Sessionless Bible Study

For 15 or 16 years I've facilitated our parish Bible Study and must admit, it's been a joyful experience. But because of this pesky, and too often deadly, virus, we've been unable to come together in our weekly sessions. I'm not certain when we last met, but it must have been sometime in February or March of 2020 -- far too long ago.

Our Bible Study program, which began with fewer than a dozen active participants, grew steadily over the years and eventually included approximately 100 people. As you might imagine, because of the numbers, we had to offer more than one weekly session. When our initial Wednesday morning session had grown to about 30, I added a second session, on Wednesday evening, so participants could take their pick. This just attracted more participants and within several years, we added a third session, offering it on Monday afternoons. We were truly blessed with so many parishioners thirsting for God's Word...and then COVID came along and our meetings stopped completely. This was not a difficult decision due to the demographics of our parish. Most of us live in The Villages, a very large retirement community here in central Florida and our ages place us in a category most vulnerable to the virus and its worst effects. 

At first, not realizing how long this "new normal" would be with us, I thought we could just take a hiatus for a few months and then restart everything, perhaps in the fall of 2020. It didn't take long to realize that wouldn't happen. So I considered options. There were too many participants to offer Zoom meetings -- anyhow, just the thought of running a half-dozen or more Zoom meetings each week made me physically ill. I therefore considered other options, ways to keep the participants reading and thinking about Sacred Scripture. I finally decided on a distinctly low-tech approach and simply wrote a weekly reflection, really a kind of homily (a bit longish, perhaps) that I could email to our Bible Study regulars. I usually chose a Bible passage and attempted to apply it our current situation. These reflections seemed to be fairly well-received, so the parish suggested that I make videos of these reflections, which would be made available to all parishioners (and others) by uploading them to YouTube. I've now written 30 reflections and recorded videos of 24. I'll probably record a few more this week.

But as time went on, and I began to have hope that things might return to a state where we can again meet, I thought I'd better refocus my efforts and alter what I send to my Bible Study regulars. For years I have written what I call "Bible Study Guides," which address particular books of Scripture. Each offers only a basic introduction to a book, or portion of a book, and is designed to give participants a little background before we begin our in-depth coverage in our weekly sessions. About three weeks ago, I decided to try to write a new study guide (or revise and enlarge an existing one) and email them to all participants. When we get together once again, we can use these books as a good starting point. 

I decided, for reasons I cannot articulate, to focus on the 12 minor prophets...or at least a few of them. The first three study guides look at Amos, Micah, and Habakkuk. Amos was a rewrite of my Study Guide #7, originally written probably a dozen years ago. Micah (#39) and Habakkuk (#40) are both new.

If you're interested in reading them, here are links to PDF files of each:

Amos -- Micah -- Habakkuk

All other study guides, as well as those COVID reflections are available on the documents page of my Bible Study site: 

Bible Study Documents

I got a wee bit upset with YouTube because of its acquiescence to the rampant cancel culture, so I retaliated by canceling my personal YouTube pages and put my own videos on Rumble.com. You can access them there should you feel a need for penance.  Links to all my stuff are on the home page of my Bible Study website: 

Bible Study Home Page

The parish still maintains its YouTube site since it would be very hard for them to change given the number of folks who access parish videos.

Anyway, I hope those of you who read this blog will take time this Lent to increase your reading of the Bible to deepen your relationship with God and His Word.

 

COVID-19 Bible Study Reflection #18: Blessed to Be Americans

How blessed we are to be Americans!

A little over 231 years ago, on March 4, 1789, our Constitution, drafted by our founders and ratified by the states, went into effect. In the first ten amendments to that Constitution, what we call our Bill of Rights, the God-given rights of the people are protected from the government. That’s right, the Bill of Rights limits the government, not the people. It was designed to be a document, in the words of Abraham Lincoln, “of the people, by the people, for the people.” The Constitution does not celebrate the government; it celebrates the American people.

When we look at the Bill of Rights, we discover something else that reveals the priorities of the founders. To ensure future generations understood its importance, the very first of the rights guaranteed by the founders is the right of religious freedom.

The First Amendment begins with the words:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”

According to our Constitution, then, we have the right to worship freely without the threat of government interference. But because it is our Constitution, you and I, indeed all Americans, must ensure that the government we elect to do the work of the people, to do our work, must never usurp or trample on those God-given rights protected by the Constitution.

