A Plea for Justice

Again, today's first reading, Habakkuk 1: 12-2:4, is applicable to what is happening in the world of today.  Habakkuk is complaining to the Lord concerning the evil that exists in the world of his day. He says to the Lord, God:  "Are you not from eternity, Lord, my holy God, immortal?  O Lord, you have marked [evil men/women] for judgment, O Rock, you have readied [them] for punishment!  Too pure are your eyes to look upon evil, and the sight of misery you cannot endure. Why, then, do you gaze on the faithless in silence while the wicked man devours one more just than himself?"

Habakkuk's complaint is as true now as in his day.  Evil men and women "devour" others more just than themselves; they are, therefore,  marked for judgment--God's judgment.   The psalmist, in today's responsorial psalm, Psalm 9, reminds that "[t]he Lord sits enthroned forever; he has set up his throne for judgment.  He judges the world with justice; he governs; the people with equity," so unlike humankind's way of judging and governing.  Also, as Habakukk emphasizes:  God's eyes are "too pure...to look upon evil." This is as true today as then."The sight of misery [God] cannot endure" today  any more than in days of old.  The day of judgment will come. God will intervene in God's time and bring justice to this world, creating a new earth and a new heaven where justice will reign and evil will be no more!

Regarding Habakkuk's complaint, God responds as follows: Write down the vision clearly upon the tablets, so that one can read it readily. For the vision still has its time, presses on to fulfillment, and will not disappoint; if it delays, wait for it, it will surely come, it will not be late. The rash man/[woman] has no integrity; but the just [person], because of his [her] faith, shall live."  That promise will be fulfilled!  I believe that!  What about you?

God's Message through Amos

Today’s first reading, Amos 2: 6-10, 13-16, speaks of how offensive it is to God that we worship idols and forget the commandments of love, justice and mercy; how offensive to God that we renege on the commitments we made to God through the sacraments of baptism, First Communion, First Confession, marriage, ordination or first profession of vows as religious.    You “sell the just…for silver, and the poor…for a pair of sandals.  [You] trample the heads of the weak into the dust of the earth (through physical  death or abusive behaviors in word (gossip) and deed)  and force the lowly out of the way. Son and father go to the same prostitute, profaning my holy name….”

That reading applies as much today as in the day of Amos. Children and women are sold for sex, for body parts, for slave labor in sweat shops; babies are slaughtered in the womb—their aborted fetuses “trampled” upon, so to speak.  Those labeled “lowly,”—minorities, handicapped, chronically ill, the elderly, immigrants, the homeless, the mentally ill--are pushed “out of the way,” some are  put in nursing homes and forgotten by many. Members of the LBGT community are gunned down. 

 Some ‘fathers and sons” continue the same promiscuous behaviors before or after marriage.  In today’s responsorial psalm, God says to us: “When you do these things, shall I be deaf to it. Or do you think that I am like yourself? I will correct you… Consider this, you who forget God.”

“Beware,” God says through the prophet Amos, “I will crush you into the ground as a wagon crushes when laden with sheaves.  Flight shall parish from the swift, and the strong [person] shall not retain his strength; the warrior shall not save his life, nor the bowman stand his ground. The swift of foot shall not escape, nor the horseman save his life. And the most stouthearted of warriors shall flee naked on that day, says the Lord.”

All of what happens in our day is a message from God, as in the day of Amos. Will Jesus say to you as he said to the disciples:  “You know how to read the face of the sky, but you cannot read the signs of the times”  (Mt. 16:3)?

What is God saying to you through the suffering and pain in your life or through the joys and satisfactions of your life? Both contains a message from the God who saves you