Christianity
has at its center the conviction that God
entered human history and took on flesh in
the person of Jesus Christ, thereby redeeming
humanity in the very midst of its own fragility
and limitations by co-mingling the human with
the divine. Throughout the Gospels we are
repeatedly presented with the One who actually
sought out the most disenfranchised and rejected.
He went to those who were considered the most
loathsome and unclean, physically and spiritually.
The very source of the compassion of Jesus
is his identification with the humanity, the
suffering, the rejection and the abandonment
that anyone, anywhere, has every suffered
(John 1:10-11; Hebrews 2:14-18).
|
Dorothy
Day |
Inspired by these reflections on the life
of Jesus and by the ministry of Dorothy Day,
Temenos Catholic Worker seeks to identify
with those who find themselves abandoned and
isolated in their suffering, in particular
male and female sex workers and homeless gay/lesbian/transgender
youth.
Temenos is a Greek word for an area that is
cut off or separated. Harry Hay referred to
it as "the edge of the village"--a
dwelling place designated by some ancient
societies for gays, lesbians and other outcasts.
Temenos Catholic Worker seeks to reach out
in the name of the Risen Christ to those who
are alienated and cut off from society and
to follow the model of Jesus who, as Monika
Hellwig writes, was "one who entered
into immediate, shockingly unconventional
relationships with people, not evading the
human encounter by the choreography of the
socio-cultural role definitions." Temenos
Catholic Worker is committed to the ideals
of: Personalism:
A philosophy of life based upon respect
for the freedom and dignity of each person
as an image of God, personalism understands
that our fundamental purpose as human beings
is to incarnate self-emptying love through
practical action for the common good.
Non-Violence:
Jesus taught us to take suffering upon ourselves
rather than inflict it upon others. Thus,
we oppose the deliberate taking of life
for any reason and see every oppression
or degrading of human life as blasphemy.
The Works
of Mercy: As recorded
in Matthew 25:31-46, these works include
feeding the hungry, giving drink to the
thirsty, welcoming the stranger, clothing
the naked, caring for the sick, and visiting
the prisoner. We understand the works of
mercy to be at the heart of the Gospel;
they are clear mandates as to how we are
to respond to "the least of our brothers
and sisters." Anything beyond what
we immediately need belongs by right to
those who are going without.
Voluntary
Poverty: Dorothy Day,
cofounder of the Catholic Worker movement,
wrote that "the mystery of ourselves
poor in giving to others, we increase our
knowledge of and belief in love." By
embracing voluntary poverty, that is, by
casting our lot freely with choice, we ask
for the grace to abandon ourselves to the
love of God. This puts us on the path to
incarnating the Church's "preferential
option for the poor."
Born of the experience of rejection and
uncertainty, Temenos Catholic Worker seeks
to embrace in the name of Jesus Christ others
who have felt abandoned in their most difficult
moments. |
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