One thing that always makes my heart smile is when people mention how nice and neat we keep our home. This makes me so proud of our whole community. You see, we rotate our chores and we collectively hold ourselves to high standards! And it feels so good and it is so restorative for all of us to live together in our beautiful and tidy home.
That being said, I must admit that things have been a bit messy here lately! We have had an enormous amount of dust flying around here this summer due to our bathroom remodeling project. And dirt was flying as the house next door came down making room for our peace and healing garden. To top things off, we certainly were not spared God’s drenching abundance during the floods. Add these together and we have had a whole lot of mess surrounding us. A joyful mess! Kind of a metaphor for life don’t you think?
I think if you live enough years you realize that pretty much no one escapes the messiness of life. I know I haven’t. But our women, in particular, have had to bare incomprehensible amounts of painful mess that many have not had to endure. But the mess doesn’t have the final say. Given the fact that the Catholic Worker Movement is steeped in recognizing the dignity of the whole person we feel we are able to journey with women in a truly transformative manner. Women who come to our community through their hard work, their determination, and their love of community are able to see beyond the mess. They come to recognize their innate beauty and goodness. And we are seeing that in action this summer. In spite of the flood, and away from the dust and dirt, one woman started school this month and another her first full time job. Move over Mr. Clean, Ms. Clean is in the (Bakhita) House!!
Yes, despite the messes, God is so good. Despite the fact that many things have come to disrupt the Kingdom of love and generosity God calls us to build, people are good. Dorothy Day once noted, “Life itself is a haphazard, untidy, messy affair.” Indeed it is! However, she also illuminated the balm that cures:
“Whenever I groan within myself and think how hard it is to keep writing about love in these times of tension and strife which may at any moment become for us all a time of terror, I think to myself, “What else is the world interested in?” What else do we all want, each one of us, except to love and be loved, in our families, in our work, in all our relationships. God is Love. Love casts out fear. Even the most ardent revolutionist, seeking to change the world, to overturn the tables of the money changers, is trying to make a world where it is easier for people to love, to stand in that relationship with each other of love. We want with all our hearts to love, to be loved. And not just in the family but to look upon all as our mothers, sisters, brothers, children. It is when we love the most intensely and most humanly, that we can recognize how tepid is our love for others. The keenness and intensity of love brings with it suffering, of course, but joy too because it is a foretaste of heaven.”
Let’s clean up our messes together.
Love well, love wins,
Anne
