he served life in prison.
Today in 1905, Albert Einstein submitted his paper on special relativity, which would change the way we think about space and time.
Today is the feast day of Mary, mother of John Mark, whose home was likely an important gathering place for the early church in Jerusalem.
Today is also the Feast of the 12 Apostles, or the Feast of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, which marks the end of the season of Pentecost. The Feast Day is for the remembrance of Jesus’s followers who carried his message into the world.
Reflection:
I find it interesting that today we recognize Mary and Alberta, the mothers of two saints, John Mark and Martin Luther King, Jr.. It makes me reflect that sainthood often runs in the family. Then again, there are times where people spring into faithful peace and justice work because their family was a place of conflict, or they had to seek out a chosen family.
Even though I’m lifting up examples in this devotional of people who achieved some level of fame (or infamy) in their lives, I’m also mindful that there are many saints whose faithful works we will never know. William Sloane Coffin wrote:
Of God’s love we can say two things: it is poured out universally from the Pope to the loneliest wino on the planet; and secondly, God’s love doesn’t seek value, it creates value. It is not because we have value that we are loved, but because we are loved that we have value. Our value is a gift, not an achievement.
Because our value is a gift, we don’t have to prove ourselves, only to express ourselves, and what a world of difference there is between proving ourselves and expressing ourselves.
We don’t have to be “successful,” only valuable. We don’t have to make money, only a difference, and particularly in the lives society counts least and puts last.
Prayer: God, in emulating these saints, keep us from grasping after “achievement spirituality.” We have value because of your abundant love, not because of any fame or trophies we win. Amen.