Another great Jesuit, Dean Brackley, who died too young, once spoke movingly of meeting his hero, Dorothy Day, when he was in his twenties and studying to be a priest. When he asked her how to live the gospel, she simply replied: “Stay close to the poor.” She could have said, I suppose, help the poor, rescue the poor, save the poor. But no—stay close to the poor. The invitation is not to romanticize the poor but to recognize that some essential piece of our own salvation is tied up in our proximity to those on the outskirts.
