By Marian Wright Edelman
In 2020, when the start of the COVID-19 pandemic led to a holy season like no other, Pope Francis published an Easter Sunday letter directed to movements and organizations working for justice for people with low incomes and those experiencing poverty. He praised them as “an army whose only weapons are solidarity, hope, and community spirit, all revitalizing at a time when no one can save themselves alone…You are looked upon with suspicion when through community organization you try to move beyond philanthropy or when, instead of resigning and hoping to catch some crumbs that fall from the table of economic power, you claim your rights. You often feel rage and powerlessness at the sight of persistent inequalities and when any excuse at all is sufficient for maintaining those privileges. Nevertheless, you do not resign yourselves to complaining: you roll up your sleeves and keep working for your families, your communities, and the common good.” He added: “I hope that this time of danger will free us from operating on automatic pilot, shake our sleepy consciences and allow a humanist and ecological conversion that puts an end to the idolatry of money and places human life and dignity at the centre. Our civilization — so competitive, so individualistic, with its frenetic rhythms of production and consumption, its extravagant luxuries, its disproportionate profits for just a few — needs to downshift, take stock, and renew itself.”
That was one call for renewal at a moment when many others were demanding to “reopen business as usual” and desperate to “get back to normal,” even if business as usual and normal included the exact same structures, systems, and massive inequalities that were already in place. There was a missed opportunity to go far beyond the status quo that preceded the pandemic and reimagine a new vision. The call for true renewal still stands.
The Passover and Easter holidays are seasons of joyous sacred celebration in their faith traditions, with family and community rituals centered on the promises of exodus, deliverance, new hope, and rebirth. I offer again prayers for strength for all those working today towards a time of true renewal.
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Lord, let us exile defeat
wrestle despair to the floor
throw apathy to the winds
and feed depression to the hogs.
Lord, help us to stand up and fight for our children.
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God, protect us and keep us from being
Hypocrites
Experts
Attention huggers
Blamers and complainers
Snake oil salespeople
Takers and just talkers
Lone Rangers
Excuse makers
Fair weather workers
Braggers
Magic bullet seekers and sellers and
Quitters.
God, send us and help us to be
Righteous warriors
Moral guerrillas
Scut workers
Nitty-gritty doers
Detail tenders
Long-distance runners
Energetic tryers
Risk takers
Sharers
Team players
Organizers and mobilizers and
Servant leaders,
to save our children.
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God, please send the right partners for children and young people and the right coworkers for people in poverty to balance those who speak for powerful adults and interest groups.
God, please send new voices for goodness and tolerance to challenge those who teach our children to hate and who prey on our racial, gender, and class fears.
God, please bring justice for all of our children who are equally sacred in Your sight.