I just watched a series of three for four segments of an interview with Dorthy Day in which she was a guest on the Christopher Closeup Show. In the interviews, Dorothy discusses the origins of the Catholic Worker movement, shares her theology on war and nonviolence, and talks about the Christian call to the works of mercy, among several other topics.

One part in particular that stood out to me is when the woman on stage asks Dorthy a really tough question. Paraphrasing, she asks how people with small children who live in a dangerous urban neighborhood, where people carry guns and where people get mugged etc., can be expected to live non-violently–that they would indeed be running a certain amount of risk. Dorothy’s reply is absolutely brilliant.

“I think fear is one of the most dangerous things; and to get over fears, and to teach your children not to have fears. I think that is the kind of thing that overcomes.”

Fear is what prevents us from doing so much. If we live in fear, how can we fully live? Is it not fear of the unknown “other” that we feel when we don’t want to walk down a dark alley at night or that prevents us from driving through that bad neighborhood? What exactly are we afraid of? Losing our life? Or finding it?

Tags:catholic worker movementDorothy Daymercynon-violence