As we begin to read Micah with chapter 2: 1-5, we see that in response to “those who plan iniquity” and injustice against others, God is also “planning” against them. The Responsorial Psalm asks, “Why, O Lord, do you stand aloof? Why hide in times of distress?” But God is not standing aloof and doing nothing while the “wicked harass the afflicted… and boast, ‘He will not avenge it; there is no God.’”  

While we pray, “Do not forget the poor, O Lord,” God is already saying, “Behold, I am planning against this race an evil from which you shall not withdraw your necks!” The Psalm continues: “You do see! You behold misery and sorrow, taking them into your hands. On you the unfortunate depend; you are the helper of the fatherless.” 

This gives a guideline and a focus for Christian ministry—one dramatically exemplified in our times in the famous “option for the poor” taken by the Latin American hierarchy in their meetings at Medellín and Puebla in 1968 and 1979. This decision brought down a storm of American-supported violence in Latin America against clergy, nuns and lay ministers from “those who plan iniquity and work out evil” in the high places of business and government. But the Church has no choice; she also hears the cry, “Do not forget the poor.”  

In Matthew 12: 14-21, it is the Pharisees who are “planning iniquity”: “They began to plot against Jesus to find a way to destroy him.” 

The “Pharisee party” is alive and well in the Church, and always has been, beginning with the “Judaizers” in the time of St. Paul. People who find power and security in a religion that is focused on law-observance are constantly denouncing Christian ministers who try to offset the deadly legalism of those who “tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others [while] they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them.” Those whose primary concern is to make Christ’s “yoke easy” and his “burden light” for the wounded and weak in faith—the “bruised reed” and the “smoldering wick”—will be “dragged before governors and kings”—and Church authorities—to answer interchangeable charges of heresy and liberalism!  

But the true spirit of the Church continues to be expressed in her prayer: “Do not forget the poor, O Lord.” 

In today’s Responsorial Psalm, we pray for what we know is already a fact: “Do not forget the poor, O Lord” (Psalm 10). 

Prayer Prompt: Do I hear the cry of the poor? Do I serve the poor? 

Note: For details of American-supported violence in Latin America, see Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, School of Assassins, Orbis Books, 1997, and Robert Ellsberg, All Saints, Crossroad, 1997: “November 16,” “December 2,” and “December 11.” 

— Fr. David M. Knight

View today’s Mass readings, Lectionary #394, on the USCCB website here

Fr. David M. Knight (1931-2021) was a priest of the Diocese of Memphis in Tennessee, a prolific writer, and a highly sought after confessor, spiritual director, and retreat master. He authored more than 40 books and hundreds of articles that focus primarily on lay spirituality and life-long spiritual growth.