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.
There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test Jesus and said, "Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus said to him, "What is written in the law? How do you read it?" He said in reply, "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself." He replied to him, "You have answered correctly; do this and you will live." But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" (Lk 10:25-37)
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/071022.cfm
Who is my neighbor? Well, what follows is the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Of course, Jesus turns the world upside down and ruins a perfectly good anti-clerical joke (the priest and the levite ignore the man in the ditch) by having the man’s enemy (the Samaritan) be the one who saves his life.
In the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne, with the train of his garment filling the temple. Seraphim were stationed above; each of them had six wings: with two they veiled their faces, with two they veiled their feet, and with two they hovered aloft. They cried one to the other, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts! All the earth is filled with his glory!” At the sound of that cry, the frame of the door shook and the house was filled with smoke. Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?” “Here I am,” I said; “send me!” (Is 6:1-8)
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/070922.cfm
Today we begin reading the book of the Prophet Isaiah in the daily Mass. The call of Isaiah is impressive . . . as well as the message the prophet brings of the God who comes to save us.
Return, O Israel, to the LORD, your God. “For in you the orphan finds compassion.” I will heal their defection, says the LORD, I will love them freely; for my wrath is turned away from them. I will be like the dew for Israel: he shall blossom like the lily. (Hos 14:2-10)
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/070822.cfm
The conclusion of the prophecy of Hosea is a promise of God’s salvation, revealed in justice: God has compassion on the orphan.
Thus says the LORD: When Israel was a child I loved him, out of Egypt I called my son. Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk, who took them in my arms; I drew them with human cords, with bands of love; I fostered them like one who raises an infant to his cheeks; Yet, though I stooped to feed my child, they did not know that I was their healer. I fostered them like one who raises an infant to his cheeks; Yet, though I stooped to feed my child, they did not know that I was their healer. (Hos 11:1-4; 8E-9)
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/070722.cfm
Some of the most tender images in all the Scriptures . . . that’s how God is with us, the God who teaches us to walk, the God who heals.
“Sow for yourselves justice, reap the fruit of piety; break up for yourselves a new field, for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain down justice upon you.” (Hos 10:1-3, 7-8, 12)
Jesus sent out these Twelve after instructing them thus, “As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.’” (Mt 10:1-7)
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/070622.cfm
The message is NOT “Repent, this is the end of the world!” but rather “NOW is the time to seek the Lord so that justice may come upon us.” The message is not “threat”, but rather “salvation”.