We are truly blessed to be Americans, but as the citizens of this nation, we are sovereign, and must never abdicate our sovereignty by allowing politicians and bureaucrats to rule in our stead. As Americans we are not ruled; we are represented. Those in government are called to do our work. As Christians, though, we must also live under the authority of God who is the true sovereign, the Creator of the cosmos. For us, then, His Law supersedes all human law.

It might seem like an odd choice, given the theme of this reflection, but I’d like you to turn to Matthew’s Gospel and read Mt 8:28-34. I’ve included the passage here:

When He came to the other side, to the territory  of the Gadarenes, two demoniacs who were coming from the tombs met Him. They were so savage that no one could travel by that road. They cried out, "What have you to do with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the appointed time?" Some distance away a herd of many swine was feeding. The demons pleaded with Him, "If you drive us out, send us into the herd of swine." And He said to them, "Go then!" They came out and entered the swine and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea where they drowned. The swineherds ran away, and when they came to the town, they reported everything, including what had happened to the demoniacs. Thereupon the whole town came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw Him, they begged Him to leave their district" [Mt 8:28-34].

This visit by Jesus to the land of the Gadarenes is a remarkable incident, a rare event in His public ministry. Jesus, who spent most of His public life among the Jews, here does something very different. He crosses the Sea of Galilee and enters the province of Gadara, a place populated largely by pagans. Gadara is depicted as a district especially under the sway of the Evil One – God’s name is not invoked there, His law is not obeyed – and so, we shouldn’t be surprised to find demoniacs dwelling there in their natural habitat.

It must have been a disturbing visit for the apostles, as evidenced by the fact that we hear absolutely nothing from them during the visit. We sense, however, that Jesus is showing them the kinds of challenges they will later face when they go out into the world to “make disciples of all nations” [Mt 28:19]. Until now they’ve been accustomed to people coming to Jesus for healing and instruction and forgiveness. Indeed, only moments before, as they crossed the Sea, the apostles themselves had begged Jesus to save them from the freak storm that had arisen [Mt 8:23-27].

Yes, they had heard many people pleading with Jesus for help; and had even uttered some of those pleas themselves:

Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean [Mt 8:2].

"...only say the word and my servant will be healed [Mt 8:8].

Lord, that I might see…[Lk 18:41].

Lord, save us, we are perishing [Mt 8:25].

How different were the cries they heard this day in this strange place…

What have you to do with us, Son of God? [Mt 8:29]

A remarkable question by these demons, isn’t it? How darkly urgent is their need to separate themselves from Jesus. And how do they do it? By denouncing him as the Son of God! Imagine that! Yes, in spitting out their hatred, their poison, they who lie so easily can do nothing but proclaim the truth.

We sense some tiny remnant of goodness in their nature, but one that is exclusively intellectual. They know who Jesus is. But knowledge isn’t love – something we who engage in Bible Study must always be wary of. We study Sacred Scripture not simply to expand our knowledge of our God, but rather to deepen our love for Him so we can live the life He wants for us.

The demons, though, through their own choice, have totally disfigured the beauty of their souls, a beauty created in the beginning by God. Now, no beauty remains. No moral order remains. Is it any wonder, then, that this acknowledgment of Jesus’ identity should escape from them, just as everything else does, with destructive violence?

What have you to do with us…?

What indeed can the spirit of evil have in common with the Son of God? In a sense, this question, what have we in common, is the same question the centurion asked of Jesus when he uttered, “Lord I am not worthy…” [Mt 8:8] But for the demons it’s not a matter of unworthiness, but rather a question filled with hollow pride. It’s as if they sneer at Jesus:

“How dare you come to us. Don’t you, Son of God, have better things to do? Leave us alone.”

You see, the demons can lie to everyone except to God.

“Have you come here to torment us before the appointed time?” [Mt 8:29]

These demons can’t believe that Jesus has entered this place among the tombs of the dead where evil believed itself safe from God’s Word. But now…now they know that Jesus’ redeeming work knows no boundaries. The Word of God must spread throughout the earth, and no place is exempt. How does the Apostles’ Creed put it? “He descended into hell…”

They know, too, that their hold over a portion of humanity is only temporary, for they scream at Jesus, reproaching him for coming before the kairos, before the appointed season of definitive judgment and the expulsion of the forces of evil. How odd. While they clearly know who Jesus is, and hate him for it, they appear pathetically misinformed about the extent of their authority. But in Jesus’ presence, they resign themselves to being cast out.

