"Woe to the complacent in Zion...they are not made ill by the collapse of Joseph." Amos 6
On Sept. 15 we celebrate our Lady of Sorrows and specifically the seven sorrows of Mary. (Surprise quiz: can you recall, from memory, dear Reader, the seven sorrows? For extra credit of course!) It occurred to me: every woman especially, but each man also, has seven sorrows. Yes, seven. Not five or ten or twelve. Why seven? Because Mary had seven and she is the exemplar, the prototype for all of...nature's solitary boast. Review your life, dear Reader: infancy, childhood and right up to today. