Reflection
Today’s reading from Amos brings back memories of times when someone cared enough to tell me the truth plainly. Not gently. Not wrapped in soft words. Plainly. At the time, the message may have felt harsh, even unfair. Only later did I see that it was exactly what I needed to hear.
Amos speaks with that kind of directness. He is not criticizing Israel because they forgot their prayers or neglected their rituals. In fact, they were still offering sacrifices, holding religious festivals, and singing sacred songs. The problem was that their religion had become disconnected from justice.
God’s message through Amos is unsettling. Worship that does not lead to mercy and justice is not pleasing to God. Amos is not saying that prayer, sacrifice, or song are meaningless. He is warning that worship becomes false when it leaves the poor, the excluded, and the vulnerable untouched. The Psalm in today’s liturgy echoes the same warning: God is hungry for justice, not our offerings.
The Gospel makes the same point from another angle. Jesus drives the demons from two suffering men into a herd of swine, which rushes into the sea and drowns. The whole town then comes out and begs Jesus to leave. Matthew does not tell us why. But the contrast is hard to miss: two men are freed from torment, a herd is lost, and the town’s response is to send God away. Something about the cost, the strangeness, the loss of the familiar proves to be too much.
God’s word demands something of us. Both readings ask whether we are willing to let justice and mercy reshape our lives, even when doing so disturbs our comfort, our routine, or our security.
Where have we made peace with injustice, exclusion, or suffering because changing our behavior would cost us something?
