Trample my courts no more! Bring no more worthless offerings; your incense is loathsome to me. New moon and sabbath, calling of assemblies, octaves with wickedness: these I cannot bear. Your new moons and festivals I detest; they weigh me down, I tire of the load. When you spread out your hands, I close my eyes to you; Though you pray the more,
I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood! Wash yourselves clean! Put away your misdeeds from before my eyes; cease doing evil; learn to do good. Make justice your aim: redress the wronged, hear the orphan’s plea, defend the widow. (Is 1:10-17)
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/071524.cfm
It wasn’t that the nation wasn’t religious. On the contrary, it was super religious . . . but its hands were full of blood, as the prophet says. How to become clean? Learn to do good, make justice your aim, redress the wronged, hear the orphan’s plea, defend the widow. Justice and the corporal works of mercy are not optional. They are the sine qua non of being religious. Saint Bonaventure teaches the church that we ought use the brains God gave us in order to understand the world around us and praise the Creator.
These reflections are a result of more than 40 years of ministry as a Roman Catholic priest. Most of these years I spent in the Diocese of Charlotte which covers Western North Carolina. Now I am retired, and live in Medellín, Colombia where I continue to serve as a priest in the Archdiocese of Medellín.
Saint Bonaventure, bishop & doctor, July 15
