Word to the Wise
Wednesday, July 1, 2020 - Wednesday in the 13th Week in Ordinary Time
[Amos 5:14-15, 21-24 and Matt 8:28-34]I hate, I spurn your feasts, says the Lord, I take no pleasure in your solemnities; your cereal offerings I will not accept, nor consider your stall-fed peace offerings. Away with your noisy songs! I will not listen to the melodies of your harps. But if you would offer me burnt offerings, then let justice surge like water, and goodness like an unfailing stream. [Amos]
Amos was one "tell it like it is" prophet! He denounced empty religious devotion that cloaked injustice. He is not the only Old Testament prophet who did this. However, he is certainly one of the most colorful ones. Can we imagine someone showing up at a big church celebration with all its pomp and circumstance and denouncing all of us for our failures to care for the poor, the sick, the immigrant, the imprisoned, the hungry! Our first reaction would be, "Who invited him?" Then we would get angry and have him thrown out for "disturbing the peace" or worse! This is exactly what happened to Jesus about 700 years later, and is generally the fate of anyone (prophet/prophetess) who dares to disturb the peace of the powerful in the land!
The Letter to the Hebrews in the New Testament says, "Indeed, the word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating even between soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart. No creature is concealed from him but everything is naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must render an account." (Heb. 4:12-13). We cannot dismiss Amos as some quaint Old Testament figure, let alone Jesus whom we worship as our savior, and at the same time ignore those whom he considers as "the least of my brothers and sisters." [Matt. 25:31-45]. Can the Book of Amos and the Gospel According to Matthew be "living and effective" in us? Or do we throw them out of our celebration for disturbing our peace? AMEN