Amos 5:14-15, 21-24 / Matthew 8:28-34
In the gospel, we heard of demoniacs. Not just one but two. And the gospel passage described them as creatures so fierce that no one could pass that way.
Probably not just fierce but but more frightening and since there were two of them, that makes them look like a double-barrel shotgun.
Why or how they became demoniacs, the gospel did not say. Yet they were still described as creatures.
In other words, they were created by God and created to be good, but something went terribly wrong along the way, and evil took hold of them.
Yet Jesus came to cast off the evil from them and restored them to their original created state. That is the power that God has over evil, and evil can never overcome God.
But the more sinister and cunning evil is the widespread injustice and corruption which is so often overlooked and even taken for granted.
Injustice and corruption are like camouflaged evil and can even seep and infiltrate into our faith and make us ignore our moral obligations of justice and integrity.
Yes, the words of the Lord in the 1st reading must shock us. The Lord says this: I hate and despise your feasts, I take no pleasure in your solemn festivals, I reject your oblations, and refuse to look at your sacrifices of fattened cattle.
May these words of the Lord cast out the evil from our hearts and instil in us justice and integrity, so that we will offer to the Lord a worthy sacrifice of ourselves.