DON’T CALL ME A SAINT
“Don’t call me a saint. I don’t want to be dismissed that easily.”—Dorothy Day
Our purpose in life is to love God and neighbor and in doing so to attain our final destination in heaven. It's not to become a saint, that is to say, to play to the institution, with all its idiosyncrasies, foibles, and faults.
“To thine own self be true” (Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 3)...if you sacrifice your integrity to play to the institution, it's your loss....
Doubtlessly, playing to the institution jeopardizes our personal and moral integrity. Our most basic guiding principle should be to follow our conscience, understanding that ultimately we are accountable to God and his perfect judgment—not to the institution, which is to say, to the Roman Catholic Church.
Dorothy Day didn’t play to the institution and criticized it roundly:
“While Day didn't focus on bucking the church, she wasn't hesitant to criticize the hierarchy for not doing enough, in her view, on justice causes — nonviolence and workers' rights in particular. Her fight on behalf of striking New York City archdiocesan gravediggers against the archdiocese made news in the 1950s.”
—Michelle Boorstin, “Dorothy Day was a radical. Now many want the Vatican to make her a saint,” The Washington Post (January 28, 2020)
“The ‘unruly saint’ that [D. L.] Mayfield celebrates is hard to swallow for some who champion Day’s cause for canonization. Some try to rein her in to be the ‘ruly’ saint they would have her be.
“…Day who lived in history...who went to jail with striking workers, who resisted segregation, who called young men to ‘fill the jails’ rather than fight in Vietnam, who demanded the overthrow of capitalism, and who counseled ‘one must live in a state of permanent dissatisfaction with the Church’—is a prophet for our time.”
https://uscatholic.org/articles/202211/the-real-dorothy-day-was-not-a-tame-saint/
—Brian Terrell, “The real Dorothy Day was not a tame saint,” U.S. Catholic, November 8, 2022
https://oddsandendsgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2019/11/the-way-of-dorothy-day.html
TOMB OF THE UNKNOWN SAINT
The “Tomb of the Unknown Soldier” is a memorial tradition that begins in post-World War I United Kingdom and France, when leaders of the two allied victors decided to establish national monuments honoring their soldiers who had died in service to the nation but whose remains were missing or could not be identified. In the United Kingdom the memorial was christened the “Tomb of the Unknown Warrior,” while in France it was “La Tombe du Soldat Inconnu.”
In the U.S. the “Tomb of the Unknown Soldier” was built in 1921, while many countries have raised their own memorials in this spirit. Chile and the Ukraine, for example, have constructed memorials to the “Unknown Sailor.”
Because we are morally certain that millions of the deceased have entered into eternal life and are now with God in heaven—we don’t know who they are and we probably never will, at least not with theological or scientific certainty—we think it is appropriate in the spirit of the “Tomb of the Unknown Soldier” to set up a “Tomb of the Unknown Saint” honoring the saints in heaven presently unknown and who will possibly remain so until the end of time, inspiring the many Christian witnesses today who conduct their lives dedicated to the service and love of God and to humanity. They are indeed “unknown saints.”
https://oddsandendsgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2019/09/tomb-of-unknown-saint.html
We should try our best to be holy according to God’s command, but we should not sacrifice our integrity by playing to the institution.
Photo courtesy of Jim Forest
ReplyDeletePhoto link:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jimforest/4826760156
Gonzalinho
JUDGED BY LOVE
ReplyDeleteIn 2016, when I was cited to appear as a witness in the diocesan inquiry of “the Cause for Beatification and Canonization of the Servant of God Dorothy Day” in New York, the fathers seemed keenly interested in the Catholic Worker movement’s durability. It was as though the question of Dorothy’s sanctity depends on whether the movement that she cofounded with Peter Maurin is a flash in the pan, here today, gone tomorrow, or if it is an institution built to last the centuries. The question did not interest me at the time.
Thomas Merton, in Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, said, “The obsession with institutionalism and organization is something that the Church has doubtless caught, to some extent, by contagion with modern pragmatism… (Jacques) Maritain points out with good reason that this spirit of efficiency has many grave disadvantages, and reminds us that ‘efficiency’ and ‘success’ are not necessarily signs of the Holy Spirit. Or rather the success that is work of the Spirit is not identifiable with the quantitative results verifiable in statistics.”
