“Garbage In, Garbage Out.”
by Fr. David M. Knight
July 2, 2024
Tuesday of the Thirteenth Week of Ordinary Time
Lectionary 378
Am 3:1-8; 4:11-12/Mt 8:23-27
Amos 3:1 to 4:12: Amos was a shepherd, a man who lived in the real world of nature, where people learn to respect the fact that “causes produce effects.” He gives a few examples that to a mathematical mindset would be like “two plus two makes four.” Then he draws the conclusion:
If evil befalls a city, has not the LORD caused it? Indeed, the Lord GOD does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants, the prophets.
We would say more precisely that cities or societies bring down on themselves the natural consequences of their sins, and that God doesn’t cause this directly but allows it to happen: just as God doesn’t “cause” earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, or what we call “good” and “bad” weather, but just allows natural forces to act as they were designed to act. This, taken globally, is good for the planet, but it may be destructive to people in particular times and places.
Sin, however, is contrary to everything God designed, and causes evil by its very nature. The gift of the prophets is to see clearly the connection between the sins of a society and the suffering they are experiencing as a result of them. The prophets see that just as sin is contrary to God’s “plan” for human behavior, the consequences are contrary to his plan for human happiness.
When computers were new, a motto for programmers was GIGO: “Garbage In, Garbage Out.” You can’t defeat the logic of the system: what you put in is what you get out. The same is true of nature and human life. When you go against God’s awesome plan, you can expect disaster on an awesome plane:
I will deal with you in my own way.... Prepare to meet your God, O Israel: him who formed the mountains, and created the wind, and declares to humans his thoughts; Who made the dawn and the darkness, and strides upon the heights of the earth: The LORD, the God of hosts by name.
Matthew 7:6-14 tells us Jesus is more awesome than nature and all its laws. In a raging storm he spoke to the winds and sea, and “complete calm ensued.”
The point of the reading is that the power Jesus showed over natural forces was a sign of the power he has over the forces of evil. When we cry out, “Lord, save us! We are lost!” he can reverse the consequences of sin itself. The “complete calm” he brought upon the sea was just a preview of the “complete calm” he came to establish on earth, which will be brought to perfection in the total peace and unity of the “wedding banquet of the Lamb.”
Because we say with his disciples, “What sort of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?” We work with confidence, as stewards of his kingship to reverse the consequences of our society’s sins and errors.
Initiative: Pray with confidence: “Give us... the Bread... and forgive.”
Reflections brought to you by the Immersed in Christ Ministry
