ON TEARS OF THE OPPRESSED

ON TEARS OF THE OPPRESSED - I have always loved, and I have read numerous times, the book of Ecclesiastes. Not because it is always happy or positive, but because it is real; it tells it like it is.  And I have gone back to it repeatedly these last few weeks.  Its words are both eerily relevant and unsettling.  “I have also noticed that in this world you find wickedness where justice and right ought to be” (3:16 GNT).  “The oppressed were crying, and no one would help them because the oppressors had power on their side” (4:1 GNT).  The tears of the oppressed should move us as people of faith to do what we can, though we may think it small, to not only wipe away the tears of the oppressed, but also to work to change the conditions that cause the tears in the first place.