“The Holy Spirit is not at work only in durable institutions which last through the centuries, He is also at work in ventures that have no future, which have always to be begun again,” Maritain says in Journal de Raissa.
Merton replies, “Obviously, there must be ‘durable institutions’ and there must be organization. But love is more important than organizations and a small, apparently insignificant and disorganized circle of friends united by love and a common venture in Christian witness may be of far greater value to the Church than an apparently thriving organization that is in reality permeated with the frenzies of activistic and ambitious willfulness.”
“Yet herein lies the key to the Catholic Worker’s endurance: it has never really tried to endure,” Dan McKanan wrote in his book, The Catholic Worker after Dorothy: Practicing the Works of Mercy in a New Generation in 2008. Dorothy, he says, “consistently took more interest in the people who were drawn to her movement than in the preservation of the movement itself.” The [Catholic Worker] was never intended to be a formal institution but rather an organic network of relationships and as such it endures and thrives. Paradoxically, it is precarity—the state of existing on the brink of extinction—that is feared and fended off at all costs by most institutions and movements that has proved to be the natural and healthy condition of the [Catholic Worker].
https://catholicworker.org/at-90-years-where-is-the-catholic-worker-movement-going/
—Brian Terrell, “At 90 Years, Where is the Catholic Worker Movement Going?” Catholic Worker Movement, March 23, 2023
Well said—“love is more important than organizations.”
Gonzalinho
DOROTHY DAY THE SAINT
ReplyDeleteDorothy Day’s spirituality is marked by these characteristics:
Love of Scripture: Throughout her life, Dorothy received comfort and inspiration from the Bible, especially the Psalms, the Pauline writings, and the Gospels. They were part of her daily meditation, and scripture verses and images spontaneously wove themselves into her writings. The example and teachings of Christ were at the heart of her spirituality.
Solidarity with the Poor: In the Catholic Worker community, Dorothy shared her daily energies with and on behalf of poor people. Her writings, direct practice of the works of mercy, and her own voluntary poverty bound her to poor, homeless, sick, and desperate people.
Personalism: Dorothy loved doing works of mercy because they allowed her to take direct and immediate action for her brothers and sisters in Christ and against the ills of society that robbed them of their life, freedom, and dignity. Her engagement with other people flowed from her wholeness as a person; her heart and mind were cultivated through her reading, reflection, conversations, writing, and worship. She wanted the fullness of life for herself and every person.
Prophetic Witness: By her public words and work, Dorothy sought to imitate Christ’s witness against injustice, even when such witness seemed folly. Like Christ, she was critical of the powers and structures of injustice and endured ridicule and opposition for her witness.
Peacemaking: A steadfast pacifist, Dorothy opposed all wars and the use of force and violence to solve human problems. She practiced and promoted human dignity with the spiritual weapons of prayer, fasting, almsgiving, civil disobedience, and works of amendment. Like Jesus, the woman at the well, and Saint Paul, she took her message to the people in the streets.
A Sacramental Sense: Dorothy looked to sacramental celebrations, especially the Eucharist, for daily spiritual sustenance, and she saw the world, its people, and all of nature to be full of God’s grandeur and love as well.
Gratitude: In good times and in bad, Dorothy had a keen sense of appreciation and learned to trust in the providence of God. Dorothy regularly expressed gratitude not only to God but to those around her and to the Catholic Worker’s readers.
This excerpt was originally published in the introduction to Praying with Dorothy Day (Word Among Us Press, 1995) by James Allaire and Rosemary Broughton and is reprinted with permission.
https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/centers/church21/publications/c21-resources/c21-resources-articles/Living-Catholic-Social-Teaching--Dorothy-Day.html
—Brandon Vogt, “Living Catholic Social Teaching: Dorothy Day,” C21 Resources, August 28, 2023
I deeply admire Dorothy Day, especially for her voluntary poverty in solidarity with the poor. Her virtue in this respect was sincere, radical, and lifelong. She well deserves to be canonized despite her lapidary words to the contrary.
Gonzalinho