5th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2026
Isaiah 58: 6-10; Psalm 11(112); 1 Corinthians 2:1-5; Matthew 5:13-16
We can’t get away from justice, can we? Last Sunday’s readings were full of it, and it hits us again today. The prophet sets us off, insisting that we “loose the bonds of wickedness, undo the straps of the yoke and let the oppressed go free”. The Psalm takes up the same theme, declaring that, for the upright, “their justice stands firm for ever”.
What are the implications for us? Firstly, it seems, we must act justly in all that we do, treating people fairly, not bad-mouthing them, not lording it over them. Almost forty years ago, I attended a conference on education. One of the sessions was led by a young man, a Primary School Headmaster, who conducted it tongue-in-cheek, picking on people, jeering at them, calling them out.
All the young people present, and all the women, were left scratching their heads and asking “What was that about? School was never like that.” On the other hand all the men of my age and older, who had attended school, usually single sex, in the 60s or earlier, were sitting ashen-faced, recalling the horrors of our own school days, when bullying and “dark sarcasm in the classroom” were the stock-in-trade of the so-called “masters”.
Worse than the sneering and the subtle violence, though, had been the injustice, the arbitrary punishments, the imposition of sanctions on whole classes, regardless of how many, or how few, had been involved in misbehaviour. Human beings appear to have an inbuilt sense of justice: to breach the code of justice is seen as the greatest sin of all.
Is it sufficient then, that we behave justly ourselves? Apparently not, for the prophet calls us to “loose the bonds of wickedness, undo the straps of the yoke, and let the oppressed go free”. In other words, we should oppose injustice on the part of others, and there is plenty of that in the world. We gaze in horror across the Atlantic, where storm-troopers are seizing people from their homes, and even from churches, and in two cases gunning them down, while the Government pours forth a stream of invective, attempting to destroy the characters of victims of violence.
We look eastwards, where Russia’s relentless assault on a neighbouring country is entering its fifth year. We ponder our own country, and ask what our future may be. Our Scripture Readings today forbid us to be passive in the face of injustice, to shrug our shoulders and ignore it. We have MPs whom we can lobby: if your email inbox is like mine, you will be badgered daily by any number of organisations campaigning against this evil or that. Do you press “delete” as a matter of course, or do you ever consider whether some petitions are worth signing, some campaigns worth joining? Fifty years ago, it was a “given” that Catholics should be in the forefront of working for social justice. I wonder whether that is still the case.
There is more, however. The prophet goes on to speak about sharing our bread with the hungry, clothing the naked, sheltering the homeless poor. Does that ring any bells? To me, it recalls Our Lord’s description of the Last Judgement, when God, the King, will say to us “I was hungry and you fed me, naked and you clothed me, a stranger and you welcomed me—or you didn’t”.
I have a cousin and friend who, impelled by his faith, volunteers as a prison visitor, helps at a Salvation Army hostel, and gives people lifts to Mass. Not everyone has the time or temperament to do all those things, but all of us can do something.
Sometimes, when knocking on the doors in a parish, I would come across nominal Catholics who were on the parish register, but never darkened the doors of the church. Their stock defence was “I never do anybody any harm”. I was always tempted to reply, but never did, “Neither does the streetlamp on the corner. It actually does people some good. Do you?”
Speaking of lamps, we find the prophet speaking of those who act justly as having their light “break forth like the dawn”, whilst the psalmist declares that “a light rises in the darkness for the upright”. Our Lord Jesus Christ goes further, telling us that we are the light of the world, and that our light must shine before others. If not, we shall become like spoilt salt, fit only to be thrown out and trampled.
None of us can do everything, but all of us can and must do something.
