RBWords

[Amos 8:4-6, 9-12 and Matthew 9:9-13]

     "Hear this, you who trample upon the needy and destroy the poor of the land...."

     Today we Americans celebrate the establishment of our nation as an independent country.  We justly celebrate the values and political rights most of us enjoy that are enshrined in our "founding documents:" the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.  We gather at picnics and other places, dressed in red, white and blue, and sing patriotic songs.  I don't think we would appreciate the sudden appearance of a "wild-eyed prophet" at our event, accusing us of trampling upon the needy and destroying the poor of the land!  Amos would be a very unwelcome guest.

     Amos warns the "Northern Kingdom" that God will bring a "famine" on the land in the form of the absence of the "word of the Lord."  I cannot help but think that we should take this to heart in our own time.  Although Americans are thought to be very religious people, our founding documents are often used as a weapon to prevent religious expression in public!  Although we take great pride in the Statue of Liberty with Emma Lazarus' poem on the base about welcoming the poor and homeless, we are more engaged in deporting than we are in welcoming at times!  Poverty, homelessness, hunger and other great social ills still challenge us as a nation to learn the mercy that Jesus speaks of in the gospel today: "Go and learn the meaning of the words, I desire mercy, not sacrifice..."

     Just as we begin the celebration of the Eucharist with a "penitential rite," perhaps we should do the same with our celebration of the 4th of July.  Then we can hear "the word of the Lord," so that it does not disappear from the land, and THEN enjoy our picnic and the long holiday weekend.  AMEN