Friday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 465

Blow the trumpet in Zion,
    sound the alarm on my holy mountain!
Let all who dwell in the land tremble,
    for the day of the LORD is coming;
Yes, it is near, a day of darkness and of gloom,
    a day of clouds and somberness!
Like dawn spreading over the mountains,
    a people numerous and mighty!
Their like has not been from of old,
    nor will it be after them,
    even to the years of distant generations.

The "people" in today's first reading, whose "like has not been from of old" is a plague of locusts. If you have watched many National Geographic television programs you know that a cloud of locusts can literally block the sun, causing "a day of darkness and of gloom, a day of clouds and somberness." 

Perhaps there was a time when we supposed our sins should not affect the weather. We assured ourselves, "God surely does not create meteorological catastrophes to punish bad behavior. That's just old fashioned thinking and it makes no sense; it's not scientific! And our Good God shouldn't do that sort of thing even if he could!" 

I wish I could agree but it's hard to avoid the thought that our behavior has consequences. If sin were strictly a personal thing as some people insist; and had no consequences upon other people, or groups of people, or the world around us: there'd be no such thing as sin. And that too, would be fine with many people. The only sins they see are the ones other people commit. "Isn't it awful what those other people are doing?" 

The Hebrew prophets recognize the sins of other nations, especially those that oppress God's people. But more often they deplore our sins. These are the ones that cost us much. God will protect us against foreign aggression so long as we remain faithful. But God punishes Israel's enemies after he has used them to punish us, and after they have abused the power he gave them. (Isaiah 10:5ff)

In his encyclical, Fratelli Tutti, Pope Francis clearly identifies the exploitative attitudes that abuse both the Earth and its people. It is impossible to neglect the respect due to one while honoring the other, although hypocrisy often finds a way to make it seem otherwise. People who expect to do well by doing good should be very careful. The Day of Reckoning will not be kind to them. While it is certainly possible for the wealthy and powerful to be saved -- and the Church has canonized those who gave away their fortune for the sake of others -- it's easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle. 

Americans have long believed that we survive by competing with each other and those who don't survive don't deserve to. That attitude is not taught by the Bible. Rather, the Scriptures insist we are judged by how we care for one another. As you did to the least of my people, you did to me. It is time to lay down our arms and begin to work with and for one another before Joel's locusts descend upon us.