Wednesday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Scripture Reading -

Hate evil and love good.  Surely, most us believe this wisdom.  When we hear such wisdom we often nod our heads in agreement.  The words wash over us like an unfailing stream, but do they sink in beyond the surface? 

For the people in the time of Amos the prophet’s words seemed agreeable enough.  Until they realized that he was criticizing their worship of prosperity and false gods.  When Amos prophesized the fall of the royal house and the captivity of the people, it was more than anyone could tolerate.  Amos was finally exiled from the northern kingdom.  Yet his poetic message still echoes today.  When our discipleship offers only lip service to God, God receives precisely that, lip service.

Honesty and the ability to be genuine are not easy.  In today’s gospel, Jesus encounters two people possessed by demons.  Ironically, the demons recognize the holiness of the Messiah and perceive that he will drive them out of their current victims.  So they ask Jesus if they could be driven into a herd of swine, perhaps figuring that they could wait there until Jesus was gone and repossess others later.  If such a plan existed, we do not know nor does the narrator of the story, who gives us little clue as to why the demons even asked for such treatment.  All Jesus said in this whole story was “Go then!” (Mt 8:32a)  With that command, the demons entered the swine and the swine charged into the sea to drown.  That swine were being tended here indicates that Jesus was in an area that had a gentile population.  This could explain why the swine herders and the towns’ people ironically reacted to Jesus, the way he had to the demons.  This story ends with the whole town saying to Jesus, ‘go then’ please leave of us.  If the people of that gentile village had understood who Jesus was, would they have reacted differently?  How is Christ presented in our own lives and do we invite him in or send him away?

Lord may your justice be like an unfailing wave that draws us constantly into Your love.   Help us always to be dependent on You so that one daywe will be one with You who lives and reigns one God, forever and ever.  Amen.

-Michael Montgomery