Let Mutual Love Continue

February 6, 2009

Memorial of Saint Paul Miki, martyr, and his companions, martyrs

Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect hospitality, for through it some have unknowingly entertained angels. Hebrews 13:1-2

Herod feared John, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man, and kept him in custody. When he heard him speak he was very much perplexed, yet he liked to listen to him. Mark 6:20

Piety

The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom do I fear? The LORD is my life's refuge; of whom am I afraid? When evildoers come at me to devour my flesh, these my enemies and foes themselves stumble and fall. Psalm 27:1-2

Father, we praise you and thank you for sending into our midst lovers and leaders who inspire us to reach out in holy hospitality to the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free with a hot meal, a warm coat, a dry bed and a roof over their head. Bless Kathy, Art, Colleen, Carol, Ardeth, Steve, Tom, Bill, and who do good works in your name and all those who support them. Amen.

Study

“Remember your leaders who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.” Hebrews 13:7

This may not be the best recruiting tagline for Christianity. Remember your leaders who spoke truth to power. Let’s see…whom would the Church like us to remember first? Let’s see what happens in the Gospel today.

John the Baptist, the one who said Prepare the way of the Lord, is arrested. John the Baptist, the one who said I am not worthy to tie his sandals, was thrown in prison. John the Baptist, the one who challenged the king marrying his brother’s wife, is executed by beheading. “Let marriage be honored among all and the marriage bed be kept undefiled, for God will judge the immoral and adulterers.”

John could say nothing less to the King than what he said and what is echoed in the Letter to the Hebrews. His eventual and inevitable execution foreshadows the state also turning against Jesus and later against countless saints (canonized or not) throughout history who were martyred.

Action

Sacred scripture tells us to “imitate their faith.”

Dorothy Day is on that cloud of witnesses. Dorothy imitated that faith. She took to heart Hebrews 13:2-3. “Do not neglect hospitality, for through it some have unknowingly entertained angels. Be mindful of prisoners as if sharing their imprisonment, and of the ill-treated as of yourselves, for you also are in the body.” Today, her example inspires people worldwide to imitate that faith.

According to the home page of the website on the Catholic Worker movement, On May 1, 1933, in the depths of the Great Depression, The Catholic Worker newspaper made its debut with a first issue of twenty-five hundred copies. Dorothy Day and a few others hawked the paper in Union Square for a penny a copy (still the price) to passersby.

The Catholic Worker Movement is grounded in a firm belief in the God-given dignity of every human person whom might be an angel coming into our midst.

Today over 185 Catholic Worker communities remain committed to nonviolence, voluntary poverty, prayer, and hospitality for the homeless, exiled, hungry, and forsaken. Catholic Workers continue to protest injustice, war, racism, and violence of all forms.

This weekend, when you head down to the video store, pick up a copy of the film about Dorothy Day’s Life, “Entertaining Angels.” Add it to your Netflix list. Or call me and borrow my copy (VHS, not DVD).

Then consider this as you see and hear how the world continues to react to such good works: What can anyone do to me? What can anyone do to me that has not already be done to Jesus? Imagine for a minute that the King had a mustard seed worth of the idea of hospitality toward John the Baptist rather than revenge.

To visit the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker House in Washington and accompany them as they entertain angels on the streets of our nation’s capital, contact me by reply e-mail or post a comment on this blogsite.