By Quin Hillyer at PJ Media (two days BEFORE the S. Ct. announcement);
As much of the national news focuses on this week’s expected announcement from Donald Trump about who he will nominate for the Supreme Court, all four readings involve themes of justice, wisdom, judgment, mercy, and kindness. Understood correctly, there are lessons in these readings for both the secular world and the world of faith.
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
Most sermons this week surely will focus on the famous “beatitudes,” Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount” in which he laid out his central teachings for how we should understand God’s mercy. We are told, of course, that “blessed are the meek,” the “merciful,” the “pure in heart,” the “peacemakers,” and so on through the familiar litany.
In a much pithier way, a single Old Testament verse from Micah (also in today’s readings) rather well encompasses the same entire message of the Beatitudes: The Lord requires us “to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.” (Indeed, if one wants to sum up the entire Bible in just three very short passages, one could probably just cite that Micah verse, and Christ’s two great commandments in Matthew 22:38-39 to love our neighbor and our God, and John 3:16 about God giving his one and only son so that we may have eternal life.)….
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