![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2017\/10\/Peter-Maurin.jpg\")
<\/a>ing more about this saintly man. Peter Maurin was an\u2026 \u201ceccentric.\u201d He cared little for possessions or position, happily identifying with \u201cthe man on the street,\u201d while endeavoring to emulate the saints. When he met Dorothy Day in 1932, she couldn\u2019t have realized a movement would be born of their friendship; a movement inspired by the Gospel to regain a sense of community among people, in which the race \u201cto have and to do\u201d would be replaced by the desire \u201cto give and to be with.\u201d One can only imagine the shock and disappointment Maurin (and Day) would experience if they saw the shape 21st century consumerism has taken \u2013 not to mention the sight of so many people walking down the street, meeting for dinner, or riding the bus with heads down and fingers typing, tapping and swiping. Having seen the brutal assaults on humanity wrought during the Second World War, they may have been overwhelmed by the sophistication with which we now perpetrate crimes against human dignity: from terrorism and torture, and attacks on human life at its beginning and ending; to the more \u201csubtle\u201d discarding of those we find undesirable by \u201cswiping left\u201d \u2013 or avoiding them at Mass because they \u201clook different.\u201d<\/p>\nPeter Maurin was an authentic radical; not what we think of today as a violent extremist, or a political rabble-rouser. He believed that societal\/cultural change for the good was only possible with a radical (at the root) shift in our thought and behavior. Only by getting back to Dorothy Day relates many stories about Peter and his radical plan for changing the world, but the one I remembered when I met the disheveled man from daily Mass at the grocery store continues to move and to challenge me. Peter was to give a talk for a women\u2019s group and Dorothy herself saw to it that he made it on the train. When hours passed and he hadn\u2019t arrived at his destination, one of the women called Dorothy, distressed that there was no sign of him at the station. Everyone who\u2019d arrived on that train was gone, save for one man, \u201ca bum\u201d asleep on a bench. Immediately, Dorothy knew that was Peter. Peter Maurin, the Catholic thinker with the radical idea that we should live the Gospel boldly and faithfully, who was sought after for his intellect and ability to teach, and advocated for a return to the Christian ideals of community and hospitality. Peter Maurin was overlooked as \u201ca bum,\u201d insignificant, undesirable, and ignored because his appearance didn\u2019t meet expectations. He might just as well have been the unkempt, quiet man sitting in the last row of the chapel in a small town in Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n Books have covers, but they don\u2019t reveal the story inside. For that, we must take them in hand and open them to discover the story for ourselves. People are a lot like books in that way. We may think we have all we need to know about a person by looking at \u201cthe cover.\u201d It\u2019s only in humbly approaching another person with wonder, and with the patience to discover what\u2019s inside, that our expectations are shattered, freeing us to share in their story. And that can have radical consequences for both of us.<\/p>\n “I want a change, and a radical change. I want a change from an acquisitive society to a functional society, from a society of go-getters to a society of go-givers.”<\/p>\n ~Peter Maurin<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Ann Koshute<\/strong>\u00a0teaches theology for\u00a0Saint Joseph\u2019s College Online Theology Program<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Growing up in the \u201cCoal Regions\u201d of Northeastern Pennsylvania was a special experience \u2013 especially for a Catholic family. My small town had so many Catholic churches, it seemed like there was one on every corner. Growing up Eastern Catholic … Continue reading <\/a>the roots of the Gospel and Jesus\u2019 example can we see God in each other, and thus be inspired to follow Jesus\u2019 mandate to love each other with His own merciful love (cf. John 13:34-35, Matthew 5:43-48). Maurin believed that if there is to be a \u201crevolution\u201d that changes the world, it will be\u00a0accomplished in the radical return to love of God and neighbor (community), performing the Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy (action), and sharing Christ in and through the ordinary aspects of daily life. Maurin worked toward and prayed for such a revolution by developing relationships in which the love of Christ could be shared over a meal, in a \u201cround table\u201d discussion, or as he worked side-by-side with other men and women in manual labor. He shared Christ with anyone who would listen, and offered both spiritual and material comfort and aid for those whom others would not so kindly describe as \u201ceccentric.\u201d<\/p>\n