I remember a movie where a wealthy businessman, who kidnaped and sold young girls into bondage, told one girl’s father who accosted him, “It isn’t personal, it’s simply business.” Then he told his staff to dispose of the “difficulty”. How many people think the same way today. It’s what I do to make money, or to advance, to climb the corporate ladder, or to get elected, its business, it isn’t personal. Regardless of our “justification” for treating others the way we do, Amos is condemning the actions. One businessperson I know, said, “If they are stupid enough to fall for the scam, they deserve to lose their money.”
In the second reading Paul ask for “supplications, prayers, petitions, and thanksgivings be offered for everyone, for kings and for all in authority.” He didn’t say we had to like them, or vote for them, or support them. Sometimes the best we can do is pray for their conversion to the truth. This is equally important today when some are only concerned with being elected, or staying if office, or leaving a legacy that will last for ages.
Some say that because God “wills everyone to be saved, and to come to knowledge of the truth,” that everyone will go to heaven. They forget that God gives everyone free will, to accept or reject God’s will for them. Paul doesn’t say everyone will be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth.
In the Gospel, we need to avoid getting caught up in the story and look at why it is being told! Jesus picks up on what Amos is saying in the first reading, “No servant can serve two masters.” Where do our loyalties lay? Too many people in today’s world say, “I only do this because I have to, to get elected.” Or “If I don’t do it, they will find someone else to do it and I won’t have a job!” How many are brave enough to join with Sir Thomas Moore and say, “I am the king’s servant, but God’s first!”
Countenance of God 