Dorothy Day, the founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, frequently demonstrated how she valued each human being as a child of God and, therefore, as important.
On one occasion, a woman came into the Catholic Worker House and donated a diamond ring. Her co-workers wondered what Dorothy Day would do with it. If she asked one of them to take it to a diamond merchant and sell it, it would buy a month’s worth of rice and other food items for a poor family. That afternoon, however, Day gave the diamond ring to an old woman who lived alone and often came to the house for meals. “That ring would have paid her rent for the better part of a year,” someone protested. Day replied that the woman had her dignity. So she could sell it if she liked and spend the money for rent, a trip to the Bahamas, or keep the ring to admire. “Do you suppose,” Day asked, “God created diamonds only for the rich?”
Dorothy Day was one of the prophets of her day – and she remains so. Her vision allowed her to see all human beings as equal – no one distinguishable from another. She recognized, as St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta did, the mark of the children of God in everyone.
Let us pray. “God, you have given all peoples one common origin. It is your will that we be gathered together as one family in yourself. Fill the hearts of the whole human family with the fire of your love and with the desire to ensure justice for all. By sharing the good things you give us, may we secure an equality for all our brothers and sisters throughout the world. May there be an end to selfishness, division, strife, and war. May there be a dawning of a truly human society built on love and peace. Through Christ your Son, our Brother, who lives and reigns with you forever and ever. Amen.”
