Every Life Matters

Collaboraction is the name of a unique theater in Chicago. The plays they create are designed to bring awareness to social issues and promote action of audience members. They have just finished performing a docudrama called “Crime Scene: The Next Chapter,” which focused on five organizations that work to end violence and promote racial justice in the Chicago area.

The show was moving not only because the organized goodness people stepped into due to life’s tragic circumstances, but also the amount of everyday violence many people have to endure. Unfortunately systemic violent crime often follows the lines of economic status and race. In the production, it was quoted that in Chicago unemployment for white people is a little over 6%, for Latinos it is between 12% and 13%, for African-Americans it is over 24%. The poor and working poor struggle to get by in neighborhoods where children can’t play on the street for fear of being shot, beaten, or killed. Racial inequality needs to be addressed.

The recent killings of nine black church-goers by a young white man in Charlotte only adds to the urgency of the need for justice. Following the example of the victims’ family members who asked for mercy for their beloveds’ murderer, we are called to forgive and pray for healing. We are also responsible to stand up for and with our neighbors and not let injustices slip by without a word being uttered from our lips. Even in our churches there is subtle and not-so-subtle discrimination that must be addressed. The house of God ought to be a place where people do not experience racism and exclusion.

The next time we are at liturgy, let us look around and notice who is on the edges, feeling left out and alone. We can make a difference by raising an issue, asking a question, extending ourselves. As the Catholic Church teaches, life is sacred and every life matters.