Reflection
The judgments of the Lord are true, and all of them are just.
-Psalm 19:11
They are more precious than gold,
than a heap of purest gold;
Sweeter also than syrup
or honey from the comb.
Today’s Responsorial Psalm 19 describes the precious and sweet treasure that is the Word of God (the “judgments of the Lord”), words that bring life to all Creation, including individual humans and whole communities of people…words full of wisdom and sustenance for our journey in life.
What keeps us from more deeply hearing the words of God? Perhaps we do not understand the way God sees the world.
God calls prophets to help us understand how God sees reality. In today’s first reading, Amos the prophet is speaking to the people of Israel in the eighth century BCE, prefacing what he says, in the manner of the prophets, with “Thus says the Lord”. Amos forecasts ruin. The widening gap between the rich and the poor violates God’s Covenant with Israel and will lead to even more suffering. Amos also challenged the social order that allowed this gap and fought for social justice for all.
The leaders of the people could not accept the words of God from Amos because they thought they were benefitting from the gap between the rich and the poor. They did not understand that in God’s Creation, there is an interrelated structure of reality: that ultimately their wellbeing was tied in with the wellbeing of all. Twentieth century prophet Dr. Martin Luther King expressed this interrelated structure of reality: “Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be.”
Another contemporary prophet, Passionist Fr. Thomas Berry, CP, expresses the interrelated structure of reality by describing the Universe (Creation) as a communion of subjects, instead of a collection of objects. He gave this warning, a wakeup call, for our time:
“The universe is composed of subjects to be communed with, Not [a collection] of objects to be used.”
We pray for the gift of understanding; so, like the prophets, we may more deeply enter into the mind of God and understand that our personal wellbeing is wrapped up in the wellbeing of each plant, animal or fellow human, no matter how humble. We are called into relationship (communion) with all. With this greater understanding, we pray to more deeply hear the words of God.
