Saturday, October 01, 2005

The Zwicks

The Zwicks recuperate the philosophical and theological roots of the Catholic Worker movement's founders, and, in so doing, pay us a great service. [They are] an inspiring and illuminating guide into the richly Catholic life of faith in which the movement originated and continues to have its deepest meaning.
David Schindler, Dean and Gagnon Professor of Fundamental Theology, John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family, Editor, Communio (North American edition)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Justin:

I'm a little confused -- do you think that as a Christian, borders are real? Hunger is real; nakedness is real; sickness is real; resurrection is real; but are borders real? If borders aren't real, would this change your analysis of the Zwick's and the Pope's commentary on refugees?

Peace,
John Wright
www.pastorjohnwright.org

Fred said...

One of the big issues these days is businesses that sell and market to illicit immigrants.

Fred said...

David,
I found this article by Mark and Louise to be excellent:

'As we were trying to write this article about putting flesh on the Gospel in the world, we were constantly interrupted by telephone calls from desperate people, a weeping, battered woman with a battered upbringing, Spanish-speaking immigrants arriving from New Orleans and Mississippi from Hurricane Katrina seeking shelter, and one person after another with serious medical problems threatened with homelessness. Families started arriving who had taken in up to 20 refugees from the hurricane in their homes to ask for food.

A Houston Police person suggested we should put the immigrants and refugees out to make room for victims of the hurricane. The next day it came out in the papers that tens of thousands of the hurricane victims from New Orleans were immigrants. That same day contractors began arriving at our houses to hire our immi-grant guests by the dozens to go to Louisiana and Mississippi to rebuild-they knew that these were the hardest workers, who would spend the hours and hard work required to begin the construction anew. Each time there has been a hurricane in the Southeast our workers have gone to rebuild.

It was difficult to recognize in all the suffering we encountered and encounter each day the great progress in human history acclaimed by Enlightenment writers or touted by various writers today.

Dorothy Day often retold the story from Dostoevsky about a selfish old woman:

"Once upon a time there was a peasant woman, and a very wicked woman she was. And she died and did not leave a single good deed behind. The devils caught her and plunged her into a lake of fire. So her guardian angel stood and wondered what good deed of hers he could remember to tell God. 'She once pulled up an onion in her garden,' said he, 'and gave it to a beggar woman.' And God answered: 'You take that onion then, hold it out to her on the lake, and let her take hold and be pulled out. And if you pull her out of the lake, let her come to Paradise, but if the onion breaks, then the woman must stay where she is.' The angel ran to the woman and held out the onion to her. 'Come,' said he, 'catch hold and I'll pull you out.' And he began cautiously pulling her out. He had just pulled her out when the other sinners in the lake, seeing how she was being drawn out, began catching hold of her so as to be pulled out with her. But she was a very wicked woman and she began kicking them. 'I'm to be pulled out, not you. It's my onion, not yours.' As soon as she said that, the onion broke. And the woman fell into the lake and she is burning there to this day. So the angel wept and went away."' -continued-

Fred