Tuesday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Micah 7:14–15, 18–20
For some time, we have been walking with the prophet Micah.
We heard him speak on behalf of farmers whose fields were being seized by the powerful of his time.
We heard his unforgettable answer to the question of true worship:
justice, hesed, humility.
Today, we hear the beautiful ending of his book:
a profession of God’s mercy toward the remnant of His people.
Abraham Joshua Heschel, a great Jewish rabbi of the twentieth century, who lived through the horror of the Second World War and the Holocaust, saw in Micah an insight worth remembering:
the anger of God.
For Heschel, an angry God was not the real problem.
The real terror would be an indifferent God.
A God who does not care.
A God who sees oppression, injustice, idolatry, and cruelty, and feels nothing.
But the God of the prophets is not indifferent.
His anger means that He cares.
Heschel wrote that God’s anger reveals His concern for our good; it passes, and compassion reigns.
And if we are honest, we know that we give God more than enough reason to be angry.
Like stubborn children, we break His commandments. We wound one another. We forget His gifts. We turn away from His ways.
But God’s anger is not His final word.
Micah also gave us one of the great messianic hopes.
When Herod asked where the Christ was to be born, the chief priests and scribes answered:
“In Bethlehem of Judea.”
And they quoted Micah.
The little town of Bethlehem, almost forgotten, became the place where God’s promise would take flesh.
Micah also entered the prayer of the Church.
On Good Friday, for many centuries, Christians have sung the solemn reproaches of Jesus:
“My people, what have I done to you?”
These words echo Micah, where God asks His people:
“My people, what have I done to you? How have I wearied you? Answer me.”
God reminds them:
I brought you out of Egypt. I redeemed you from slavery. I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.
And yet, His people forgot.
Micah does not hide the seriousness of evil.
He speaks of judgment. He speaks of punishment. He even speaks of the destruction of Jerusalem.
But he does not end there.
His book ends with wonder:
Who is a God like you, who removes guilt and pardons sin?
God casts our sins into the depths of the sea.
That is the last sound of Micah’s prophecy.
Mercy.
And this prepares us for the Gospel.
For in Jesus Christ, the mercy of God does not remain only a promise.
It takes flesh.
It carries the cross.
It enters the tomb.
And it rises again.
Micah teaches us that God may be wounded by sin, but He is never defeated by it.
His anger passes.
His compassion remains.
And in the end, mercy has the last word.
Biblical Reflections on the Gospel of Matthew
Scripture Attribution
New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993
the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of
Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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