Thursday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
(Romans 6:19-23; Luke 12:49-53)
Dorothy Day lived a radical life. In her twenties she supported socialism as a
remedy to poverty while having various love affairs. After having a child with a live-in lover,
she felt a need for God. She became a
strict, observant Catholic with a heartful love of the poor. She saw Christ in them and treated them
accordingly. Day’s live illustrates the
teaching of St. Paul in today’s first reading.
Paul addresses himself to the former pagans of the church
community in Rome. He reminds them of
the licentious living they left behind to follow Christ. He assures them that the reversal in their lifestyle
will be more than release from shame. “The
wages of sin is death,” he famously writes, “but the gift of God is eternal
life in Christ Jesus, our Lord.”
In many places people have returned to heathenism. Children at tender ages are following Internet
porn. It is plague more widespread and in
ways crueler than poverty. As Dorothy
Day did, we should speak up for disciplined lives given to the Lord, not carnal
desire. We must convey to all the joy of
knowing Christ and the hope of eternal life as our destiny.
