HUMILITY WITH JUSTICE - A: 4th Sun in OrdTime

First Reading: Zeph 2:3; 3:12-13 (29 January 2023)

“Seek the Lord, all you humble of the land, who have observed his law; Seek justice, seek humility; Perhaps you will be sheltered on the day of the Lord’s anger” (Zeph 2:3).

These are the words of Zephaniah, a prophet known to be speaking explicitly about the imminent “day of the Lord”, when God would “completely sweep away all things from the face of the land”, “human being and beast alike,” including “the birds of the sky and the fish of the sea” and particularly “the wicked” of the earth (1:2-3). Zephaniah was contemporaneous with Jeremiah when both forewarned Judea of the ensuing destruction of Judea along with the inhabitants of Jerusalem (v. 4). They preached in the time of King Josiah of Judea (ca. 640–609 BCE; v. 1), a few decades before the fateful fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar in 587 BCE (2 Kgs 25:1-21).

Subsequently, he specified that all the great nations would be put into waste, namely, Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Ekron, Crete, Canaan, Moab, Ammon, Ethiopia, Assyria, and Nineveh (2:4, 5, 9, 12, 13). Along with them is Jerusalem that is described as “rebellious and polluted” (3:1). Also, “it listens to no voice, accepts no correction”, “it has not trusted, nor drawn near to its God”, “its officials within it are roaring lions”, “its judges are desert wolves that have no bones to gnaw by morning”, “its prophets are reckless, treacherous people”, “its priests profane what is holy, and do violence to the law” (vv. 2-4).

Clearly, the leaders of Judea were visibly corrupt and performed evil in the sight of the Lord. For this main reason was Judea being included in the reproach and future destruction of these lands in the Ancient Near East.

Despite all of these, there is still a hope for Jerusalem to be spared, and that is emphasized by Zephaniah in today’s reading: “Seek justice, seek humility; Perhaps you will be sheltered on the day of the Lord’s anger” (Zeph 2:3). Clearly, the only way that the Israelite nation could survive this threat is when it begins to accept humbly its mistakes of the past as well as seek collective righteousness in a communal life of repentance. However, the big question is whether the leaders of Jerusalem were ready to disgrace themselves in public, accepting their failures and expressing their sincere resolve to change and be better in leading their people.

On the bright side of things, King Josiah heeded to this call by mandating a universal cleansing of the whole kingdom of Judah in 2 Kgs 23:4-24. However, after him were evil kings who did not sustain the reforms he did. Thus, “the Lord did not turn from his fiercely burning anger against Judah, because of all the provocations that Manasseh had given” (v. 26).

In fact, the Lord even said, “Even Judah will I put out of my sight as I did Israel. I will reject this city, Jerusalem, which I chose, and the house of which I said: There shall my name be” (v. 27).

It is, thus, important to ask whether our government leaders today observe these two cardinal dispositions of true shepherds of the land, viz., staying humble and being righteous at all times.

- Rex Fortes, CM