Having Faith in the Future

On August 26, 1920, women were finally granted the ability to vote and to hold public office in the United States. In some ways 95 years seems like a long time but it is just one lifetime ago. I think of my grandmother who recently passed away at age 98. When she was born, women could not vote. My great-grandmother could not vote until she was well into adulthood. Suddenly 95 years doesn’t seem that far away.

In order to gain equal rights for women, it took 72 years of campaigning in house meetings, during church gatherings, and on street corners. Seventy-two years of protests, arrests, and harassment. I am sure many women wondered if change would ever happen.

A personal hero of mine, Dorothy Day, was a suffragette and journalist before she opened the first Catholic Worker house in New York City. She stood firmly in her strength as a woman both in her search for equality and in the living out of her ministerial call.Something from Dorothy Day’s life that gives me courage to step out boldly into my own call, as she did. Dorothy didn’t ask permission to feed the hungry; she didn’t form a Board to shelter the homeless; she didn’t wait for the Church’s hierarchical approval to start a newspaper addressing the issues of the poor. She just did it.

Even though it takes a long time for institutional structures to change, we don’t have to wait. We can all be empowered by the Holy Spirit to live our lives encased with the values of inclusivity and compassion. Like the suffragettes, like Dorothy Day, we can stand with those who are disenfranchised, those on the edges of society. We can move with love and grace in the light of the Gospel while having faith in the future.