[MUSIC] One modern day saint, Dorothy Day, strived to live her deep Christian love and faith by putting it into action. As a nine-year-old girl, Dorothy witnessed the tragedy of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and the fires that ensued. As horrible as it was for a small child to experience, she also witnessed and experienced the community coming together to generously help and support one another. Dorothy wrote in her autobiography, "The long loneliness of the holy desire in her early adulthoo
d." She wrote, "I wanted every home to be open to the lame, the blind, as it had been after the San Francisco earthquake. Only then did people really live, really love their brothers." This deep holy desire dwelling in her heart as a young adult was God's desire too. And later in her adult life, after her conversion to become a Catholic Christian, she realized this desire with the help of prayer and fellow Christian Peter Marin. Their houses of hospitality fed and housed the poor during the depr
ession of the 1930s in the U.S. and later throughout the world, and they still exist today. Dorothy expressed that she hoped in her ministry of hospitality to make others lives more bearable. She also used her gift as a writer to raise the Catholic Christian consciousness to the needs of social justice in our country and beyond. The calling to serve the poor can seem futile because there is so much poverty, so much suffering in the world, and your question might be, "What will my small action do
to make it better?" Day writes, "If I did not have faith that works of mercy do lighten the sum total of suffering in the world, the problem of evil would indeed be overwhelming." Our faith calls us to believe that God is at work in our works of mercy and kindness, no matter how small. We may only be planting mustard seeds in the deep dark ground, but as an Easter people we have to hold on to hope that in that darkness, in that waiting, even our small actions of love and kindness made in faith
will bear fruit. We co-labor with Jesus in it. We are asked to trust that we are carriers of God's grace and love and the work we are called to do. We plant seeds and trust God with the outcome, whether we see it or not. In today's scripture from James, we are asked to put our faith into action by serving those in need. Our works of mercy can be providing for physical needs or providing companionship to the lonely and the sick or other acts of kindness. As you know, Jesus taught, "What you do fo
r the least of these, you do it for me." I invite you to pray today with how you are being invited to respond to the cry of the poor in your church and community. And in doing so, pray with any holy desires that may be dwelling in your heart. What might Jesus be inviting you to have the courage to put your gifts into action? Peace be with you.
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