"To hope is to take a stand. To hope is to understand in our hearts and show in our actions that things must not continue as before."
Taking up the theme of hope for another Saturday Jubilee audience, Pope Leo focused on Servant of God Dorothy Day, "a small but great American woman." Day (November 8, 1897 – November 29, 1980) founded the Catholic Worker movement and the Pope described her as someone who "had fire inside her."
The Holy Father pointed to her example after considering that the peace God gives is not an "inert calm," but rather an active peace.
He acknowledged that often "we would like to be 'left in peace': that no one disturbs us, that others no longer exist. This is not the peace of God. The peace that Jesus brings is like a fire and demands much of us. Above all, it asks us to take a stand. In the face of injustice, inequality, where human dignity is trampled upon, where the fragile are silenced: take a stand. To hope is to take a stand. To hope is to understand in our hearts and show in our actions that things must not continue as before. This too is the good fire of the Gospel."
This was the type of hope that Dorothy Day lived and the way that she was filled with the peace of God.
"Dorothy Day took a stand," the Pope said. "She saw that her country's model of development did not create the same opportunities for everyone. She understood that for too many, the dream was a nightmare, that as a Christian she had to get involved with workers, migrants, and those discarded by a deadly economy."
She wrote and served: it is important to unite mind, heart, and hands. This is taking a stand. She wrote as a journalist, that is, she thought and made others think. Writing is important. And so is reading, today more than ever. And then Dorothy served meals, gave clothes, dressed and ate like those she served: she united mind, heart, and hands. In this way, to hope is to take a stand.
