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By Sister Rose Marie Tresp
Catherine McAuley saw that women, poor women from the rural areas and the city, were left out and neglected in society during her time. From her experience, she knew the most vulnerable women were those employed in the homes of the wealthy. These women, who had no power and often no alternatives, were the ones most harmed. Her relationship with God called her to respond with her resources, both money and education.
Some of the questions I ask about any system, regulation, proposed legislation, etc., are: Who does this benefit, who does this harm? Who is helped, who is injured? Who is included, who is left out? Does our social and economic structure build the common good or weaken the common good? Questions about the common good must consider Earth, our common home, where all life is sustained.
My colleagues on the Institute Justice Team ask these same questions. What is ours to do, given our education, resources and community support? During the past few months, we were educating ourselves and our network through intense advocacy, lobbying, protesting, even joining with other congregations of women religious at the “Sisters Speak Out” protest on the grounds of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. We opposed a budget bill that clearly harmed a large segment of United States residents and the environment. All our efforts met with little success, which was very disheartening. I was weary and tired, not physically but emotionally. Then, on the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, our pastor told the pious story of Peter fleeing Rome to escape martyrdom. Peter meets Jesus, who says he is going to Rome to be crucified again. In that moment, Peter turned around and went to Rome, eventually to be crucified. In that moment, I received the message that I, too, must be on the road to Rome.
The call from God is to be faithful, even amid despair. In prayer, I imagined myself on an unpaved, sometimes rocky road trudging upward to Rome in faithfulness to the call of Jesus. As I reflected, I saw that I was not walking alone toward Rome. Catherine McAuley walked with me. Mercy walked with me. If I stumbled and fell, I would be helped by my companions.
The Suscipe of Catherine McAuley is a guiding prayer, especially the words, “Take from my heart all painful anxiety; let nothing sadden me but sin.” Let the sin that saddens us be the sin of our country and world ignoring the poor, sick, ignorant, lonely, hungry and suffering in our own time and place. Let us not despair in the current situation but continue to recognize that the call of Mercy is still in “service to the poor, sick, and ignorant” in the work of justice. Let us walk together on the road to Rome. And as Sister Mary Sullivan said: “God spread over our Mercy Family the great warm Shawl of God’s Mercy.” This Shawl of God’s Mercy is over me and my companions on our journey.