AMOS 5:24
"THEN LET JUSTICE
SURGE LIKE WATER
AND GOODNESS
LIKE AN
UNFAILING STREAM."
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this Thirteenth Wednesday in Ordinary Time is, “Then Let Justice Surge Like
Water and Goodness Like An Unfailing Stream.”
This is just one text - one verse - 5:24 - from the book of
Amos.
BUMPER STICKER
I’ve never seen on a bumper sticker or a sign at a football
game: “Amos 5:24.”
It wouldn’t be a bad text to base one’s life on - that I be
a person of justice and goodness.
Most translations of English from the Hebrew use the word
“justice,” but most don’t use “goodness” like our New American Bible does. Most translators use the word
“righteousness” over “goodness”.
The Hebrew is just 6 words. The English translation is 12
words - twice as long.
I like the Hebrew word for “unfailing” - as in “unfailing
stream”. It’s “ETHAN” or “ETAN”. Besides “unfailing,” it’s translated “endless”
- “never failing” “ever flowing” “mighty”.
In a Biblical commentary I like the note about that word
which I spotted last night while writing this homily. “…the seventh month, just
before the early rain, was called ‘the month Ethanim [Cf. 1 Kings 8:2], that is, the month of the perennial streams, when they alone flowed. In the
meaning ‘perennial,’ it would stand tacitly contrasted with ‘streams which fail
or lie.’ True righteousness is not fitful, like an intermitting stream,
vehement at one time, then disappearing, but continuous, unfailing.
WHAT SHOULD BE EVER
FLOWING IN EVERY PERSON?
Amos is calling all of us to be like a rolling river and
like an ever flowing stream. Amos is calling each and every person to examine
if justice and goodness are flowing out of us - like a river and a stream - or
am I all dried up when it comes to justice and goodness.
I’ve seen dry river beds in Tucson
and Phoenix as well as in the Salton Sea area or
region of California - 100 miles east of San Diego .
I’ve seen the opposite - where there was lots of water. I
lived on the Hudson River in upstate New
York for 14 years of my life. I grew up in Brooklyn 3
blocks away from the Narrows - where the waters of the East River and the Hudson River meet and flow out to the sea. I lived for 7
years in Tobyhanna , Pennsylvania . Tobyhanna means dark river. It
was only a stream in the Poconos. I lived on the Atlantic Ocean in Long Branch,New Jersey for 7 years. I also lived on Lak LaBelle in Oconomowoc , Wisconsin .
Oconomowoc is the Native Americans or that area word meaning “where the waters
meet.” As an aside, it was on July 4th evening, there that I discovered the beauty of mid-America. Everyone was at the park listening to a band concert - followed by fireworks.
So I get the imagery of Amos. We get it as well. When the
electricity is out - when the pumps ain’t pumping water - it’s then we
appreciate water. We appreciate a cold water fountain and a good shower.
I’ve backpacked in the Rockies
and in White Mountains of New Hampshire, so I know steams.
I’m sure you had similar experiences of water and flowing
water in your lifetime. Please God, people who experience us, experience the
flow of Justice and Goodness.
The opposite is desert dryness. The opposite is the horror story
in today’s gospel - where 2 men are filled with demons - who cry out for
release - and Jesus lets them roam and roar out of the men and into the pigs
who run down the slope and jump into the Lake of Galilee.
CONCLUSION
There’s two prayers for us today. That we be to our families and coworkers a delicious ongoing - ever flowing river and stream of delicious water and
we not be filled with demons. Amen.
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