Deliver From Evil

July 2: Wednesday of Week 13 of Ordinary Time, Year A-II:

Amos 5:14-15, 21-24; Psalm 50:7, 8-9, 10-11, 12-13, 16-17; Matthew 8:28-34

To surrender to Jesus expressing himself through us in ministry.

Deliver From Evil

“Let justice surge like water, and goodness like an unfailing stream.” Amos 5:24

Through Amos God says religious acts don’t please him unless we show justice and goodness to others. We can’t be “moral” without being merciful. It is hypocrisy to vote for politicians who defend “public morality” but do nothing for the poor. To be a “good Christian” we have to be good to others, beginning with the poor, the immigrants, those without adequate health care, and the prison population. This is the list Jesus gave in Matthew 25:44, to those who were surprised to find themselves condemned: “Then they will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger (alien) or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?’”

James 1:27 would include single mothers: “…to care for orphans and widows in their distress.” It isn’t just bereavement that leaves a woman alone to fend for herself and her children. And it isn’t a Christian role to judge.

In the Gospel, Jesus didn’t ask how the two demoniacs came to be possessed. He just delivered them. And today his first response to those possessed by drug and alcohol addiction, by sexually transmitted diseases, or by “repeat offender” crime as the only way of life they have ever known, is love. Not, “How do I punish,” but “How can I heal?”

PRAY: “Lord, teach me to love.”

PRACTICE: Support the Saint Vincent de Paul society.