Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent

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When asked to contribute as part of the recognition of Lent - a time for introspection, humility, confession, restraint and change - I reflected on the past year. A year in which the Black Lives Matter movement and dealing with violence against Black Americans and individual and systemic racism came to the fore of our consciousness as a nation rather than accepting it as just the way things are. Recent attention to and increases in the harassment of Asian Americans, Jews and other people must move us towards action and change.

After reading the passage given to me this stood out “O’ Lord of hosts, you who test the just, who probe the mind and heart” it made me think about how Dr. Martin Luther King spoke of the need for all Americans to become allied with Black Americans and to confront social and economic injustice. What I take away from this reading is that there is instruction meant to encourage us to consider our actions or inaction, to do what is right and to live as brothers and sisters. To search our minds and hearts looking for opportunities to believe, act and think as God wants us to.

The second passage that spoke to me is “For he has rescued the life of the poor from the power of the wicked!” This passage made me think about the wickedness of people suffering for no other reason but the color of their skin to be held back not having the same opportunity to succeed and to have the best life possible for their families and communities to flourish. Social justice and for people to act are needed to address the wickedness of the inequities in the world.

As this season of Lent comes to an end, a message of hope is at its core.

Let us look to the light within ourselves and in others.

Jeffrey Emil Diaz

Interim Chief of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion