‘If you make my word your home you will indeed be my disciples, you will learn the truth and the truth will make you free.”’
(see John 8:31-42)
Martin Luther King Jr said “’Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality.’ The civil rights leader Frannie Lou Hamer also said that ‘Nobody’s free until everybody’s free.’
The debate which Jesus had with the religious leaders in John’s gospel is about freedom of a specific kind—one of slavery to sin, rather than the freedom which comes from living as children of God. In recent years, we have been more alert to the terrible issue of human trafficking and slavery throughout the world—and in our own country too. Today, there are still many people enslaved by wicked regimes or abusive relationships. People are moved across borders like a product and a commodity to be used and exploited. They may be put to work in abusive conditions in forced labour to make a profit for those who enslave them. Some of these people may live in our own communities or even next door to us. As a hidden crime it often goes unnoticed. In 2018, the Global Slavery Index estimated there were 136,000 victims of human slavery in the UK.
We believe that each person is made in the image of God, and no one should be treated with disregard for their own rights or freedom to live and flourish as God intended them. How alert are we to the living conditions of others?
PRAY FOR victims of human trafficking and slavery, and for more alertness to the issue in our own communities.
Our daily reflections for Lent focus on the many injustices which exist in our world, as we seek to connect our life of prayer to social justice, the Justice of God which Christ proclaimed. More resources are available at www.southcardiffministryarea.co.uk/just-lent
South Cardiff Ministry Area 