The Cost of Injustice?

            I saw a reflection this morning that linked the injustices we have been practicing for a while now as a country to the current crisis we are all now facing.  The fact that we have not agreed to universal health care has led to the people who cannot obtain proper health care infecting others.  The fact that we have not provided basics (food, shelter) as human rights has also increased the number of vulnerable populations who spread the disease and cannot "shelter in place" because they have no safe shelters to begin with.  The fact that we do not have humane prison and immigration policies has increased the number of people living in tight and inhumane, unhealthy, dirty quarters who are now more vulnerable to the disease and more likely to spread it to those who work in those situations who can then spread it into the larger population.  The fact that we have not taken care of our world means that respiratory problems are more rampant leading to the disease being more dangerous for more people.
           I think all of this reflects back on the words of the prophets of the Old Testament who decried again and again that if injustices continued to be promulgated, the results of those injustices would be harmful to everyone.  Guess what?  They were, once again, right.  And while I do not believe that God chooses to harm us, nor that God is somehow the author of this terrible disease, I do believe that God is clear that we are to choose justice, especially for the most vulnerable, especially for the "least of these" and that when we fail to do so, the world is set up in such a way that the natural consequences of our inhumanity tend to be disastrous for everyone.
          And then I hear that the government has now decided that their solution is further injustice: further giving of riches to the rich, further taking of resources from the most vulnerable (giving us a "loan" against our future?!), creating further gaps between the "haves" and the "have nots" and further separation of the "least of these" from the powerful.  This will not solve the problem.  Our mandate is clear, from a faith perspective, but also from a human perspective.  We are all in this together, all of us.  And when any of us suffer, all of us will be affected.  We will also suffer.  Until we understand this, until we recognize this, we will decline, we will struggle, and our very existence as a functional people is threatened.
          My words of hope in this are that we have to change what is happening and I believe we have the power, the strength and the courage to do so.  We have to say that we will no longer tolerate leadership choices that are all about making the rich richer.  We will no longer put up with the "least of these" being treated as disposable, expendable, or "less than."   These are our brothers and sisters, these are our family members, these are ourselves, and it is time that we started to care for them as such.  In that choice, to love those others hate, to care for those others would abandon, and to insist on fair and loving treatment for those who have never been given a chance in this life - it is in that choice that our salvation lies.
          My prayer is for a conversion of spirit: that those who hate have hearts turned to love, that those who do not see in their fellow humans their brother and sister would be given the eyes, the ears and the hearts to understand our connections to one another, that those who are greedy be given souls of generosity and gratitude.  That is my prayer for today.  Because I believe that it is, truly, only in a change of heart, that we will see and come to experience peace and wholeness.