Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

I stopped at a Hardee's on my trip out east. I just wanted a cup of coffee, regular, with cream.   I noticed that the waitress was a woman about my age and very overweight. As she shifted from one end of the counter to the other, responding to customers, I saw how hard it was for her to walk. Each step brought a wince of pain to her eyes. Arthritis, I figured, and the weight makes it worse. Too bad she can't get some help with that, but, knowing the salaries at Hardee’s, I guessed she couldn't afford it. I felt sorry for her-until I ordered: one small coffee, regular. “With cream?” she asked, smiling. I felt honored to be served by her. Wanting to prolong the encounter, I asked her where I could get a roadmap. She suggested the next toll booth and smiled again as she handed me a coffee with two creams. She gave me a large size and charged me for a small. Was that a mistake… or her way of saying she liked me as much as I liked her? Jesus must...

 “Because I have human dignity.” These words were spoken to me by a teenaged Honduran boy who had fled gang violence and migrated to the US.  He was staying in a shelter awaiting his court date. As a legal assistant at a pro bono law firm, I was interviewing him to determine what form of legal presence he might qualify for. “ Porque yo tengo dignidad humana ,” was his response to my question of why he left Honduras – spoken with a firm sense of self-worth and maturity far beyond his years. Human dignity - the belief that each human being is sacred and created in God’s image - is the bedrock of Catholic Social Teaching.  Regardless of a person’s age, race, gender, nationality, sexual orientation, economic status, ability/disability, or any other factor, Catholics affirm dignity is always present.  Each and every person is precious in God’s eyes – no matter what. This past January’s “National Migration Week” had the theme “creating a cult...