The Twin Pandemics of
Silent Disease and Systemic Inequity
Have laid bare
The emptiness of our cultural values
The incessant jangling of our moral superiority
The hollow clang of our promises
Of liberty and justice for all.
We are witnessing the implosion of a culture
Whose moral imagination is
So atrophied
So impoverished
For generations we have endured
The constant propaganda of
“Greed is good! Greed works!”
We have been told that the route to human fulfillment
Is consumption
And acquisition
And self interest.
We have gained the world
Yet forfeited our soul
And now we have borne generations
Who do not possess the moral imagination
To grasp the implications of the Golden Rule
“Do to others as you would have them do to you”.
We cannot even fathom what it might be like
To walk in someone else’s shoes,
Whether that is someone who is one paycheck
Away from ruin,
Or someone who could perish if we won’t social distance
To slow the spread of disease,
Or someone who is targeted by the very institutions
That are supposed to protect and serve them
Because their skin is too dark.
We have lost the capacity to grasp that
“The way we judge others
Will be how we are judged,
And the measure that we give
Will be the measure that we get”.
Above all, we only “love our neighbor as ourselves”
If it benefits us
And we find it convenient.
But if they are
Too different
Too other
Too weird
Too dark
Too queer
Too poor
Too difficult
We feel justified in treating them however we want
To get whatever we want
Or avoid whatever we don't want
Simply because we are entitled to our pleasures.
And then we are surprised
When people want to rip up
The rigged rules that benefit us,
And throw the entire game into the fire.
But the same spark that starts the blaze of destruction
Is also the spark of Divine justice and compassion
That flickers like a pilot light
Deep in our soul
And if we let that spark become a flame
And fan that flame into a fire
And let that fire consume us
And refine us
And purify us
Of the dross of selfishness and pride and prejudice
We can be cleansed once again
To reflect the Glory of God.
And what is that Glory?
As Irenaeus said:
The Glory of God
Is humanity fully alive.
Every human life
Equipped with all they need
To be fully alive.
May that truth consume us
May that vision refine us
May that hope purify us
So that we forsake the world of oppression
The world built by our forefathers
The world placed in our laps
The world that profits us
That we may find our soul once again.
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