HOMILY FOR TWENTY-FIFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (C)

Fr Billy Swan

Dear friends. If you look closely at the next news story that comes from the Special Criminal Court in Dublin, you will notice the figure of a woman holding a scales on the wall outside the court. From ancient times, scales were used to measure the weight of goods in return for the money they were worth. The symbol of scales has been also used as the image of justice which is defined as ‘giving someone their due’. We see that in the first reading today from the prophet Amos.

In that first reading, the prophet Amos is furious because the greed of some has caused the poor to be deprived of justice. They have, as Amos puts it, ‘tampered with the scales’. In speaking up, Amos was one of many prophets who risked their safety to defend the poor and those deprived of justice. For any religious people of their time, the prophets warned them that if they trampled on the poor or ignored them, then God would act on behalf of the poor and see justice done.

From the life of Jesus, we see this in action. The Lord was born into poverty and throughout his life, he showed a special love for the poor, the outcast and marginalised. With his parables and teaching he proclaimed that both mercy and justice are central in the Kingdom of God. God’s presence is not static but actively works to establish justice and right order. Mary sings of this truth in her Magnificat that ‘the Lord fills the staving with good things and sends the rich away empty’. But he also is ‘merciful on those who fear him’. With his death as an innocent man, Jesus subjected himself to the greatest injustice of all. But with his resurrection, justice triumphed over injustice and love over hate.

From our baptism, we Christians have received his Spirit of mercy but also his Spirit of justice. We are called to share in his passion to put things right or to balance the scales again. If I am doing well but others are deprived, as a Christian, I can never be fully at peace. Like Christ, I must carry this spirit of justice into all areas of life – from filling out my tax returns, to telling the truth, to fair play on the sporting field, to an interest in the laws of our country and how wealth is distributed fairly – all of these are areas of great importance and cry out for the contribution of Christians with a sharp social conscience who are willing to fight for a better and more just world. 

As the season of creation comes to a close, one area that ought to be of particular concern for us today is climate justice. Take for example Ethiopia where climate change is causing a terrible drought as in other countries such as Somalia and Kenya in the horn of Africa. Ethiopia produces only 0.03% of the world’s carbon emissions compared to Ireland’s 0.11%. Yet, Ethiopia’s population is 20 times greater than Ireland. Here is injustice that ought to rattle us and move us to address it.

We are inspired by the saints of justice whose love for Jesus Christ drove them to change the course of history. These are the witnesses of authentic faith which is never comfortable or completely personal but always involves a deep desire to leave this earth somehow better than we found it. I think here of St Oscar Romero, St Teresa of Calcutta, Dorothy Day, St John Paul II, St Thomas More and Martin Luther King whose ‘I have a dream speech’ and fight for civil rights was inspired by the prophet Amos. Here in Ireland, we think of Peter McVerry, St. Stanislaus, the work of St Vincent de Paul and so many others who not only try to help the poor but to ask why they are poor in the first place. When it comes to Ireland, the words of James Connolly also shake us out of our comfort: ‘the one who is bubbling over with love and enthusiasm for Ireland and can yet pass unmoved through our streets and witness all the wrong and suffering…without burning to end it, is, in my opinion, a fraud and a liar in his heart’.

I conclude with the words of the late Pope Francis who said that ‘A Christian who in these times is not a revolutionary is no Christian’. God wants to put things right, raise the poor and balance the scales through us. If not us, who? If not here, where? If not now, when? Join that revolution - today.