Unlike the centurion who saw his servant’s illness as an evil that needed Jesus’ healing intervention, these demons, having made evil the cause of their very being, find only torment in their Healer. Rather than surrender to Jesus’ healing presence, they beg Jesus to send them into a herd of pigs – a choice that reveals their true condition.

Brothers and sisters, Jesus offers each one of us healing and life. There is just one other choice, and it leads only to death. How humiliating this incident in Gadara must have been for Satan. Satan, the pure spirit, is routed by the mere presence of this Divine Person who has inexplicably humbled Himself by embracing the weakness of our human physical and psychological nature.

Yes, Satan still lurks about seeking souls who will admit him. But at the same time, in the presence of Jesus Christ, he is powerless. When Jesus is present, in our individual souls, in our community, in our nation, Satan has no power. He can do nothing.

But when a people and a nation turn away from Jesus Christ, when a people decide that the presence of God, the name of God, is an embarrassment, that the sovereignty of God is an insult to their intelligence and freedom, then they create a vacuum that Satan is only too ready to fill.

Although our nation is far from perfect, for most of its history it turned openly and willingly to God for help and guidance. “In God we trust” is still embossed on our currency. And we still pledge ourselves as “one nation, under God.” But sadly, although religious freedom is a fundamental human right, one that comes not from man but from God, much of recorded history is the story of men trying to deny it, to take it away.

Throughout our nation’s history many have given their lives so you and I can reap the benefits of religious freedom and the other rights enumerated in our Constitution. Like those who came before us and sacrificed so much to guarantee the freedoms we so often take for granted, we too are called to defend these rights. But today the greatest threat to these rights is not from foreign adversaries, but from many of those we have elected to represent us or appointed to exercise judgment.

The Church – and brothers and sisters, that’s you and me – is under attack. We face real threats to our religious liberty. Many in Congress want to force us to accept and even pay for that which violates our deepest religious and moral convictions.

The most obvious and egregious example is abortion, an evil like no other. To accept the slaughter of the most innocent among us, our own unborn children, by torturous dismemberment…well, it is simply beyond comprehension. And yet, as a nation, we have done exactly that to over 60 million Americans since 1973. Can anything be more unjust than the slaughter of these innocents?

Perhaps, as a nation, we should turn to the prophets, who repeatedly called the people of another nation, Israel, to return to the Lord before they experienced divine judgment. Amos, for example, chastised a wealthy Israel, a nation that practiced a religion without justice, pleading with all:

Seek good and not evil, that you may live; then truly the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you as you claim. Hate evil and love good, and let justice prevail at the gate; then it may be that the Lord, the God of hosts, will have pity on the remnant of Joseph. [Am 5:14-15]

"Seek the Lord that you may live..." [Am 5:5] God expects us to seek Him in all that we do. He expects us to act, so justice will prevail! You and I may think we’re not important enough for our voices to be heard, but that’s simply not true. Just consider how God has called on the weak and the obscure to be His messengers. Amos was a simple sheep herder and pruner of sycamore trees [Am 7:14], and yet, chosen by God, he courageously confronted the hypocritical and unjust leaders of Israel.

Isaiah and Jeremiah were both called from the womb to be God’s great prophets [Is 49:1; Jer 1:5]. David, the young shepherd, raised up by God to be King of his people [1 Sam 16:12]. And John the Baptist, dwelling in the desert, was destined from the moment of creation to be the herald of Jesus Christ [Mt 11:9-11].

Brothers and sisters, we too are called by God, just as Amos, Isaiah, Jeremiah, David, John, the apostles, and so many others were called from obscurity to take God’s Word to the world. Like that tiny mustard seed of the Gospel, wondrous things can come from even the smallest voice.

Today, as we face so many challenges to the most fundamental of our rights, we, you and I, must plant and nourish that seed. We must speak up. We must defend our right to religious freedom in both the public square and the ballot box. To do so is a responsibility, an obligation that derives not only from our citizenship, but even more so from our faith.

Satan would love to turn us into today’s Gadarenes, but believe me, that will not happen if we, as the People of God, as the Body of Christ, as a nation of free men and women, remain true to the One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic Church. Pray for the Spirit, dear friends, for the presence of the Holy Spirit as the guide for our nation. Where the Spirit is, so too is Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Yes, how blessed we are to be Americans. Let us pray that our children and grandchildren will always be able to say those same words.

