Be Christ to the World

The challenge of a saint.  Excerpts:

...Peter Maurin matters as a Catholic because he shows us how to be faithful to Christ and to his church. He does so in the personalist terms, taking his own advice to "be what you want the other fellow to be." Without a doubt he advocates that we know our Catholic heritage, that we know the example of the saints and the teachings of the Holy See, that we see the applicability of the Benedictine motto, "Labor and Pray," to our own lives and to our mission in the world. We'd have, then, a primarily spiritual outlook and motivation for all that we do. So, too, if we took to heart the example of St. Francis in practicing poverty.

But a deeper lesson impresses me in the remembrances of Peter Maurin, particularly those offered by Dorothy Day. We see that he insisted that the Works of Mercy, or a philosophy of poverty, a philosophy of work, such as he proposed, are rooted in the "primacy of the spiritual." More significantly, he lived them, "at a personal sacrifice." Dorothy Day reports that he never had a second coat, that he often gave away his bed, he never had his own desk, that he always "ate what was set before him." He's the one who brought every Tom, Dick & Harry in from Union Square or the Bowery and thus prompted the first hospitality.

I'm impressed that this wasn't all done to show up or shame anyone or out of any egotistical posturing, nor to impose some "truth" on others, but out of a simple straightforward fidelity to Christ. As such all these practices were primarily devotional acts, offered to God as found in daily prayer and in his brothers and sisters. And as an offering of gifts, it was all done with complete freedom.

I notice, too, that this is the heart of Peter Maurin's adherence to the Church, these acts of love, a very impressive fidelity that speaks so much truer than the voices in our church that clamor on the one hand for order, orthodoxy and obedience, and on the other equality, democracy and inclusion.

Peter calls us to a deeper understanding and practice of what it means to be Catholic, a practice that responds to the Christ in his most glorious persona. He capsulizes this beautifully in one of his most "religious" Easy Essays, "The Spirit of the Mass, The Spirit for the Masses.

The central act of devotional life
in the Catholic Church
is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
The sacrifice of the Mass
is the unbloody repetition
of the Sacrifice of the Cross.
On the Cross of Calvary
Christ gave His life to redeem the world.
The life of Christ was a life of sacrifice
The life of a Christian must be
a life of sacrifice.
We cannot imitate the sacrifice of Christ
on Calvary
by trying to get all we can.
We can only imitate the sacrifice of Christ
on Calvary
by trying to give all we can...