Day 19: The Reckless Way of Love

I've been reading The Reckless Way of Love: Notes on Following Jesus by Dorothy Day. 

Dorothy Day was founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, and spent most of her adult life devoted to serving the poor and fighting for justice for those whom most might deem unimportant. 

I'd read about her in history books, (she was a little bit controversial because she challenged the status quo in both religion and politics), but this book is just short musings written by her about her own personal faith journey. 

Very spirit-enriching reading.  

She writes: "One must be humble only from a divine motive, otherwise humility is a debasing and repulsive attitude.  To be humble and meek for love of God-that is beautiful.  But to be humble and meek because your bread and butter depends on it is awful.  It is to lose one's sense of human dignity." 

Think about that.  What does it mean to be humble from a divine motive...for love of God?  

I think it means we are to respect everyone as a soul created by God.  There are no exceptions.

No matter how much money they have or how moral.  No matter how poor and immoral, they are worth much to God, so they should mean a little something to us. 

Dorothy Day deeply applied herself to living by those truths.  She fed the hungry and housed the homeless and spoke out against exploitation of the weak.  

But think about how humility can be a debasing and repulsive attitude.  

Have you ever met someone who wallows in their "humility" to the point that they seem a bit proud of it? 

Yeah, me too.  And it is debasing and somewhat repulsive.

Or, think about how undignified it must feel to be forced to be humble "because your bread and butter depends on it."  That's where the oppressed are coming from.  Not a good place to be. 

So, here are two realizations we need to be humble and meek.  1) We are all human, but we still matter.  2) We all mess up sometimes, but we still matter.

Nothing glamorous about it, but isn't that a reckless way to love?