Homily: 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

Readings: Am 8:4-7; Ps 113; 1Tim 2:1-8; Lk 16:1-13

____________________

An angel appears at a university faculty meeting and tells the dean he has come to reward him for his years of devoted service. He then asked the dean to choose one of three blessings: great wealth, great fame, or great wisdom.

Without hesitation, the dean asks for wisdom. “You got it!” says the angel, and disappears.

All heads turn toward the dean, who sits glowing in the aura of wisdom. Finally one of his colleagues whispers, “Say something wise.”

The dean looks at them and says, “I should have taken the money.”

Now that just proves that academics can be funny when they want to be.

Some years ago, when I was working at a Catholic college, I got involved in a conversation about the Gospel with an older professor. He claimed he was an agnostic and had lost his faith because he found the Bible “too depressing.” “There’s no humor in the Bible,” he said, “especially the Gospels. Everything’s about sin and damnation. And Jesus never laughs. I can’t worship a God who doesn’t have a sense of humor.”

Before I could stop myself, I blurted out, “What do you mean; He created you, didn’t he?”

Not very charitable, and certainly not the best way to evangelize, but it was a pretty good one-liner.

In truth, Scripture is full of humor, especially the Gospels. Indeed, to His 1st century audience, the humor and absurdities present in Jesus’s parables surely brought on smiles and laughter. But too many of us don’t seem to recognize this.

Like the docetists, a bunch of early heretics who thought Jesus just pretended to be human, too many Christians today seem to think Jesus was too serious to ever be humorous, to divine to be human. To our modern ears much of the humor in the Gospels is subtle – after all the four Evangelists weren’t stand-up comics – and recognizing it demands some knowledge of the culture and the times.

The parable in today’s Gospel reading from Luke is a good example. It’s really a pretty funny story. The steward Jesus describes was lazy, incompetent and dishonest, and it all finally caught up with him. His boss fired him, but first wanted a full accounting of his stewardship.

Now the steward might have been a crook, but he was remarkably honest about his own capabilities. He neither denied his sinfulness nor ignored his limitations. How did he put it? Too weak to dig ditches and too proud to beg.

And he was also a very clever crook. Looking to the future, he ingratiated himself with his boss’ debtors by reducing their debts.

Now, Jesus didn’t applaud the steward’s dishonesty, and the steward didn’t get his job back. No, the only praise for the steward is that he responded to a crisis by acting shrewdly.

The punch line of the story is where Jesus says, “…make friends for yourselves with dishonest wealth, so that when it fails, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings” [Lk 16:9]. In other words, take your assets, your gifts, your cleverness, your self-knowledge, your drive for self-preservation and spend it on that which is lasting – that which has true value – that which can’t be stolen or taken away by others. Jesus isn’t telling us to imitate the dishonesty of the steward. He’s simply telling us to use our wits by focusing on the important, lasting, holy road to salvation, a road paved with faith and acts of love.

It’s the same message we find in John’s Gospel where Jesus tells us to act fully in the world, but not to be of the world [Jn 17:11-16]. Yes, Jesus tells us: Use money, tainted as it is, to win friends, and thus make sure that when it fails you, they will welcome you into eternity.

But who are these friends? Certainly not the fair-weather friends who suddenly appear when we throw our money around. Anyway, it’s unlikely they have the power to welcome us into God’s Kingdom. And he’s not referring to the dishonest merchants described in the parable, who work on the “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours” principle.

Who, then, are the friends we should cultivate? Who will welcome us into God’s Kingdom?

The answer’s found in today’s first reading. The Prophet Amos lived almost 2,800 years ago and yet his words have lost none of their impact. He warns those who exploit the poor that the Lord sees their deeds and won’t forget them. Amos uses powerful language, accusing the exploiters of thinking they can buy up the poor as if they were just another commodity to be traded.

It’s the Gospel message pointing to what the Church calls the preferential option for the poor. Jesus announced the Good News first to the lowly, not to the great and powerful, and His public ministry continued to follow this pattern. He sought out those on society’s edges: the poor and helpless, public sinners, rejects and outcasts. His Church does the same today, continuing His ministry to the poor and rejected.

And the "poor" are not simply those deprived of material goods. The poor are those who have no defense, those who cannot help themselves, those who have only God…and God's people. Jesus didn’t neglect the rich and the powerful. He also ministered to them, but more often than not, it was to correct them, to tell them to let go of their greed, pride, and hypocrisy.

