Catholic Caucus: Daily Mass Readings 1-July-2026

Matthew
	English: Douay-Rheims	Latin: Vulgata Clementina	Greek NT: Byzantine/Majority Text (2000)
	Matthew 8
28.	And when he was come on the other side of the water, into the country of the Gerasens, there met him two that were possessed with devils, coming out of the sepulchres, exceeding fierce, so that none could pass by that way.	Et cum venisset trans fretum in regionem Gerasenorum, occurrerunt ei duo habentes dæmonia, de monumentis exeuntes, sævi nimis, ita ut nemo posset transire per viam illam.	και ελθοντι αυτω εις το περαν εις την χωραν των γεργεσηνων υπηντησαν αυτω δυο δαιμονιζομενοι εκ των μνημειων εξερχομενοι χαλεποι λιαν ωστε μη ισχυειν τινα παρελθειν δια της οδου εκεινης
29.	And behold they cried out, saying: What have we to do with thee, Jesus Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time?	Et ecce clamaverunt, dicentes : Quid nobis et tibi, Jesu fili Dei ? Venisti huc ante tempus torquere nos ?	και ιδου εκραξαν λεγοντες τι ημιν και σοι ιησου υιε του θεου ηλθες ωδε προ καιρου βασανισαι ημας
30.	And there was, not far from them, an herd of many swine feeding.	Erat autem non longe ab illis grex multorum porcorum pascens.	ην δε μακραν απ αυτων αγελη χοιρων πολλων βοσκομενη
31.	And the devils besought him, saying: If thou cast us out hence, send us into the herd of swine.	Dæmones autem rogabant eum, dicentes : Si ejicis nos hinc, mitte nos in gregem porcorum.	οι δε δαιμονες παρεκαλουν αυτον λεγοντες ει εκβαλλεις ημας επιτρεψον ημιν απελθειν εις την αγελην των χοιρων
32.	And he said to them: Go. But they going out went into the swine, and behold the whole herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea: and they perished in the waters.	Et ait illis : Ite. At illi exeuntes abierunt in porcos, et ecce impetu abiit totus grex per præceps in mare : et mortui sunt in aquis.	και ειπεν αυτοις υπαγετε οι δε εξελθοντες απηλθον εις την αγελην των χοιρων και ιδου ωρμησεν πασα η αγελη των χοιρων κατα του κρημνου εις την θαλασσαν και απεθανον εν τοις υδασιν
33.	And they that kept them fled: and coming into the city, told every thing, and concerning them that had been possessed by the devils.	Pastores autem fugerunt : et venientes in civitatem, nuntiaverunt omnia, et de eis qui dæmonia habuerant.	οι δε βοσκοντες εφυγον και απελθοντες εις την πολιν απηγγειλαν παντα και τα των δαιμονιζομενων
34.	And behold the whole city went out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him, they besought him that he would depart from their coasts.	Et ecce tota civitas exiit obviam Jesu : et viso eo, rogabant ut transiret a finibus eorum.	και ιδου πασα η πολις εξηλθεν εις συναντησιν τω ιησου και ιδοντες αυτον παρεκαλεσαν οπως μεταβη απο των οριων αυτων

Catena Aurea by St. Thomas Aguinas

8:28–34

28. And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way.

29. And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time?

30. And there was a good way off from them an herd of many swine feeding.

31. So the devils besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine.

32. And he said unto them, Go. And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine: and, behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters.

33. And they that kept them fled, and went their ways into the city, and told every thing, and what was befallen to the possessed of the devils.

34. And, behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus: and when they saw him, they besought him that he would depart out of their coasts.

CHRYSOSTOM. Because there were who thought Christ to be a man, therefore the dæmons came to proclaim His divinity, that they who had not seen the sea raging and again still, might hear the dæmons crying; And when he was come to the other side in the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two men having dæmons.

RABANUS. Gerasa is a town of Arabia beyond Jordan, close to Mount Gilead, which was in the possession of the tribe of Manasseh, not far from the lake of Tiberias, into which the swine were precipitated.

AUGUSTINE. (De Cons. Ev. ii. 24.) Whereas Matthew relates that there were two who were afflicted with dæmons, but Mark and Luke mention only one, you must understand that one of them was a person of note, for whom all that country was in grief, and about whose recovery there was much care, whence the fame of this miracle was the more noised abroad.

