I got a magazine from the church at Mass a few weeks ago. You know, one of those little magazines that has the passages from the Bible, a talk about a person of the day and some thoughts. They often have quotes form the person of the day. I noted one and it had a quote from Dorothy Day. No not the Actress, but the woman who founded the Catholic Worker Movement. No, that is not some socialist organization bent on over throwing the Republic that is United States of America. The Catholic Worker Movement is a collection of autonomous communities of Catholics and their associates founded by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin in 1933. Its aim is to “live in accordance with the justice and charity of Jesus Christ.” Her quote made me stop and think for a moment. And then again.
“No one has the right to sit down and feel hopeless. There is too much work to do.”
By it’s nature, hopeless is selfishness. Hopelessness says “Oh woe is me, for I have lost it all, and have nothing to live for.” “What can I do, I lost my job, my home, my family. I want to die.” “I have [fill in an illness] and it’s painful and it’s hard and I feel bad and I don’t want to go on.”
While I don’t want you, dear friend, to think that I am without mercy or compassion for those who have lost everything, that is not my point.
When God cleans us out and drops us down to the barest minimum we have two choices. We can look up and get up or look down and go down. There is no standing still. There is no staying in the same place. By our nature we are never stagnant.
By sitting down, looking down and saying woe is me, we take away God’s chance to work with us in giving to others. God’s infinite grace and mercy can work through us… even in the worst.
A friend of mine told me about someone she dearly loved who was dying a horrible death from cancer. Even in this horrible situation, light is there for us to see. My friend and the family were a part of making sure she died with dignity, with peace, filled with love. There could be joy in the passing, not horror.
No hopelessness. No bitterness.
No sitting down.
So, stop sitting down. Stand up and find the place where God wants your hands to be busy. Find where God wants you to go and do. Stop sitting down, go find your work.
