Personal Sacrifice During Pandemic

It’s encouraging to hear of the many, many examples of people reaching out to others during the pandemic lockdown.

Today's pandemic and subsequent lockdown provide ample arena for practicing the Corporal Works of Mercy, the criteria by which we will be judged worthy or unworthy of entry into the Kingdom of Heaven  (cf Mt 25:31-46).


Instead of expecting the government to respond to every need, our fellow citizens are finding ways of providing food, offering support, and mitigating loneliness and isolation for family, neighbors and even strangers.


The stories of taking on personal responsibility to assist others remind me of one of Peter Maurin’s “easy essays.”


Maurin was the French peasant with social action concerns who teamed up with Dorothy Day to begin the Catholic Worker movement.


Maurin wrote brief essays, in a poetic form, for The Catholic Worker newspaper. Though he died in 1949 his vision, critique and advice are still au currant for our day.


The essay which strikes an obvious chord today was titled “At A Sacrifice.”

In the first centuries

of Christianity

the hungry were fed

at a personal sacrifice,

the naked were clothed

at a personal sacrifice,

the homeless were sheltered

at personal sacrifice.

And because the poor

were fed, clothes and sheltered

at a personal sacrifice,

the pagans used to say

about the Christians

“See how they love each other.”

In our own day

the poor are no longer

fed, clothed and sheltered

at a personal sacrifice,

but at the expense

of the taxpayers.

And because the poor

are no longer fed, clothed and sheltered

at a personal sacrifice

the pagans say about the Christians

“See how they pass the buck.”