CHRYSOSTOM. Or; Luke and Mark chose to speak of one who was more grievously afflicted; whence also they add a further description of his calamity; Luke saying that he brake his bonds and was driven into the desert; Mark telling that he ofttimes cut himself with stones. But they neither of them say that there was only one, which would be to contradict Matthew. What is added respecting them that they came from among the tombs, alludes to a mischievous opinion, that the souls of the dead become dæmons. Thus many soothsayers use to kill children, that they may have their souls to cooperate with them; and dæmoniacs also often cry out, I am the spirit of such an one. But it is not the soul of the dead man that then cries out, the dæmon assumes his voice to deceive the hearers. For if the soul of a dead man has power to enter the body of another, much more might it enter its own. And it is more unreasonable to suppose that a soul that has suffered cruelty should cooperate with him that injured it, or that a man should have power to change an incorporeal being into a different kind of substance, such as a human soul into the substance of a dæmon. For even in material body, this is beyond human power; as, for example, no man can change the body of a man into that of an ass. And it is not reasonable to think that a disembodied spirit should wander to and fro on the earth. The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, (Wisd. 3:1.) therefore those of young children must be so, seeing they are not evil. And the souls of sinners are at once conveyed away from hence, as is clear from Lazarus, and the rich man. Because none dared to bring them to Christ because of their fierceness, therefore Christ goes to them. This their fierceness is intimated when it is added, Exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass that way. So they who hindered all others from passing that way, found one now standing in their way. For they were tortured in an unseen manner, suffering intolerable things from the mere presence of Christ. And, lo, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of David?

JEROME. This is no voluntary confession followed up by a reward to the utterer, but one extorted by the compulsion of necessity. A runaway slave, when after long time he first beholds his master, straight thinks only of deprecating the scourge; so the dæmons, seeing the Lord suddenly moving upon the earth, thought He was come to judge them. Some absurdly suppose, that these dæmons knew the Son of God, while the Devil knew Him not, because their wickedness was less than his. But all the knowledge of the disciple must be supposed in the Master.

AUGUSTINE. (De Civ. Dei, ix. 21.) God was so far known to them as it was His pleasure to be known; and He pleased to be known so far as it was needful. He was known to them therefore not as He is Life eternal, and the Light which enlightens the good, but by certain temporal effects of His excellence, and signs of His hidden presence, which are visible to angelic spirits though evil, rather than to the infirmity of human nature.

JEROME. But both the Devil and the dæmons may be said to have rather suspected, than known, Jesus to be the Son of God.

PSEUDO-AUGUSTINE. (Hil. Quæst. V. et N. T. 9, 66.) When the dæmons cry out, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? (1 Cor. 2:8.) we must suppose them to have spoken from suspicion rather than knowledge. For had they known him, they never would have suffered the Lord of glory to be crucified.

REMIGIUS. But as often as they were tortured by His excellent power, and saw Him working signs and miracles, they supposed Him to be the Son of God; when they saw Him hungry and thirsty, and suffering such things, they doubted, and thought Him mere man. It should be considered that even the unbelieving Jews when they said that Christ cast out dæmons in Beelzebub, and the Arians who said that He was a creature, deserve condemnation not only on God’s sentence, but on the confession of the dæmons, who declare Christ to be the Son of God. Rightly do they say, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? that is, our malice and Thy grace have nothing in common, according to that the Apostle speaks, There is no fellowship of light with darkness. (2 Cor. 6:14.)

CHRYSOSTOM. That this should not be thought to be flattery, they cry out what they were experiencing, Art thou come to torment us before the time?

AUGUSTINE. (De Civ. Dei, viii. 23.) Either because that came upon them unexpectedly, which they looked for indeed, but supposed more distant; or because they thought their perdition consisted in this, that when known they would be despised; or because this was before the day of judgment, when they should be punished with eternal damnation.

JEROME. For the presence of the Saviour is the torment of dæmons.

CHRYSOSTOM. They could not say they had not sinned, because Christ had found them doing evil, and marring the workmanship of God; whence they supposed that for their more abundant wickedness the time of the last punishment which shall be at the day of judgment should not be tarried for to punish them.

AUGUSTINE. (De. Cons. Ev. ii. 24.) Though the words of the dæmons are variously reported by the three Evangelists, yet this is no difficulty; for they either all convey the same sense, or may be supposed to have been all spoken. Nor again because in Matthew they speak in the plural, in the others in the singular number; because even the other two Evangelists relate that when asked his name, he answered, Legion, shewing that the dæmons were many. Now there was not far from thence a herd of many swine feeding; and the dæmons prayed him, saying, If thou cast us out hence, send us into the swine.

