+ Today we have a couple of timely and interesting readings at
mass: the two-demoniac story
of the gospel passage underscores the inevitable and certain return of the Lord
“at the appointed time!” They spot Jesus, whom they know has direct and
decisive power over them, and they tell us three things: Jesus will return, he will put evil to rest, and he will inaugurate the
new kingdom: the new heavens and the new earth.
For us this means that we must
be persistent in our willingness to be true and full disciples of Christ – who
is as present today in our midst as he was 2000 years ago when he met the
demoniacs in the territory of the Garadenes. The Beatitudes is our Declaration of Dependence – dependence
on God who requires us to live in the world “upside down” – because the way of
the world, is the way of ingratitude, mistrust, and self-glorification – and he
insist on the common sense ways of thanksgiving (to the God who gives us
everything), trust (in the God who alone sustains us day by day), and praise
(to the God who is not only omnipotent and omniscient (all powerful and all
knowing), but more important of all all tender, all loving, all compassionate,
all forgiving, all trustworthy).
And so from the Prophet Amos
in the first reading: today, this day, which happens to be the Fourth of July –
in operating our own personal lives we must “seek good and avoid evil, at all
costs – so that we might live a full and abundant life here and hereafter; we must
hate evil and love the good, and we must we must we must let justice prevail at
the gates of all decisions – because it is only taking this posture that the
Lord God of Hosts will have mercy on us, and prosper the remnant people who
stick by this way!
Because as God says later in
the passage, you can just stop your hypocritical prayer and worship, your prescribed
sacrifices, oblations and burnt offerings: I despise them, because you have
become a spineless, heartless, blaring cacophony of mismatched musical tones.
When you let justice surge
like water, and goodness like an unfailing stream then you and your families
and communities and nation will flourish and grow and be a place of
tranquility, harmony and peace.
To the upright I will show the
saving power of God!
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