Public Love

Readings Is 1:10, 16-20; Mt 23:1-12

We are told in the first reading that God desires for us to “make justice your aim.”  Sounds like a great idea.  Maybe we can turn to religious leaders to help us understand what justice is, right? Not so fast. In the gospel, we hear Jesus offer a critique of the religious leaders of his time (and likely ours).  He says that they are often self-serving and may not be able to accurately offer guidance on how we make justice our aim.

Today’s readings highlight two things for me.

First, it is good and essential for us to keep reflecting on the idea of making justice our aim.  This requires, however, that we keep thinking of “justice”.  What does that mean to us?  How would we take that up?  How would we know when justice is present and who gets to determine that?

Second, good mentors and leaders can be hard to find.  When people get into positions of power and influence, they – like anyone – can easily get seduced by the status quo and the position that they are in.  When we get a spot in the system, the system can become something we try to protect because it is serving us (even as it might be harming or excluding others).

Which is why Jesus tended to reject positions of power for himself and instead moved among people with no standing or positional power in society.  These were the excluded and rejected.  These were the people who “instructed” Jesus about what justice might look like for them.

One of our modern prophets, Cornell West, famously said, “Justice is what love looks like in public just like tenderness is what love feels like in private.”

I love this quote because it helps me ask some new questions like:

What would an economy based on tenderness (and not competition) look like?

How would a justice system based on tenderness operate?

How can we develop educational systems that help students feel like they have been treated with tenderness?

And the list goes on.

Some of the people who are helping me as mentors and teachers are folks in the abolitionist and transformative justice movements (to sample a few changemakers, click here) who are ALREADY envisioing and practicing what justice might look like.  These are people who, for the most part, have been excluded from mainstream systems due to their disability, race, gender identity, economic situation, etc.  So they know, firsthand, how the current systems are unjust.  But more importantly, they are articulating a vision of justice that transforms current systems so that everyone is served by them and not just some people.

So the vision of justice is two fold – love/tenderness in our private relationships; justice in public.  WIth that in mind, maybe we might reflect further on what this would look like as we move through our day.

Is there someone you know who needs your tenderness, love, mercy or forgiveness?

How would people feel a tenderness (that they might feel in their close relationships) in the public sphere and how do we help to make that more of a reality in the world?