Yes, Jesus spent most of His time with the poor, and calls us to do the same. It’s among them that He carries out his ministry of healing. And it’s through us, through you and me, that He continues to encourage them and console them and heal them. These are the friends we are to cultivate – the poor and helpless of this world – for they will welcome us into the Kingdom.

There’s an echo here of Mathew’s Gospel [Mt 25] where Jesus describes the last judgment: Whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers that you do unto me. Here our Lord identifies Himself with the poorest of the poor. The disciple, then, can serve his master only by serving them.

Monsignor Ronald Knox, the great English theologian, wrote that today’s Gospel parable “is only meant to emphasize a single point--that we must make proper use of our worldly goods while we have still time to do it.”

While we still have time…I just celebrated another birthday, another reminder that I really don’t have too much time left.

While we still have time…Yes, time to gain the only thing that matters in the end: the kingdom of God.

But we must serve God’s people not just sitting in our comfortable homes writing checks. Jesus calls us to do as He did: to get up close and personal, to love as He loves, to see Christ in others and to be Christ for others. Getting close to the least of our brothers and sisters doesn’t come naturally to many of us, but it remains our calling as true disciples. And so we must call on God for the grace of His Spirit to lead us.

Yes, brothers and sisters, we are in the time of grace, we are in the time when God has mercy on us and gives unsparingly. But when, at the end of our lives, the time comes for us to appear before God, the time of grace will have ended.

And don’t forget, it was our Mother, Mary, who prophesied in the Magnificat that Jesus would lift up the lowly. It is to Mary we acknowledge our sinfulness when we surrender “the hour of our death” to her care.

We will then face the moment of divine justice. But unlike the steward in the Gospel, we don’t have to wait until the last minute. We can and should begin today.

If Jesus can love those who are despised by the world, so can we.

If Jesus can speak words of encouragement and healing to those who need it most, so can we.

If Jesus can touch the leper and forgive the sinners He encountered, so can we.

Homily: Independence Day - Wednesday, 13th Week of Ordinary Time

Readings: Amos 5:14-15, 21-24; Ps 50; Mt 8:28-34
_________________

How blessed we are to be Americans!

223 years ago, our Constitution, drafted by our founders and ratified by the states, went into effect. In the first ten amendments to that Constitution, what we call our Bill of Rights, the God-given rights of the people were protected from the government. That’s right; the Bill of Rights limits the government, not the people. It protects us from our government.

And to ensure future generations understood its importance, the very first of the rights guaranteed by the founders was the right of religious freedom. The First Amendment begins with the words:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”

And so, we have the right to worship freely without the threat of government interference.

Yes, how blessed we are to be Americans!

And how fitting, too, that today we should hear this Gospel reading from Matthew as we celebrate our independence, including our nation’s commitment to religious freedom. But before we touch on the issues that face us today, let’s first look at Matthew’s Gospel.

This visit by Jesus to the land of the Gadarenes is truly a remarkable incident, a unique event in His public ministry. Jesus, who spent virtually all of His public life among the Jews, does something very different. He crosses the Sea of Galilee and enters the province of Gadara, a place populated largely by pagans. Gadara is depicted as a district especially under the sway of the Evil One – God’s name is not invoked there, His law is not obeyed – and so we shouldn’t be surprised to find demoniacs dwelling there in their natural habitat.

It must have been a disturbing visit for the disciples, as evidenced by the fact that we hear nothing from them. They were accustomed to people coming to Jesus for healing and instruction and forgiveness. Indeed only moments before, on the way across the Sea, the disciples themselves had begged Jesus to save them from the freak storm that had arisen. Yes, they had heard many people pleading with Jesus for help; and had even
uttered some of those pleas themselves…

Heal my servant, Master…

Lord, that I might see…

Lord, save us, we are perishing…

How different were these cries for help from the cries they heard this day in this strange place…

What have you to do with us, Son of God?

"What have you to do with us, Son of God?"

What a remarkable question these demons ask. How darkly urgent is their need to separate themselves from Jesus. And how do they do it? By denouncing him as the Son of God! Imagine that! Yes, in spitting out their hatred, their poison, they can do nothing but proclaim the truth. We sense some tiny remnant of goodness in their nature, but one that is exclusively intellectual. They know who Jesus is. But knowledge isn’t love.

Through their own choice they’ve totally disfigured the beauty of their souls, a beauty created in the beginning by God. Now, no beauty remains. No moral order remains. And so this acknowledgment of Jesus’ identity escapes from them, just as everything else does, with destructive violence.

What have you to do with us?

