Oppression....

I am oppressed.

I will remain oppressed until all children have good and reliable role models.  I will remain oppressed until all people are properly cared for at the end of life.  I will remain oppressed until all people have food to eat and have shelter and heat.  I am oppressed until people are free to love whomever they choose without judgment.  I will be oppressed until having an "ethnic name" doesn't result in you job application being thrown away.  I am oppressed until the hoarders and haves loosen their grips on the world's resources and start to live an abundant life rather than a life with abundance.  I oppress myself as I oppress others.

Two quotes for consideration:
1 Corinthians 12:25-26, "...that there may be no dissension within the body, but  the members may have the same care for one another.  If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it."  NRSV

"If you have come to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together..." - Lila Watson, Australina aboriginal woman, in response to mission workers

As I sat in a Bible study today covering the familiar text of 1 Corinthians 12 (we are all one body in Christ), the second quote forced its way to the front of my thoughts.  This is the quote that LVC has made its quote or motto or catchphrase or something this year.  I loved it from the moment I heard it way back in my first interview for LVC in February.   It echoed my own desire to make my year in LVC not a time to "give back to the community" and then get back to real life, but rather the continuation of my life long journey to work for social justice in the world (I would say the start of my journey but I have been blessed with a family that has put me on that path long before I knew it, so continuation is more appropriate).

I am still not sure I really know what social justice is, in the strictest sense. I seem to have a much better idea of what social injustice is.  It's once of those things that can be really hard to explain to someone.  How do you explain to someone that American society has hardwired us to ignore and overlook the social injustice in the world, to turn a blind eye to how all of our own actions and inaction feed into it every day? Simply knowing this can't be enough, can it? How can I really combat it while still living and working within it?  I could always just become one of those people who leaves society and lives on an isolated, self sustaining farm, but then I wouldn't be doing much to help other break the chains of injustice and oppression.  How do I accept my own institutionalization and fight against it at the same time?

I suppose the only thing I can really do is not allow myself to be paralyzed by the helplessness I feel when looking at the overwhelmingly larger picture.  I've situated myself in a place where I can see the things that limit us, that hold people back, and that fuel the status quo.  I just can't allow myself to be comfortable there, to every be blind to the injustice that surrounds me. To know that I too will remain oppressed until all have been liberated.

I don't know what my vocation is yet, but I do know I am not called to sit ideally by while other members of the body are suffering, I must suffer with them.  Then, perhaps one day, we will all rejoice in our liberation together.