GREGORY. (Mor. ii. 10.) For the Devil knows that of himself he has no power to do any thing, because it is not of himself that he exists as a spirit.

REMIGIUS. They did not ask to be sent into men, because they saw Him by whose excellence they were tortured existing in human shape. Nor did they ask to be sent into sheep, because sheep are by God’s institution clean animals, and were then offered in the temple of God. But they requested to be sent into the swine rather than into any of the other unclean animals, because this is of all animals the most unclean; whence also it has its name ‘porcus,’ as being ‘spurcus,’ filthy, and delighting in filthiness; and dæmons also delight in the filthiness of sin. They did not pray that they might be sent into the air, because of their eager desire of hurting men. And he saith unto them, Go.

CHRYSOSTOM. Jesus did not say this, as though persuaded by the dæmons, but with many designs1 therein. One, that He might shew the mighty power to hurt of these dæmons, who were in possession of the two men; another, that all might see that they had no power against the swine unless by His sufferance; thirdly, to shew that they would have done more grievous hurt to the men, had they not even in their calamities been aided by Divine Providence, for they hate men more than irrational animals. By this it is manifest that there is no man who is not supported by Divine Providence; and if all are not equally supported by it, neither after one manner, this is the highest characteristic of Providence, that it is extended to each man according to his need. Besides the above-mentioned things, we learn also that He cares not only for the whole together, but for each one in particular; which one may see clearly in these dæmoniacs, who would have been long before choked in the deep, had not Divine care preserved them. He also permitted them to go into the herd of swine, that they that dwelt in those parts might know His power. For where He was known to none, there He makes His miracles to shine forth, that He may bring them to a confession of His divinity.

JEROME. The Saviour bade them go, not as yielding to their request, but that by the death of the swine, an occasion of man’s salvation might be offered. But they went out, (to wit, out of the men,) and went into the swine; and, lo, the whole herd rushed violently headlong into the sea, and perished in the waters. Let Manichæus blush; if the souls of men and of beasts be of one substance, and one origin, how should two thousand swine have perished for the sake of the salvation of two men?

CHRYSOSTOM. The dæmons destroyed the swine because they are ever striving to bring men into distress, and rejoice in destruction. The greatness of the loss also added to the fame of that which was done; for it was published by many persons; namely, by the men that were healed, by the owners of the swine, and by those that fed them; as it follows, But they that fed them fled, and went into the town, and told all, and concerning them that had the dæmons; and, behold, the whole town went out to meet Jesus. But when they should have adored Him, and wondered at His excellent power, they cast Him from them, as it follows, And when they saw him, they besought him that he would depart out of their coasts. Observe the clemency of Christ next to His excellent power; when those who had received favours from Him would drive Him away, He resisted not, but departed, and left those who thus pronounced themselves unworthy of His teaching, giving them as teachers those who had been delivered from the dæmons, and the feeders of the swine.

JEROME. Otherwise; This request may have proceeded from humility as well as pride; like Peter, they may have held themselves unworthy of the Lord’s presence, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. (Luke 5:8.)

RABANUS. Gerasa is interpreted ‘casting out the dweller,’ or, ‘a stranger approaching;’ this is the Gentile world which cast out the Devil from it; and which was first far off, but now made near, after the resurrection being visited by Christ through His preachers.

AMBROSE. (in Luc. 8. 30.) The two dæmoniacs are also a type of the Gentile world; for Noah having three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japhet, Shem’s posterity alone was taken into the inheritance of God, while from the other two sprang the nations of the Gentiles.

HILARY. Thus the dæmons held the two men among the tombs without the town, that is, without the synagogue of the Law and the Prophets; that is, they infested the original seats of the two nations, the abodes of the dead, making the way of this present life dangerous to the passers by.

RABANUS. It is not without cause that he speaks of them as dwelling among the tombs; for what else are the bodies of the faithless but sepulchres of the dead, in which the word of God dwells not, but there is enclosed the soul dead in sins. He says, So that no man might pass through that way, because before the coming of the Saviour the Gentile world was inaccessible. Or, by the two, understand both Jews and Gentiles, who did not abide in the house, that is, did not rest in their conscience. But they abode in tombs, that is, delighted themselves in dead works, and suffered no man to pass by the way of faith, which way the Jews obstructed.

HILARY. By their coming forth to meet Him is signified the willingness of men flocking to the faith. The dæmons seeing that there is no longer any place left for them among the Gentiles, pray that they may be suffered to dwell among the heretics; these, seized by them, are drowned in the sea, that is, in worldly desires, by the instigations of the dæmons, and perish in the unbelief of the rest of the Gentiles.

