40-Hour Fast

Peace be with you, friends. You who are constant readers of the blog will recall that I visited Albany last Wednesday with members of Neighbors Together and numerous community organizations statewide to lobby our state legislators for a budget that serves the common good and other measures to improve the lives of poor people. Primary among our policy objectives were to close corporate tax loopholes and increase the minimum wage.

Now, from about two hours ago until noon on Wednesday, I am fasting with the Labor-Religion Coalition of New York State to call for a fair economy today. The fast coincides with the 100th anniversary of the Bread and Roses Strike in Lawrence, Mass., a landmark event in labor history (and U.S. history in general). As we commemorate the textile workers who risked their lives for higher wages and respect, we renew our dedication to the eradication of income and wealth inequalities caused by greed, made normative within unjust economic structures, and sanctioned by unfair rules.

You can read about the fast here: http://www.labor-religion.org/fast-main.htm. My fellow New Yorkers, I invite you to pray, reflect, and act with me. During the fast I will call and/or e-mail my local state legislators to let them know why I am fasting and what I want. Having seen them last week, they just might remember my name, in whose name I speak, and the people I serve!

I'll break the fast to have dinner with the friars tomorrow, but otherwise I will refrain from eating. Don't worry about me -- no discomfort I may feel can compare to the hunger pangs of today's working poor. Such a hunger as theirs is felt both in the body and the soul. Often I have said that the economic crisis is a spiritual crisis. The scandalous disparity in standard of living between rich and poor is but the outward manifestation of a interior desolation afflicting both the sinners -- those who impoverish others -- and the suffering. Such wretchedness is a denial of the Gospel and a rejection of the kingdom of God.

Enough. Let us sin no more against the poor. Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. Please join me and numerous New Yorkers in the following interfaith prayer:

Statewide Prayer for a Fair Economy and a Just New York

March 12-14, 2012

All: God of love and compassion, let us pray:

Leader: For the textile workers of the Great Lawrence Strike, who one hundred years ago demonstrated that David can slay Goliath and that working class solidarity can win both bread and roses;  

All: God of love and compassion, let us pray:

Leader: For women and men to follow the call of the prophet to “act justly, love tenderly and walk humbly with God”;

All: God of love and compassion, let us pray:

Leader: For working people to afford the basic necessities through an increase this year in New York’s minimum wage;

All: God of love and compassion, let us pray:

Leader: For elected officials as they deliberate about ways to close the income and wealth gaps that divide far too many New Yorkers;

All: God of love and compassion, let us pray:

Leader: For workers in communities across the state who struggle with low wages or are unable to find employment, who have no health insurance or can no longer pay their mortgage or rent;

All: God of love and compassion, let us pray:

Leader: For the moral vision to see that the great wealth gap of our time is not inevitable, surely not the will of God and can be changed by people who put economic justice for all ahead of greed and selfishness;  

All: God of love and compassion, let us pray:

Leader: For passage of a fair budget that prioritizes the people of New York State and requires corporations to pay their share.

All: God of love and compassion, let us do your will. Amen.