Justice flowing by like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!

Amos 5:14-15,21-24

 

Seek good and not evil so that you may live

Seek good and not evil

so that you may live,

and that the Lord, God of Hosts, may really be with you

as you claim he is.

Hate evil, love good,

maintain justice at the city gate,

and it may be that the Lord, God of Hosts, will take pity

on the remnant of Joseph.

I hate and despise your feasts,

I take no pleasure in your solemn festivals.

When you offer me holocausts,

I reject your oblations,

and refuse to look at your sacrifices of fattened cattle.

Let me have no more of the din of your chanting,

no more of your strumming on harps.

But let justice flow like water,

and integrity like an unfailing stream.

1^st July, the 1^st reading from Mass was from the prophet Amos.

These are words of enlightenment and wisdom. Today the consecration of four bishops in Ècône Switzerland created controversy and schism. There is a real tension expressed, on the one hand, to change the church from within or secondly to start again from outside. It seems a choice has been made. A motivation put forward for this act of consecration of bishops is the continuation of the priesthood and a prayer “for the restoration of unity in truth within the Church, for clarity in doctrine, and for a renewal grounded not in accommodation to the spirit of the age but in fidelity to the perennial magisterium.” Whatever your opinion, we pray always for unity, and the Mass is that great universal prayer, a yearning for full organic unity in heaven. I appreciate the tone of the reading at Mass today. An appeal for integrity to be the very heart of the worship of God. How can you worship God and oppress the poor? Who are the poor, who are the oppressed, who are the marginalised? Words of prayer can be meaningless, empty, shallow and worthless where integrity of life is absent.

I wrote the following as a prayerful response from my own heart.

Justice flowing by like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!

At the gate folded arms greet

with gruff words of inquisition;

“What do you want?”

Whispered words for help are met

with an indifferent indecision,

a priestly duty ready for a solemn service

unready for this faithful genuflection.

Seeking a compassionate attention

a need for human contact, interaction,

craving respite from mankind’s lonely isolation.

Shivering green grass glistens

after a shower of rain falls silently from heaven.

Blue skies return slowly

to cloud-soaked horizons grief’s visitation.

as forlorn footsteps trudge way

returning to the grey stones of crushing rejection.

 

Meanwhile chants of heavenly rhythm

bounce from wall to wall of Church stone

praising the God of life, embracing life’s true intention.

Starving in the doorway frail flesh and bones

Seeking feeding, care, understanding, warmth, hospitality

ignored, an inconvenience, an interruption

of heavens sacrificial essential conversation.

Christ is being worshipped with great chanting and reverence

While Christ lies upon the stone floor of poverty and separation.

No more this rude interpretation

Let it be drowned out by the din of indignation,

let justice flow like soothing water from heaven

let integrity like a never-failing stream forever reign!

Fr Patrick Brennan © 1^st July 2026 

Source: https://humblepiety.blogspot.com/2026/07/justice-flowing-by-like-river.html