Inequality, but why?

1.7 | May 3, 2020 | Faith, Hope and Love in the Time of Corona

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.
But the greatest of these is love.
1 Cor 13:13

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IMAGE: Paolo Trabattoni

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For many of us who believe in God, a pandemic can throw up very existential questions that probe our very lives and identity as human beings. We could be gripped by our faith, but also question it — where is God in the midst of this pandemic? Moreover, if God is so loving, why do we go through this suffering?

A starting point of such existential questioning could also begin with an analysis of our own human condition and what prevails within it. Social inequality compounded by economic factors have much to contribute to our own human frailty. How did such inequality come about? How could we create a more just world? Economists have been searching for these answers. Could Thomas Piketty’s participatory socialism be a response? We do not know. However a social analysis of our human condition coupled with a desire to create a just world — especially for the least among us — is as much a part of our faith response that we seek from God.

Addressing inequality can only begin when we are willing to first consider those who live on the peripheries of society. As much as we would like to keep knocking on heaven’s doors, could our search here on earth also be a part of our faith response? Probably, we will also find our God there, suffering.

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FAITH

The breath of God: Coronavirus and theodicy

The question of how a loving, all-powerful God could have created a world in which so many people suffer is one with which people at all stages of belief have wrestled, and during the current pandemic it is being put into even sharper focus for many. ‘These questions have their place, even if they are condemned ultimately to fall short,’ says Mark Dowd as he surveys the different responses that he has encountered.

Mark Dowd | Thinking Faith | 1 May 2020

These last weeks, reading every day about patients fighting for breath, oxygen levels, ventilators and the like, I have been thrown back on the importance of breath in so many religious narratives. It is the Ruach Elohim, the breath or spirit of God, that hovers above the waters at the dawn of creation. In the far eastern traditions of Buddhism, the anapatasati, the system of breathful meditation, is a key element on the path to enlightenment. And finally, there is the image of a crucified and suffering God on the cross who breathes his last and gives up His spirit. How very apt that, in these Covid-19 anxious times, we vouch faith in a God who does not ridicule us or abandon us in our suffering, but in a God who sends his son to die through asphyxiation on a cross. A God who says, this is not the final chapter of the tale. Put your hand in mine. Walk through the darkness of the tomb and prepare for the unexpected – the new life of resurrection.

We look through a glass darkly.
I believe, Lord. Help my unbelief.

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HOPE

In Conversation: Thomas Piketty Knew This Was Coming

The scholar of inequality warned us that our economic systems couldn’t withstand a global catastrophe.

David Wallace-Wells with Thomas Piketty | New York Magazine | 27 April 2020

Everywhere you look — inequalities.
In the rest of the world, in India or in West Africa, for instance, I’m very concerned. There, the way the lockdown has been designed is that in practice it’s mostly a way to get rid of the migrants and rural population working in the cities, who are just pushed out. In some cases, it led to huge mass movement of population going back to the countryside, which doesn’t seem to be the best way to avoid the spread of the virus. When you don’t have a proper safety-net system, income system, the violence of inequality is very clear.

I’m trying to contribute to the thinking about what kind of economic and social model we want to have in the long run.

Less inequality and more access to economic opportunities, economic participation, economic power, and participation in decision-making.

The very basic idea of participatory socialism is to say, “Well, look, if we want to improve that, one way is to have a more progressive tax system.” … So you will still have a lot of inequality between children — and if you want my opinion, I think we could go further than that — but this already will make a huge difference because this could put everybody roughly at the median wealth.

The other big pillar of participatory socialism is to provide more opportunities for workers to participate in the governance of their companies through more voting rights in the boards of companies.

If this system were in place in the future, during a crisis like this one, you wouldn’t see these poor people in the street searching for food, searching for work. The majority would be in a position to not have to accept everything. You can make plans. You can have better control over your own life. That’s the purpose. It’s much more than money. It’s really more in terms of power about your own existence.

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LOVE

Pope gifts funds to transgender community

Madoc Cairns | The Tablet | 1 May 2020

Speaking to Reuters, Cardinal Krajewski pointed out that the members of the community were most likely undocumented migrants, cutting them off from state support during lockdown. Italy has one of the highest populations of undocumented migrants in Europe, with some experts estimating the total number resident in the country at over half a million.

“Everything is closed” Krajewski, aged 56, went on, “They don't have any resources. They went to the pastor. They could not have gone to a politician or a parliamentarian. And the pastor came to us.” Sending aid to the community was simply following the Gospel, Krajewski emphasised: it was, he said, what Jesus would have done.

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Postscript

A better society can emerge from the lockdowns

History shows some crises lead to improved equality and access to food and healthcare

Amartya Sen| Financial Times | 15 April 2020

Is it possible that shared experience of the pandemic will help alleviate such pre-existing problems?

The need to act together can certainly generate an appreciation of the constructive role of public action. The second world war, for example, made people better realise the importance of international co-operation.

Sadly, it is quite possible that when we meet again we will be no better placed to face the unequal world in which we live. Yet it need not go that way. A concern with equity in crisis management would lessen suffering in many countries now, and offer new ideas to inspire us to build a less unequal world in the future. Since we are less than half way into the crisis, dare we hope this can still happen?

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Wishing you faith, hope and love,
Rinald D’Souza SJ

HISTORIA DOMUS

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For it is not so much knowledge that fills and satisfies the soul,
but the intimate understanding and relish of the truth.
The Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius of Loyola, #2

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What is Faith, Hope and Love in the Time of Corona all about?
READ (recommended)

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