Homily for June 30th, 2014: Amos 2-10, 13-16.
Should the Church get involved in
politics? Many people say, ANo way. Religion and politics don=t mix.@ Others disagree. Whenever
fundamental moral issues are at stake, these people maintain, the Church must
get involved. Our first reading today introduces a religious figure who was
severely condemned for involvement in politics. Like his countryman, Jesus,
centuries later, Amos was a layman. God called Amos while he was still a
shepherd and farmer, and commanded him: AGo, prophesy to my people Israel.@
Amos had no crystal ball to predict
the future. Instead Amos, like all true
prophets, was summoned to speak Aa word of the Lord@ to the people of his day: to warn,
to admonish, to rebuke, and to encourage. As a simple countryman, Amos was
scandalized by his glimpses of city life during his visits to market. “They
sell the just man for silver, and the poor man for a pair of sandals. They
trample the heads of the weak … and force the lowly out of the way.” Without mincing
his words, Amos pronounced his society ripe for God=s judgment.
If Amos were to come back today, what
are some of the things he would denounce in our society and tell us we needed
to repent of? One which was often mentioned by Pope John Paul II, and by his two
successors, is consumerism: the false idea that we can buy happiness by
amassing more and more possessions.
Something else which cries out for
repentance is hedonism: the mindless philosophy that says, AIf it feels good, do it.@ Hedonism wrecks lives,
relationships, and marriages, every day. We need to repent also of the hard-hearted
selfishness which ignores the needs of the poor and oppressed in our midst;
or which thinks that our obligation to them can be discharged by gifts to
charity from our surplus goods, with no examination of unjust conditions in
society that cause poverty and oppression.
We need to repent too of an over-spiritualized
religion which is concerned only with saying prayers and getting into
heaven; and which ignores the challenge which Jesus gave us in his model
prayer: AYour will be done on earth as it is
in heaven.@ Those words challenge us to build
colonies of heaven here on earth C by living not just for ourselves,
but for God and for others.
That is a short though incomplete
list of the things in today’s society that require repentance. Jesus speaks of
this often in the gospels. And the
repentance to which he summons us is not somewhere else, tomorrow. It is here,
and it is now. And repentance begins not with someone else. If it is to begin
at all, repentance must begin with ourselves.
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