Yes, indeed, what can the spirit of evil have in common with the Son of God? In a sense, this question, what have we in common, is the same question the centurion asked of Jesus when he uttered, “Lord I am not worthy…” But for the demons it’s not a matter of unworthiness, but rather a question filled with hollow pride:

“How dare you come to us. Don’t you, Son of God, have better things to do? Leave us alone.”

You see, the demons can lie to everyone except to God.

“Have you come here to torment us before the appointed time?”

These demons can’t believe that Jesus has entered this place among the tombs of the dead where evil believed itself safe from God’s Word. But now…now they know that Jesus’ redeeming work knows no boundaries. The Word of God must spread throughout the earth, and no place is exempt. They know, too, that their hold over a portion of humanity is only temporary, for they scream at Jesus, reproaching him for coming before the kairos, before the appointed season of definitive judgment and the expulsion of the forces of evil.

How odd. While they clearly know who Jesus is, and hate him for it, they appear pathetically misinformed about the extent of their authority. And so they resign themselves to being cast out. But unlike the centurion who saw his servant’s illness as an evil that needed Jesus’ healing intervention, these demons, having made evil the cause of their very being, find only torment in their Healer. Rather than surrender to Jesus’ healing presence, they beg Jesus to send them into a herd of pigs – a choice that reveals their true condition.

Brothers and sisters, Jesus offers each one of us healing and life. There is just one other choice, and it leads only to death.

How humiliating this must have been for Satan. Satan, the pure spirit, is routed by the mere presence of this Divine Person who embraces the weakness of our human physical and psychological nature. And Satan still lurks about seeking souls who will admit him. But at the same time, in the presence of Jesus Christ, he is powerless. When Jesus is present, in our individual souls, in our families, in our parish, in our community, in our nation, Satan has no power. He can do nothing.

But when a people and a nation turn away from Jesus Christ, when a people decides that the presence of God is an embarrassment, that the name of God is an insult to their intelligence and freedom…then they create a vacuum that Satan is only too ready to fill.

For most of its history our nation turned openly and willingly to God for help and guidance. “In God we trust” is still embossed on our currency. And we still pledge ourselves as “one nation, under God.” But sadly, although religious freedom is a fundamental human right, one that comes not from man but from God, much of recorded history is the story of men trying to deny it, to take it away.

Throughout the history of our own country many have sacrificed their lives so you and I can reap the benefits of religious freedom and the other rights enumerated in our Constitution. But even today, these rights are threatened, and sadly by our own federal government. The Department of Health and Human Services has mandated that the private health care plans of Catholic institutions must cover sterilization, abortion-inducing drugs, and contraception. And so the Church – and brothers and sisters, that’s you and me – faces a severe attack on our religious liberty by forcing us to pay for that which violates our deepest religious and moral convictions. This mandate, then, first and foremost, is an attack on religious freedom.

Like those who came before us and sacrificed so much to guarantee the freedom that you and I take for granted, we too are called to defend these rights. As the prophet Amos told the people of Israel in our first reading: “Seek good and not evil, that you may live… let justice prevail.” God expects us to act, brothers and sisters, so justice will prevail!

You and I may think we’re not important enough for our voices to be heard, but that’s simply not true.  Just consider how God has called on the weak and the obscure to be His messengers.

Consider Amos, the simple sheep herder of our first reading, the pruner of sycamore trees, and how he bravely confronts the hypocritical and unjust leaders of Israel.

Isaiah and Jeremiah, both called from the womb to be God’s great prophets.

David, the young shepherd, raised up by God to be King of his people.

John the Baptist, dwelling in the desert, but destined from the moment of creation to be the herald of Jesus Christ.

Brothers and sisters, we too are called by God, just as Amos, Isaiah, Jeremiah, David and John were called from obscurity to take God’s word to the world. Like that tiny mustard seed in the Gospel, wondrous things can come from even the smallest voice. Today, as we face this challenge to the most fundamental of our rights, you and I are that seed. We must speak up. We must defend our right to religious freedom, in both the public square and the ballot box. Doing so is a responsibility, an obligation that derives not only from our citizenship, but even more so from our faith.

Satan would love to turn us into another land of the Gadarenes, but believe me, that will not happen if we, as the People of God, as the Body of Christ, as a nation of free men and women, turn always to Jesus Christ as our sole guide, as our Lord and Savior.

Yes, how blessed we are to be Americans.

Let us pray that our children and grandchildren will always be able to say those same words.