Build Justice In Advent
From a friend's Christmas letter: 'At no time in my life have I known such apparent chaos and desolation... I see only insuperable obstacles to human flourishing - war, conflict, violence, climate change, selfishness of unprecedented dimensions, political and economic ineptitude, commercial and technological malevolence on a grand scale - the list is endless and there seems no escape route into sanity ...
That is where the saints and those I have loved come powerfully to the rescue. They assure me that human beings have been capable of amazing and glorious things, continue to be so today and will retain that capaciy tomorrow. They will do so however only if we can learn and celebrate our spiritual heritage where things undreamt of become possible as at the first Chrisstmas. .. I wonder if we can enter into the incredible expansiveness of that Christian universe....'
The Community of Aidan and Hilda, like others, vows to build justice. How may we do this in this season of Advent when we seek to prepare a way for God on earth? Isaiah 49:16 says God (the Communion of Loves) inscribes everyone on the palms of the Divine hands, and that everyone's walls (that is all everyone constructs) are ever before God This offers us two foundation justice-building blocks.
1) In our hearts we value human beings of every race, gender, class and income as brothers and sisters in God's family. We 'kiss that which is of God' in each of them. This kills racism, sexism, ageism, ideological dismissiveness and selfish profiteering.
2) Our work, enterprises, buildings, services, businesses, nstitutions, politics are honest and benefit the Common Good. We have no secrets in our stewardship of money, time, information or possessions and we hold those with power and possessions to account. All are open to scrutiny. We de-throne Money as god and replace it with the Common Good.
We can start with ourselves and with networks with which we inter-act. We must never finish until God's kingdom comes in every bit of this earth.
