St. Jerome—the patron saint of students of Scripture—once
said that we must treat every word of the Bible like we do every crumb of the
Eucharist. Just as we hold the
smallest particle of Jesus’ Body with the utmost reverence, Jerome argues that
we must never let a word of Scripture fall to the ground.
Jerome
should inspire us with our first reading today! Sometimes the Old Testament can be difficult to hear or
read. Yet just when we may zone
out it will present us with a gem.
Consider Amos’ exhortation: “Seek
good and not evil, that you may live…”
This principle was not unique to the Israelites. Every culture throughout time
recognizes that each person desires to do good and avoid evil. It is part of our nature to seek the
good or apparent good. One of the
Greek philosophers—Plato—maintained that every choice a person makes is to
acquire a perceived good.
Yet
Amos takes a principle of anthropology and takes it to a new level: “Hate evil and love good…” We are not just to avoid evil…we are to
hate it. We are not simply to do good, but to love it.
As
we strive to do good and avoid evil today, may God give us the grace to
actually love good and hate evil.
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