Better and Better Off with Rev Dr Amy Slaughter Myers

When the young man heard this, he went away grieving, for he had many possessions. (Mt 19:22)

Imagine the United States in 1933. Think of the upheaval, poverty, mass unemployment, wars and rumors of wars, Jim Crow and racial terrorism.... It was in 1933 that a group of committed Christians founded the first Catholic Worker house, seeking to live out the Gospel in a radical way. Radical peacemaking, radical justice seeking, radical hospitality to all and with all. It sounds foolish, doesn't it? Many of you may know that I was profoundly impacted by the time I spent volunteering at Viva House, Baltimore's Catholic Worker house, many years ago.

Today I share with you a poem - what he called an Easy Essay - by Catholic Worker co-founder Peter Maurin. I wonder how you hear it today in the context of the United States of 2022.

Better and Better Off

The world would be better off if people tried to become better. And people would become better if they stopped trying to become better off. For when everybody tries to become better off, no one is better off. But when everybody tries to become better, everybody is better off. Everybody would be rich if nobody tried to become richer. And nobody would be poor if everybody tried to be the poorest. And everybody would be what he ought to be if everybody tried to be what he wants the other fellow to be. Amen.