The Mourners Organize

Church of the Holy Trinity
August 2012

One Sunday at the Church of the Holy Trinity in Toronto I was able to reflect on a familiar passage, Isaiah Isaiah 61: 1-4, and I found a new connection in light of mourning and organizing. I’ve always found significance in public expressions of grief that engage community, but when I read this passage  again and realized that it is the mourners who do the organizing and in doing so they find restoration, these actions took on new meaning for me.

The Spirit is upon me, anointed me;
to bring good news to the oppressed,
to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and release to the prisoners;
to proclaim the year of Jubilee and the day of reckoning;
to comfort all who mourn;
to give them a garland instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit.

(And listen here:)

They will be called oaks of righteousness,
the planting of God
They shall build up the ancient ruins,
they shall raise up the former devastations;
they shall repair the ruined cities,
the devastations of many generations.

I’ve heard this reading so many times –  but I’ve never really heard before that it is the mourners here, who do the acting.

Remember and act, mourn and organize—it’s a wholistic call that is both personal and political. It’s a reminder to honour each life, say each name, grieve each lost future and comfort those who mourn. When we pay attention to our mourning, we feel like our will hearts break, and they will.  We are invited to do this with our whole heart, and then, to pick ourselves up, to pick each other up, and organize.

Act to expose the specific acts of violence, but also the values, beliefs, ideas, structures that allow violence to continue unabated. Act so it does not happen again.

In this persistent work we honour those who have died and bring change, something new out of sorrow. God transforms acts of mourning to acts of restoration for the whole community. Planted in their very sorrow is new life, new possibility. Through God’s promise, the wounded ones offer restoration to all.