Monday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Micah 6:1–4, 6–8
We all remember Jesus’ conversation with a teacher of the Law:
“What is the greatest commandment?”
This question preoccupied many ancient Jewish scholars.
How can one navigate the many commandments found in the five books of Moses?
We know Jesus’ answer.
He brought together two commandments.
One from the Book of Deuteronomy:
“You shall love the Lord your God” (Deuteronomy 6:5).
And one from the Book of Leviticus:
“You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18).
Love of God. Love of neighbor.
But among the possible answers to this great question was also the passage from Micah that we hear today:
“To do justice, to love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God.”
This is one of those biblical sentences worth memorizing.
But it is preceded by another question:
How should we worship the Lord?
The word “worship” today is often associated with powerful Christian concerts, large crowds, strong music, hands raised, voices lifted, people moved by emotion.
In Micah’s time, worship meant the temple, priests, offerings, and sacrifices.
And influenced by surrounding cultures, some ancient Israelites even seem to have thought that the sacrifice of their children could somehow please God.
That is what makes Micah’s answer so striking.
Neither powerful religious music with hundreds of people singing and swaying, nor temple sacrifices, nor dramatic offerings, fit Micah’s definition of true worship.
The Lord asks for something else.
Only this:
Do justice.
Love goodness.
Walk humbly with your God.
Justice. Goodness. Humility.
Three words.
Three demands.
Three virtues that, for better or worse, seem to be disappearing from much of our world.
And perhaps, if we are honest, from many Christian communities too.
We can sing loudly and still fail to do what is right.
We can speak beautifully about God and still treat people without mercy.
We can build impressive worship and still carry an ego larger than the universe.
The sacrifice of one righteous man, Jesus Christ, saved the world.
But the righteousness of His disciples is meant to make that salvation visible in the world.
Kindness — hesed in Hebrew — is one of the most beautiful words in the Bible.
It is almost untranslatable.
It speaks of God’s own way of dealing with us.
And humility is the one thing pride cannot bear.
The prophets could not swallow pride: an ego that claims the place of God, a heart that forgets it is finite, a creature that no longer knows it depends on grace.
So Micah brings us back to the heart of worship.
So Micah brings us back to the heart of worship:
justice, hesed, humility.
Only this.
And this is everything.
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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