Maybe we are all a bit schizophrenic.
Split personalities that lean in opposite directions.
But given the headlines in the news, bishops in the Roman Catholic Church certainly seem to be just that. At their annual meeting yesterday, by voice vote, they endorsed Dorothy Day, the co-founder of the Catholic Workers Movement, for sainthood. To tell the truth, given the recent pronouncements of the Catholic bishops, I wonder if they know what they are doing. Or, better yet I HOPE they know what they are doing.
I wish I knew more about Dorothy Day, but what I know I like.
She was very human in all the ways we don’t usually associate with those who are endorsed to be saints. And yet she possessed both a vision of what God’s Kingdom come might look like here on earth, and a commitment to do her part to help bring it about.
She was looked up to by some.
Reviled by others.
But those whose lives were touched by her compassion and kindness and vision, I wonder if they did not walk away from that encounter having the sense of brushing up against that which we know and name as God.
“No one has the right to sit down and feel hopeless.
There is too much work to do.” she said.
I agree.
And, I take encouragement and find courage in her words and in her witness.
To tell the truth, in recent years my faith and my positions have moved in a very different direction from that of the Roman Catholic bishops.
But, we need more saints like Dorothy and so today all I can do is to say…
Amen.
Leave a Reply