Pursuing Justice (25th Sunday of Ordinary Time)

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Amos lived in the northern kingdom of Israel around the 8^th century BC. God commissioned him as a prophet to warn Israel of their impending punishment for breaking God’s law. Among their many sins included idolatry, trusting in foreign powers rather than God, and various economic injustices.

Today’s reading focuses on the injustice of Israel’s merchants. They seek to defraud the poor by using dishonest scales to cheat them in their business deals. They also show no regard for the Sabbath, as they wait impatiently for the Sabbath to end so that they may resume business. Most of all, they devour the poor by buying them and enslaving them.

Because of this, God declared that He would destroy Israel. The verses following our reading describe His punishment:

“And on that day,” says the Lord God, 
“I will make the sun go down at noon,
and darken the earth in broad daylight.
I will turn your feasts into mourning,
and all your songs into lamentation;
I will bring sackcloth upon all loins,
and baldness on every head;
I will make it like the mourning for an only son,
and the end of it like a bitter day. (Amos 8:9-10)

We know from history that punishment did come upon Israel: In 720 BC, King Sargon II conquered the remaining territory of the northern kingdom, including its capital Samaria. Thus, Israel was put to an end (cf. 1 Kings 17).

This reading teaches us that God is concerned with justice, fairness, and care for the poor. He gave his Law as a means of ensuring justice among the people of Israel. The principles found in it are still relevant today, as they teach us how to pursue justice, and God still expects us to pursue justice for our neighbour, especially the poor. As He says elsewhere in Amos:

But let justice roll down like waters,
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. (Amos 5:24)

J. Luis Dizon