BEDE. (in Luc. 8.) Or; The swine are they that delight in filthy manners; for unless one live as a swine, the devils do not receive power over him; or at most, only to try him, not to destroy him. That the swine were sent headlong into the lake, signifies, that when the people of the Gentiles are delivered from the condemnation of the dæmons, yet still they who would not believe in Christ, perform their profane rites in secret, drowned in a blind and deep curiosity. That they that fed the swine, fled and told what was done, signifies that even the leaders of the wicked though they shun the law of Christianity, yet cease not to proclaim the wonderful power of Christ. When struck with terror, they entreat Him to depart from them, they signify a great number who, well satisfied with their ancient life, shew themselves willing to honour the Christian law, while they declare themselves unable to perform it.

HILARY. Or; The town is a type of the Jewish nation, which having heard of Christ’s works goes forth to meet its Lord, to forbid Him to approach their country and town; for they have not received the Gospel.

Catena Aurea Matthew 8

The quintessential American saint who was never an American

St. Junípero Serra was fifty-six years old when he began the greatest adventure of his life: the establishment and re-establishment of missions in what is now California.

The statue of St. Junipero Serra outside the California State Capitol. (Credit: Nathan Hughes Hamilton/flickr)

Junípero Serra Ferrer, OFM, died on August 28, 1784, almost seven decades before California became a U.S. state. But it is certainly fitting for Catholics to consider him an American saint. After all, he lived a holy life as a missionary priest in unexplored territory in the American West. Learning the facts about his life only makes it easier for us to point out the many flaws in modern attacks on the value of his accomplishments.

He was born in 1713 on Mallorca, an island about 125 miles off the coast of Spain. His parents, who were poor but faithful Catholics, gave him the name of Miguel José Serra Ferrer. They sent their fifteen-year-old son to study at the university in the capital city of Palma, and two years later, he entered the Franciscan order. He took the name of Junípero in religious life, after the famous disciple of Saint Francis of Assisi.

Young Junípero longed to bring the Good News of Jesus Christ to people who had never heard the Gospel. However, he had proved himself to be such an excellent student that his superiors decided that he could best serve the Franciscan order at a desk in Spain rather than in a faraway country. For several years, Junípero obediently worked as a scholar and theology professor. But he periodically reminded his superiors of his willingness to go anywhere they wanted to send him as a missionary.

For two centuries before Junípero’s birth, Europeans had been exploring North and South America, and Spain controlled what is now Mexico. While many people in Spain primarily saw the Americas as a source of wealth, the Church was more concerned about the millions of native Americans who did not know Jesus Christ.

With the miraculous assistance of Our Lady of Guadalupe in 1531, millions of native Americans embraced the Gospel. Over the years, Spanish explorers continued to find native tribes as they traveled throughout the uncharted territory of New Spain. While soldiers were looking for assets for the Spanish Crown, the missionary priests who accompanied them were looking for souls to win for Christ.

Junípero dutifully spent more than a decade as a scholar, convincing many in Spain of his intellectual gifts. Finally, at the age of thirty-six, the order sent him to Mexico. His voyage by ship took much longer than usual, and he and his companions faced hunger, thirst, and a terrible storm before they safely reached the New World.

When he finally arrived in Veracruz, Father Junípero chose to walk 300 miles to Mexico City rather than ride on horseback out of obedience to the Franciscan rule. (Some might argue that Saint Francis’ prohibition of traveling by horse except in extreme circumstances was more appropriate for settled European countries than for the unexplored wilderness of the New World.) As he walked, Serra was bitten by something; some sources say it was a snake, while others say it was a mosquito. He survived the bite, but he walked with a limp for the rest of his life as a result.

Several months later, Junípero and Franciscan priest Francisco Palóu (who became his longtime companion and later wrote his biography) were sent to live in a mission serving the Pame Indians in the Sierra Gorda mountains. Many of the Pame had been baptized, but they had been without a priest for some time. Serra and Palóu had to first learn the language of the Pame, and then Serra wrote a simple catechism for them in their own language.

Serra, who had been raised on a farm, taught the men about farm work, crops, and animal husbandry. The women were happy to learn about spinning, weaving, and sewing so they could make clothing for themselves and their families. The friars also helped native farmers learn how to trade their goods at a local market and protected them from being cheated. While the Pame had been hunter-gatherers before the arrival of the Spaniards, they had already recognized the advantages of living in the mission rather than outside it. That is, native families were able to live in better homes, they were protected from danger, and they were able to grow enough food to last them through the winter.

