The Ability to Address Injustice
written by Rev. Dr. Scott Paczkowski
“So the poor have hope, and injustice shuts its mouth.”
Society, at this moment in time, appears divided and angry. Political corruption is transparent. Russia continues to attack Ukraine, and Russia’s psychotic dictator is more and more dangerous due to the financial toll of his war. Israel destroyed Gaza, and Gaza’s people are starving. Genocide is not a just answer. Nationally and locally, children are in fear of being taken by masked gunmen in the name of a despicable immigration policy. There are many reasons why our world is expressing anger and corporate discontent.
The Roman Catholic monk, scholar, and mystic Richard Rohr, in his profound book The Tears of Things, says, “Remember, if you do not transform your pain and egoic anger, you will always transmit it in another form. This transformation is the supreme work of all true spirituality and spiritual communities. Those communities offer us a place where our sadness and rage can be refined into human sympathy and active compassion.”
Rohr challenges us to invite the Holy Spirit into our hearts, softening our judgments so that we can be transformed by human sympathy. Unless we can recognize the sin of injustice, we are inadvertently culpable. Sympathy is uncomfortable because it forces us to address what others want to avoid. The most demanding part of human sympathy is that the Holy Spirit uses sympathy to nudge us to active compassion.
Active compassion is the way we are to respond to unjust situations. People of faith have tools that make us uniquely capable of responding to injustice. First, the Spirit gives us the vision to notice suffering. Second, God gave us numerous examples of how to respond to injustice through Scripture. Third, the same Spirit guides our compassion in ways that can make the most difference. Finally, the outcome of human unfairness and cruelty is not only ours to bear. Part of our divine/human covenant is our working with God to make life more equal, loving, and just. We should focus on doing our part and let God influence the outcome. Trust in God to transform this imperfect world, allowing us to experience somewhat less division and anger.
