What is lacking is a sense of the monstrosity of
inequality
Daily we should take account and ask: What have I done today to alleviate the
anguish, to mitigate the evil, to prevent humiliation? Let there be a grain of prophet in every [soul]!
Abraham
Joshua Heschel
“The test of our progress is not whether we add more to
the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those
who have too little.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt
__________________________________
It is a radical assertion
That we poor human creatures are the image of God
Think about that
You, I, that person over there
That black person
That LGBTQI+ person
That person with the swastika tattoo
That person wiped out by drugs or alcohol
That rich person flaunting their wealth
That poor person struggling to survive
That compassionate person caring
That person who is hating
That fearful person, angry person, misinformed person
Is the image of God
Each person carries God
Reflects God
God is the God of all
Or the God of none
The image is in all human creatures
Or in none
In each person there is at least
A trace of God
And thus equality is not optional
For we are all one
It is not OK to think
God is my God, not yours
God is on my side, not yours
And it is certainly not OK to do anything
That marginalizes or minimalizes another
That oppresses another
It is not OK to enrich the rich at the cost of the poor
It is not OK to deny services to people who make you
uncomfortable
(don’t blame your discomfort on God)
It is not OK to keep intact those systems that create
inequality
It is not OK to systematize injustice (by stacking the
SCOTUS with ideological extremists)
It is blasphemy to do those things, claiming to do them
for God
There are many ways prejudice is nourished
Many ways to oppress
Many ways to deny the image
May it never be!
Mary insisted that the high must be brought low and the
low lifted up
That is an affront to the ideology of domination and
greed
But what is it, really?
A demand for equality and equity!
A demand that all God’s creatures find a common ground
Where all are fed, clothed, housed, cared for, educated,
nurtured
Respected
Valued
That is why the imperative of the Gospel and the cry of
the Prophet is
“to alleviate the anguish, to mitigate the evil, to
prevent humiliation”
What have we done today?
What have I done today?
“The way we act,” Herschel insists
“The way we fail to act
Is a disgrace”
It is time for repentance
It is time for action
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