Living with Strength and Kindliness
Let’s take steps towards an inclusive,
sustainable economy
Social Justice Sunday will be celebrated this coming Sunday the 24th of September, 2017.
The title of this year’s statement is Everyone’s Business: Developing an inclusive and sustainable economy.
It is a response to call for economic justice and for societies that are founded on justice, offering dignity and inclusion to every person.
Australia is a wealthy nation but not all Australians enjoy the benefits of this wealthy nation. Housing is becoming increasingly difficult for all Australians to attain. Employment opportunities are less available to all. Some employment offers insecure tenures. Many unemployed people have to live on incomes well below the poverty line. Inequality is increasing.
In the Gospel for this year’s Social Justice Sunday, Jesus tell the parable of the workers in the vineyard, where all become active contributors and are recognised for their human dignity. Inspired by this, the Social Justice Sunday Statement calls us to build an economy with those who are most vulnerable.
To achieve this justice must be at the fore. Justice must be built into the foundations of our communities and our businesses so that everyone can benefit from profits and wealth, not just business owners and shareholders. To achieve true justice the excluded and the vulnerable should also have a say in the decision making.
The Social Justice Sunday Statement also asks us to: call for change by ‘bringing good news to the poor’, identify those who experience exclusion, join in the work of combatting homelessness and become informed about what economic exclusion means and who it affects.
Let us pray:
A Prayer for Economic Justice
God of justice and compassion,
whose light shines into our hearts
and into our nation’s halls of power,
strengthen our faith as we acknowledge
the enormity of our task:
to include all in the prosperity of this land.
We pray for your spirit of generosity
in challenging greed and neglect.
Give us your grace to reach out
to the lowest paid workers,
families subsisting on meagre incomes,
people who are homeless,
the dispossessed First Peoples of this land,
so that we may achieve change,
inspired by the Gospel,
that leads to human flourishing.
We pray for your spirit of truth as we place
our own economic choices before you,
reflecting on our own motives as we strive
to give and to keep,
to save and to spend,
to invest and to speak out,
in ways that honour every human being.
We pray for your spirit
of fierce love and determination
as we seek to assist and empower
the most vulnerable,
to create jobs and opportunities
where they are most needed,
to build an inclusive economy
that enables government and business
to champion a society
where justice and equity abound.
May we be instruments of your compassion
as we take up the needs of the poor,
May we be instruments of your mercy
as we bring truth to greed and neglect,
May we be instruments of your creative spirit
as we seek to make our world anew.
In Christ and through the Spirit we pray.
For more information please visit: http://www.socialjustice.catholic.org.au/publications
Kirrilee Westblade
Catholic Identity Leader