Although Serra showed himself to be an excellent administrator in this mission and others, he was, first and foremost, a priest. Having mastered the Pame’s language, he frequently and movingly preached to his flock about Christ’s suffering and man’s sinfulness. Today, we might say his approach as a homilist was overly emotional, but it was his approach, and it worked. Serra also helped his people incarnate their faith by teaching them to sing hymns, reenacting the Nativity story with them, and holding devotional processions of the Stations of the Cross.

Serra was assigned to other missions and large cities over the next two decades. He developed a reputation as a grave, simple, and direct man. He was also a stern reformer who had little tolerance for bad Catholics, particularly among the rich. For example, he was particularly annoyed by the widespread practice of wealthy ladies being served hot chocolate by their servants during Mass. Out of modesty, Fr. Serra rarely interacted with women, which made him seem distant and did not earn their affection. But even his detractors admired his ascetic personal life, sincerity, and courage in confronting injustice.

Serra was fifty-six years old when he began the greatest adventure of his life: the establishment and re-establishment of missions in what is now California.

While both Franciscan and Jesuit missionaries had been serving in the New World for many years, it was the Jesuits who had established many missions in Lower California. However, in 1767, King Charles III of Spain banished Jesuits from Spain and Spanish colonies. After the Jesuits obediently left these territories, Franciscans were sent to replace them.

For the rest of his long life, Serra accompanied expeditions throughout California. Each expedition typically included a division of soldiers, along with farmers, artisans, and Franciscan friars. Under the direction of the highest-ranking military officer, the group would travel to existing missions or establish new ones and develop a relationship with the nearest native tribes. These bases had military significance for Spain, of course. But it was hoped that the territory would become self-sufficient by growing crops on the fertile land of California. Under Serra’s leadership, the missions eventually not only produced enough food to be self-supporting, they were able to trade with cities in Mexico with their surplus.

Serra had mixed relationships with the military leaders to whom he was assigned. All of them, as Spaniards, respected him as a priest and as the leader of the Franciscans. Some recognized his insights into the native peoples and accepted his advice. Others were more concerned about their careers than about the rights of the Indians. Serra constantly fought for the native peoples to be treated with respect. During one particularly contentious disagreement with the military commander, he traveled all the way back to Mexico. There he laid his case before the Spanish viceroy, who quickly decided in Serra’s favor on almost every point.

Unlike the native Americans in the northeastern U.S., the natives of California were not typically warlike. However, the mild climate also made them somewhat careless about obtaining food. It was a slower process to teach them the benefits of learning agriculture and trades, as Serra had done in Mexico.

The men also walked around completely nude. (The friars were relieved to discover that the women, at least, wore clothing.) While the friars respected their cultural traditions, some traditions—such as stealing, superstition, and polygamy—couldn’t be ignored. Serra also served as a peacemaker to prevent and settle occasional flare-ups of violence between soldiers and the native peoples.

Serra is credited with founding nine missions in California, and he had a good eye for identifying the best location. That’s why people today have heard of some of his most important missions: San Diego, San Francisco, San Luis Obispo, and Santa Clara. Most importantly to him, thousands of Indians were baptized and confirmed under his leadership.

By 1784, the seventy-one-year-old friar had earned the love of the native peoples and the respect of the Spaniards. He knew when death was drawing near and patiently prepared for it. He accepted the ineffective treatments proposed by the doctors and died a holy death on August 28. (His feast is celebrated on July 1 in the U.S.) Afterwards, those who had known him were so convinced of his holiness that a guard had to be placed near his body to try to prevent people from snipping relics from his tattered habit.

Although he was beatified in 1988 and canonized in 2015, some have complained in recent years about Serra’s legacy. There was even a spate of decapitations of statues of Serra in 2017 and 2020. These voices claim that because of Serra and other Spanish settlers in California, the native peoples were forced to abandon their spiritual practices and traditional way of life.

It is clear that Serra and the friars respected native cultures and did their best to adapt the Gospel message to those cultures, not to destroy them. For a Christian, it is clear that the offer of eternal salvation is the greatest of all gifts, greater than the unclear benefits of superstitions and taboos. As for the changes to their traditional way of life, well, it is hard to see how the native peoples benefited from their higher rates of starvation and malnutrition before they learned farming techniques.

