September 2001 Call to Action News

Letter from a California jail

From a federal prison cell, Jeff Dietrich of Los Angeles Catholic Worker sent this message to CTA's L.A. conference Aug. 4:

As we strive to be a servant church in the image of our founder, our gospel models are not the fearful male disciples who deserted at the first whiff of trouble, but they are rather the fearless females who followed despite all danger. We look to the humility and the boldness of the bleeding woman who broke through all barriers and social conventions in her effort to be empowered by Jesus. To the insight and audacity of the anointing woman who confirmed with oil our savior's conviction to the cross. To the sassy, back-talking Syro-Phoenician woman whose wit and repartee redirected the entire salvation project. To the largess and generosity of that scandalous association of liberated prostitutes who financed the original church out of their own resources - whatever that means. To the courage and compassion of Mary Magdalene, Johanna, Mary, the mother of James and the others who followed him up to Jerusalem and on to the cross and the tomb. It is out of their faithful example that we have come to fight the male pretensions of spiraling missiles and spiraling cathedral, monuments to arrogance and pride. But prelates and presidents, seeking prominence and power, inevitably reach for those starry realms, rejecting the earthy, mundane mandates of our gritty God, who calls us to the humble practice of table and welcome.

This scruffy, seditious mustard-tree kingdom of compassion and service has been hidden from the learned and wise; those starry-eyed seekers of signs. It is revealed only to the children, the desperate and the despised. Those who are able to see the world through the eyes of the victims and realize that the powers of this world are bogus and that Satan has fallen from his throne.

The battle is already won. Winning is no longer the issue. Rather, faithfulness is our vocation. We are called to be the tiny portion of salt and yeast that refuses to be homogenized and subsumed, thus transforming the bland, inert dough of worldly pretensions into the flavorful, robust life-giving bread of the kingdom.