STRENGTH TO ENDURE

For I know that my redeemer liveth,
and that he shall stand
at the latter day upon the earth.

Job 19:25 KJV

Among the stack of devotional books on my shelves is one titled Dorothy Day: Selected Writings.

Day, for those who may not know, was the founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, a tireless worker for social justice, and a fierce anti-war activist.

Her life was the embodiment of an effort to live out the radical implications of the teachings of Jesus Christ.

As I slowly re-enter the blogosphere, I’ve tried to keep my posts lighthearted and absent from controversy.

But as I watch how this country plunges deeper into chaos and conflict, my conscience can no longer endure in silence the suffering of the vulnerable ones among us.

Like many others, I feel a sense of powerlessness each time I see or read a news report about federal troops being sent to the nation’s capital and other major cities under the pretext of fighting crime; and people being forcefully grabbed on the streets or snatched out of their workplaces by masked immigration agents and sent to who knows where with no way to contact their families.

I’m reminded of the countless stories I heard in Guatemala nine years ago when I was part of an international commission on human rights that visited the country to learn more about the root causes of migration. It was gut wrenching to listen to elderly mothers voicing with sorrow their laments of loved ones who had left in search of a better opportunity and were never heard from again.

So I turned to Day’s writings in search of some solace. After all, she had endured many of the same issues we’re witnessing now – poverty, racism, revolution, war.

I can’t say whether the injustice she wrote and spoke out against was as callous as what I feel we are seeing today, but I can’t imagine it being any more brazen, blatant, or as frustrating.

What I admire most about Day’s essays and articles is her passion, her conviction, and above all, her unflinching confidence in God.

No matter which page one opens in this book, there is a scriptural reference or a quoted verse. The minute I first pick it up I scan the table of contents to search for a topic that aligns with my immediate concern.

This particular morning, after finishing my prayers, I was drawn to the title “Strength to Endure.”

This was the morning after two children had been shot and killed at a Catholic school in Minneapolis, the same day the President had signed a slew of meaningless and menacing executive orders with no other purpose than to intimidate his political opponents.

In one of Day’s essays, which she wrote in February of 1971 for The Catholic Worker, I was drawn to the following words:

It is certainly borne in upon us, day after day, how little it is that we do, or can do…

But when we are able to bear some small share of the sufferings of the world, whether in pain of mind, body, or soul, let us thank God for that too…

In the face of world events, in the face of the mystery of suffering, of evil in the world, it is a good time to read the book of Job, and then to go on reading the Psalms, looking for comfort – that is, strength to endure…And just as there was that interpolation in Job – that triumphant cry – “I know that my Redeemer liveth,” so we, too, can know that help will come, that even from evil, God can bring great good, that indeed the good will triumph. Bitter though it is today with ice, and sleet, the sap will soon be rising in those bare trees down the street from us. (pp. 345-346)

I needed to read those words this morning. I needed affirmation that God hears my laments.

Politically, I can only describe the last several months as brutal. The authoritarianism that we were warned about during the last election cycle is on full display before our very eyes, instigated by a tyrant with a dystopian view of what was once a system of government that, although not without its share of partisan bickering, functioned seemingly effectively.

Now that I have stepped away from my most recent interim assignment, I have more time on my hands to ponder this bewildering climate we are forced to endure.

I have tried as often as possible to avoid listening to news. I read mostly just the headlines of stories online.

As often as I can, I scroll quickly past many of my friends’ political posts on social media. I’ve even gone so far as to ban comments on whatever I post on Facebook.

I just don’t have the energy to engage in debates and disagreements.

As I did during the Covid pandemic of 2020, I have buried myself in scripture and daily prayer. But the troubles of the world appear relentless.

So I thank God for saints like Dorothy Day. The world was blessed by the faithful work that she did on behalf of “the least of these.”

But above all I am most grateful for is the words she left for us to read and reflect on, and how, in these most turbulent of times, they serve to comfort, encourage, and richly bless us with strength to endure.