Others complain that thousands of natives died from diseases, such as smallpox, which were brought by the Europeans. However, there is no evidence that Spaniards intentionally tried to kill native Americans through sickness. The only way to prevent that sad outcome would have been—and remains—the prohibition of all international travel.

The worst period for the native peoples of California began decades after Serra’s death. As the mission system fell apart and the native peoples no longer had the protection of a leader like Serra, they were deprived of their land, died from exposure and diseases, and were in constant conflict with settlers.

On the other hand, one may validly complain that Junípero Serra often treated the native Americans like children. He saw himself as their spiritual father, after all. Yet, in some ways, they were like children. Completely unaware of Spanish law and lacking in authority, they needed someone with diplomatic skills to protect them from abuse and mistreatment, someone who could peacefully and effectively demand that they be treated with human dignity. In that role, Serra was essential, even if he was not always able to make soldiers behave like Christians.

Serra’s fatherly patience extended to more mundane situations. For example, when members of a tribe stole his eyeglasses from him—something that he could not live without and could not replace in the California wilderness—he did not retaliate or lose his temper. He realized that they did not know any better.

For all these reasons, Saint Junípero Serra was a true American saint even before there was an America. He was an eager pioneer a century before wagon trains crossed the Rocky Mountains. He insisted on justice, even though he was far from any European judge. And he lived out his belief that all men (and women) are created equal, in God’s sight.

catholicworldreport.com

NAVARRE BIBLE COMMENTARY(RSV)

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (To the Greater Glory of God)

Today’s First Reading

From: Amos 5:14-15, 21-24

Exhortation
-----------------
[14] Seek good, and not evil,
that you may live;
and so the Lord, the god of hosts, will be with you,
as you have said.
[15] Hate evil, and love good,
and establish justice in the gate;
it may be that the Lord, the god of hosts,
will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.

Formalism in religion condemned
------------------------------------------------
[21] “I hate, I despise your feasts,
and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
[22] Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and cereal offerings,
I will not accept them,
and the peace offerings of your fatted beasts
I will not look upon.
[23] Take away from me the noise of your songs:
to the melody of your harps I will not listen.
[24] But let justice roll down like waters.
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

*********************************************
Commentary:

5:10-17. Here again the prophet inveighs against Israel -- particularly those who sin against justice (“the gates” of the city were where courts sat: vv. 10, 12, 15), those who exploit the poor and the righteous (vv. 11, 12: in Amos the two words are often synonymous) and seek a life of ease for themselves (v. 11).

Hence the prophet’s call to conversion (vv. 14-15). He speaks very movingly. A little earlier he urged his listeners to “seek God and live” (cf. 5:4, 6); now he tells them that that search means seeking what is good (v. 14). But the way to do that involves doing one very specific thing -- establishing “justice in the gate” (v. 15). If they in fact do that, the awesome, almighty Lord (“the God of hosts”: vv. 14-15) will be their merciful God: “Conversion is accomplished in daily life by gestures of reconciliation, concern for the poor, the exercise and defence of justice and right (Amos 5:24; Is 1:17), by the admission of faults to one’s brethren, fraternal correction, revision of life, examination of conscience, spiritual direction, acceptance of suffering, endurance of persecution for the sake of righteousness. Taking up one’s cross each day and following Jesus is the surest way of penance (cf. Lk 9:23)” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1435). The verses at the end (vv. 16—17) act as an introduction to the theme of “the day of the Lord” which follows.

5:21-25. This passage contains more criticism (cf. 4:4-5) of formalism in religion. The prophet contrasts the contemporary position with the way things were during the forty years in the wilderness -- a time when there were no sacrifices (v. 25) but justice reigned (v. 24). Amos’ words are very clear, and what he says here will be echoed elsewhere in the Old and New Testaments. This passage and Hosea 6:6; 8:13 are classic texts on the need for religious rites to be backed by upright living. As St Thomas teaches, “everything that he sacrifices should partake in some way of himself […], because external sacrifice is a sign of the internal disposition by which the person offers himself to God. By making sacrifice, man also offers up himself” (Summa theologiae, 3, 82, 4). From this it follows that “the only perfect sacrifice is the one that Christ offered on the cross as a total offering to the Father’s love and for our salvation (cf. Heb 9:13-14). By uniting ourselves with his sacrifice we can make our lives a sacrifice to God” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2100).

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Readings at Mass

Seek good and not evil so that you may live

The Gadarene swine

Christian Art

Catena Aurea by St. Thomas Aguinas

The quintessential American saint who was never an American