I had
taken a break from blogging, because I became overwhelmed and frustrated at the
hatred being spewed in the name of Christianity. But I recently began reading Dorothy Day-Selected Writings edited by
Robert Ellsberg, and I realized the voice of love and reason cannot and should
not be silenced. At times, her writings reveal frustration but her solid faith
in the love of God gave her the strength and courage to continue her work.
For
those who don’t know, Dorothy Day started the Catholic Worker Movement. She
believed in and worked to bring peace and justice to the society which
surrounded her. Long before Mother Teresa of Calcutta advised us to “bloom
where we are planted”, Dorothy did just that. She started in small steps, first
offering free coffee and toast to the homeless and unemployed who walked the
streets desperately looking for work. Eventually there was a string of
Hospitality Houses across the nation, some rural working farms growing food to
help supply the urban houses.
This
morning during my devotions I read about the 1968 Poor People’s Campaign that
arrived in Washington, D.C. This kindled memories of the “Occupy Wall Street”
movement which spanned our country last year. This quote from a Mississippi
civil rights activist, Fannie Lou Hamer, struck a nerve, “Christianity is being
concerned about your fellow man, not building a million dollar church while
people are starving right around the corner. Christ was a revolutionary person,
out there where it was happening. That’s what God is all about and that’s where
I get my strength.”
There
are two ways of looking at the writings for Dorothy Day and other activists
which span the decades from the Great Depression to the present. We can become
frustrated and overwhelmed because of the continued presence of the
inequalities in our country, where “all men are created equal”, or we can
become empowered by the true presence of the Creator of the Universe inside
each of us, allowing us to see how it could be.
