Is versoening my werk?

Die Suid-Afrikaanse instituut vir Rasseverhoudinge het in Maart 2016 ‘n Hoop Verslag (South-Africa Reasons for Hope) gepubliseer. Die algemene bevinding was dat rasseverhoudinge in Suid-Afrika is gesond. Hiervolgens respekteer die meeste mense (oor rassegrense heen) mekaar en wil hulle selfs saamwerk om ‘n beter land te bou. Hulle pleit egter vir geleenthede (‘Full Opportunities’) wat deur opvoeding en werksgeleenthede geskep word. In dieselfde asem is daar steeds ‘n groot kontingent van studente, regoor die land, wat ‘n #feesmustfall beweging dryf. Ons leef in ‘n pragtige land en is deel van ‘n interessante nasie...miskien selfs ‘n reënboognasie...

Jy as gelowige word uitgenooi om die volgende gebed, in jou invloedsfeer, saam met jou mense te bid.

The Lord’s prayer for South-Africa

Our Father... who always stands with the weak, the powerless, the poor, the abandoned, the sick, the aged, the very young, the unborn, and those who, by victim of circumstance, beat the heat of the day.

Who art in heaven...where everything will be reversed, where the first will be last and the last will be first, but where all will be well and every manner of being, will be well.

Hallowed be thy name...may we always acknowledge your holiness, respecting that your ways are not our ways, your standards are not our standards. May the reverence we give your name pull us out of the selfishness that prevents us from seeing the pain of our neighbor.

Your will be done...open our freedom to let you in, so that the complete mutuality that characterizes your life might flow through our veins, and thus the life that we help generate may radiate your equal love for all, and your special love for the poor.

On earth as in heaven...may the work of our hands, the temples and structures we build in this world, reflect the temple and the structure of your glory so that the joy, graciousness, tenderness, and justice of heaven will show forth within all of our structures on Earth.

Give...life and love to us and help us to always see everything as a gift. Help us to know that nothing comes to us by right and that we must give because we have been given to. Help us realize that we must give to the poor, not because they need it, but because our own health depends upon our giving to them.

Us...the truly plural us...Give not just to our own but to everyone, including those who are very different than the narrow us. Give your gifts to all of us equally.

This day...not tomorrow...Do not let us push things off into some indefinite future so that we can continue to live justified lives in the face of injustice because we can make good excuses for our inactivity.

Our daily bread...so that each person in the world may have enough food, enough clean water, enough clean air, adequate health care, and sufficient access to education, so as to have the sustenance for a healthy life. Teach us to give from our sustenance and not just from our surplus.

And forgive us our trespasses...forgive us our blindness toward our neighbor, our self-preoccupation, our racism, and our incurable propensity to worry only about ourselves and our own. Forgive us our capacity to watch the evening news and do nothing about it.

And do not put us to the test...do not judge us only by whether we have fed the hungry, given clothing to the naked, visited the sick, or tried to mend the systems that victimized the poor. Spare us this test for none of us can stand before your gospel scrutiny. Give us, instead, more days to mend our ways, our selfishness, and our systems.

And deliver us from evil...that is, from the blindness that let us continue to participate in anonymous systems within which we need not see who gets less as we get more.

(Ronald Rolheiser - Living God’s Justice)