| Psalm 1 Jeremiah 17:5-10 1 Corinthians 15:12-20 Luke 6:17-26 |
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then came down with them and stopped at a piece of level ground where there
was a large gathering of his disciples, with a great crowd of people from
all parts of Judaea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon
who had come to hear him and to be cured of their diseases. People tormented
by unclean spirits were also cured, and everyone in the crowd was trying to
touch him because power came out of him that cured them all. Then fixing his
eyes on his disciples he said: How blessed are you who are poor: the kingdom
of God is yours. Blessed are you who are hungry now: you shall have your
fill. Blessed are you who are weeping now: you shall laugh. ‘Blessed are you
when people hate you, drive you out, abuse you, denounce your name as
criminal, on account of the Son of man. Rejoice when that day comes and
dance for joy, look!—your reward will be great in heaven. This was the way
their ancestors treated the prophets. But alas for you who are rich: you are
having your consolation now. Alas for you who have plenty to eat now: you
shall go hungry. Alas for you who are laughing now: you shall mourn and
weep. ‘Alas for you when everyone speaks well of you! This was the way their
ancestors treated the false prophets.(Luke 6:17-26 NJB) |
Meditation for the 6th Sunday After the Epiphany / Septugesima nce
upon a time there was a little girl, named Dorothy, born into a respectable
family. Her father was a journalist and provided a decent living for his
family. They owned a nice, middle class home in San Francisco. But then,
unexpectedly, their world was turned upside down. Virtually everything they
owned was destroyed in a matter of minutes by the great San Francisco
earthquake of 1906. Their circumstances grew even worse when her father lost
his job and the family moved to Chicago’s south side.Dorothy was eight years old when the family took an apartment over a saloon. Her mother made curtains for the windows out of scrap material she gathered together and hung them up using old fishing rods. Old fruit cases became book cases and used nail kegs became the family’s kitchen chairs. Living in poverty, her mother had several miscarriages over the years, and young Dorothy learned the shame that poverty inflicts upon those it visits. Eventually, her father found work as a sports reporter at a Chicago newspaper and the family was able to escape to a large, comfortable home on the North Side. Dorothy grew to young adulthood in far more pleasant circumstances, but her soul had already been touched and her character formed. After briefly attending the University of Illinois on a scholarship she followed in her father’s footsteps and became a journalist. She wrote for and promoted Socialist causes and was herself a dedicated Socialist. A brief affair resulted in an unwanted pregnancy which she chose to end with an illegal abortion. Sometime later she entered into a four year long common law marriage, which resulted in yet another pregnancy. Something was different this time though. This time she decided to have the baby and she gave birth to a daughter she named Tamar. Several months after Tamar’s birth, her common law husband walked out on them, never to return. This could have become yet another story of human tragedy, but for one thing, the thing that drove Dorothy to want to give birth to this child, rather than ending this pregnancy the same way as the earlier one. In the intervening years, she had encountered Jesus in the persons of three young women she met and roomed with, in Chicago, for a time. These roommates showed her, by their devotion to attending weekly and Holy Day Masses, by their daily prayers and their contentment with life that the person of Jesus mattered and made a difference. Dorothy decided that she wanted; she needed that for herself and for her child also. Within a matter of months of Tamar’s birth, her conversion was complete and both mother and child became full members of the Church, Dorothy by reception, and Tamar by baptism. That faith in the person of Jesus Christ, and the lessons she had learned about poverty and shame drove Dorothy to give her life over to working with and for the poor of society. Although she didn’t found a religious order, young Dorothy did start something. She began a movement; that continues to work for charity, justice and peace, even now, many years after her death. You see, young Dorothy, the woman who had an illegal abortion and a failed common law marriage, was none other than Dorothy Day, the founder of the Catholic Worker Movement. She also founded the newspaper, “The Catholic Worker”, which proudly proclaimed on the front page of each issue that, “Our Manifesto is the Sermon on the Mount”. The words that Jesus spoke in today’s Gospel made an impact on Dorothy. She came to see that they were not mere idle chatter, but were rather a call for a change of thought and priority. These words are revolutionary. They challenge us to move beyond ourselves and to follow the Via Crucis, the way of the cross. Jesus’ Sermon presents us with the choice of being successful in the way the world views success, or in the manner that Christ does. We are offered the option of embracing the world’s values and receiving our reward, our compensation, in money and things that are transient, or we can embrace the values of Christ, anticipate a life of hardship, abuse, and self-sacrifice, but which offers as compensation the voice of Jesus proclaiming to us, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant!” In his commentary on St Luke’s Gospel, William Barclay reminds us that it has been said that “Jesus promised His disciples only three things, that they would be completely fearless, absurdly happy, and in constant trouble.” Dorothy Day, for her work, was imprisoned numerous times, the last time, at age 75. Even worse, on some occasions the authorities would purposefully not arrest her, but only her associates, to thereby increase the emotional and psychological pain inflicted upon her. But she never gave up. She continued to hold fast to Jesus and the words He speaks to us today, knowing that her reward in heaven would more than make up for any troubles she experienced here. For her life of service to the poor, the destitute, and the causes of justice and peace, Mother Teresa made pilgrimage to visit her. Even though Dorothy was never affiliated with the Order, Mother Teresa gave her the cross given only to life professed members of the Sisters of Charity. After her death, John Cardinal O’Connor, then the Archbishop of New York began the process of calling for Dorothy Day’s canonization as a Saint, and in March of 2000, the Vatican officially began the process and declared her to be a “Servant of God”. Writing in Sojourners Magazine, in the July-August issue, of 2000, Rose Marie Berger, an associate editor had this to say about Dorothy, “Day is famous for her quote, "Don't call me a saint. I don't want to be dismissed that easily." She didn't want recycling food from dumpsters, sleeping on a stinky prison cell floor, and getting to mass every afternoon to be dismissed as being only for special people. She had no time for halos without hard work. She practiced the Pauline understanding that all people of God are called to be saints - not just those with a Vatican imprimatur.” In this, Dorothy was quite right, Jesus did not speak his words today only for those few whom all can recognize and acknowledge as Saints. They were addressed to each and every one of us. But His words do call us to live lives that are radically different from what the world expects. He calls us to hunger and thirst for righteousness and to seek to become fertile ground in which sanctity may take root and make known the person of Jesus to all those we come in contact with, just as those three roommates did for Dorothy so many years ago. There is no telling what God may make of it.
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