This week on May 9 at daily Mass I spoke about the fact that it was the birthday of Peter Maurin. Sadly, most Catholics have no idea who Peter Maurin was! The facts are that he was born in 1877 one of 23 children to a peasant family in Southern France. As a young man Peter came to the United States – like many of his era. He had been educated by the Christian Brothers in France and that education was what motivated and propelled him throughout his life. Once in the U.S. he drifted around the country working at anything he could. He gave away much of what he earned to those in more need – he embraced poverty . In this time he did all sorts of manual work but his mind was always engaged in his true work – to figure out how Catholic belief and philosophy could be wedded with social needs and issues.
Peter felt that the Gospel of Jesus Christ had been separated from sociology, economics and politics. He felt that the Roman Catholic Church had an answer to all of this but had failed to act on it. He thought there was “dynamite” in the Gospel but the clergy and the church had preferred to keep it under lock and key. He wanted to “blow the lid” off that dynamite!
Peter was known for his “Easy Essays” They were designed to be declaimed on the street-corners. One was this:
The world would become better off if people tried to become better. And people would become better if they stopped trying to become better off.
Peter was brilliant. But with his thick French accent, his shabby appearance and his visionary gleam, he wasn’t too successful! All that changed when he met a young journalist, Dorothy Day, a Catholic convert with a history of involvement in radical social movements. The two came up with a three-part program:
- There would be a newsletter for the clarification of thought – the result was the Catholic Worker newspaper which is still published and still costs 1 cent a copy.
- They would organize “houses of hospitality” for the practice of the works of mercy (feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, etc.) – the result is that there are many Catholic worker homes throughout the world. In a way, we participate in this by our involvement with Family Promise.
- There would be an organization of farming communes – places where people could live in such a way that their values would not be comprised – the result is that there are some farms where people try to live like this, but they are minimal.
Peter dreamed of a kind of society “where it would be easier to be good.”
Peter died in 1968. He influenced many people in a quiet way. Its good to remember him and to wonder how we can participate in his dream of a place, a society, a church, a community where it is easier to be good.
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