A Sacred Hunger
At the very end of October — on All Saints Day — I took part with around 40 others in a first-ever Rhode Island "grassroots congress." This was organized by various segments of the Ocean State's resistance to the cruelties and abuses of the Trump Regime. The idea was the inspiration of activist women, great planners, who made sure that delegates from different groups mixed it up with people they didn't know, or know well, previously. The five-hour experience ended with agreement on some good steps going forward: stronger communication and commitments not just to defend the most vulnerable from ICE raids but to build political power for fundamental change in the way society is organized, both locally and nationally.
Big dreams, you say. And there were indeed some muted mutterings of cynicism heard during the lunch break: e.g., people noting — accurately — that the power of "dark money" has never been greater within the political system, with as much of it flowing to Democrats as to Republicans.
For me the most hopeful takeaway was and is the determination not just to restore the rule of law but to forge a new and more just social order once we get through our long national nightmare. These organizers share a deep hunger for justice that can only be described as a sacred hunger.
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness," says Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. The metaphor was especially powerful in a setting where hunger among the poor was commonplace (even as it is now in "wealthy" America, where nearly 50 million experience hunger often). Jesus is saying that yearning for justice — for right relationships — is every bit as acute as physical hunger. He is also promising that this spiritual hunger will be satisfied when we begin to practice kindom values, transforming society from the bottom up.
I am well aware that not every person of the Left hungers for righteousness (tzedakah is the Hebrew word - and it denotes forming right relationships, not mere charity). Some are motivated by a deep hatred of the wealthy and powerful; others are captive to fantastical ideologies. But I believe that most of the people now standing up to resist the current regime's abominations are driven by a sense that something is profoundly broken beyond just the flagrant lawlessness and cruelty of the MAGA crowd: by a hunger for righteousness, in other words. The private equity barons squeezing obscene profits out of the housing and health care sectors; the tech titans who prosper from online deception and hatred and from AI-rooted layoffs; the political sycophants who do the bidding of all these malefactors: more and more ordinary people are coming to see that a society based on predation cannot be reconciled with basic morality. They hunger for something better.
No one does a better job of explaining how Jesus treats the challenge of savage inequality and the need for reparation than scholar/teacher/activist Ched Myers. I can't say enough good things about the brilliant exposition of the substantive revolutionary message of Luke's gospel that Ched has been providing lately in his blog. Find it here and see for yourself. Needless to say, the Jesus message is hard to hear, as grotesque inequality and exploitation are now so completely normalized and as we are all so accustomed to getting "what's ours" and all the rest be damned. Nevertheless, the message could not be clearer: You say you want to be closer to God? You want to be healed of your soul sickness? Then step up and join the fight for right relations and give it your all. Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, heal the sick, and let the prisoners go free.
~ Peter