LABOUR DAY: PRAYER OF CONFESSION

from Jobs with Justice

We find ourselves talking about fairness at the office with students in the classroom, at family gatherings, and at other social engagements.

We confess that our focus is usually upon what is fair for us. The injustice we want to have corrected is one which we perceive pertains to us.

We hardly give thought to or feel concerned about the many simple injustices we choose not to see as we go about our business.

We fail to think about those sanitation workers coming down our alleys in the early morning hours or their welfare. We don't want to know that they are mere products of outsourcing by our local governments -- ones who work hard jobs for minimal wage without benefit or even worker's compensation.

We stand at the fast food counter and order foods processed by someone living on the margins of society, paid little and threatened often to work harder. We face the employee with whom we place our order and see them not as children of God deserving dignity and justice in the workplace, rather we choose not to fully see them at all.

We've come to accept injustice and unfairness as a norm with which we can live.

Forgive us, O God, for we have settled for a system that does not reflect what you intend in your realm. We settle for talking heads who justify our ways of doing business, political lackeys whose values are mostly unexamined lest it impact their ambitions, and sadly, we settle for what is convenient to us.

Reshape us and give us a burning within so that simply "settling" will no longer rule our hearts and lives.

Let it be, O Holy One, please let it be.