Sunday Gospel Reflection, September 29, 2019: Woe to the complacent in Zion!

Woe to the complacent in Zion!

What do we choose not to see?

  Human beings can be so blind to the reality of life around them.  The prophet Amos decries the casual behavior of the wealthy:  Woe to the complacent in Zion, he says, lying upon beds of ivory, stretched comfortably on their couches…  Amos has warned them that their community is about to be destroyed by Assyria, but they pay him no heed; they choose not to see the reality that will soon bite them, and they thus neglect others, thinking only of themselves.  In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus points to the blindness of the Pharisees with a parable about a rich man who chooses not to see the poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores and lying at his door.  The rich man knows Lazarus’ name, but fails to see him as a brother in need.  Like the rich man, the Pharisees believe only what it is comfortable for them to believe; they choose not to see the Messiah in their midst just as they choose not to recognize the needs of the community they serve.

   Fortunately, Psalm 146 offers a corrective to human blindness:  God is praised for securing justice for the oppressed and giving food to the hungry as he promises to thwart the way of the wicked.  And it is God’s way we are to emulate:  we must choose to be God’s instruments of justice, meeting the needs of all as best we can, acting with virtue and kindness and generosity.  Paul recommends a similar path to Timothy:  pursue righteousness, he tells the young pastor, as well as devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness.  Timothy is to be true to the covenant by keeping the commandment without stain or reproach, loving God with all that is in him, and loving his neighbor as himself.  Timothy must choose to see Christ in his neighbor, and serve.

   God’s blessings make it possible for us to bless our neighbor.  We are given gifts, that we might give gifts in turn.  But our comfort often blinds us to the need around us.  When we are open to God’s will, proffering life-giving justice to our neighbor, our actions draw us closer to God and bring God closer to us.  But we must choose justice, choose to see our neighbor in need, choose to meet that need, transcending self-centeredness as we choose God’s way, always.

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.

Image source:  www.wordclouds.com

Sunday Gospel Reflection, September 25, 2016: He would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps...

 He would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps...  

   Have we lost touch with the world around us?  

   The prophet Amos certainly seems to think his community has!  In the message Amos delivers to the northern kingdom, God calls the Israelites complacent and suggests they are so self-consumed that they are dead to covenant – they don’t see the need of their brothers and sisters, but delight instead in beds of ivory, eating and drinking and living lavishly.  Their attention is not on other, but on self; they live in their own little world rather than sharing in a life created for and by all.  They represent the wicked of Psalm 146, the antithesis of all God’s goodness:  justice for the oppressed, food for the hungry, sight to the blind, protection of strangers, the fatherless, and widows.  Those who follow God’s ways, keeping faith forever, are blessed; this is what Amos’ audience must strive for:  metanoia, a return to covenant, and a renewed relationship with the world around them.

   The rich man in Luke’s Gospel has similarly rejected covenant, doing nothing to ameliorate the suffering of the poor man named Lazarus; in Jesus’ story, this division is cause for a reversal after the mens’ deaths.  While Lazarus was carried away by angels to the bosom of Abraham, the rich man is in torment in the netherworld, and the chasm between them is now too great to traverse.  Like the rich man, Jesus’ audience – the Pharisees – believe they have no responsibility to reach out to those around them, when in fact they should keep faith, pursuing all those values Paul speaks of to Timothy:  righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness, virtues, all, that help us to live our baptismal call in a life dedicated to neighbor, to other, gifts, in other words, that keep us firmly in touch with the world around us, ready to compete well for the faith. 

   To see a picture of the kind of bed of ivory Amos mentions, click here.

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.

Image source:  Wordle
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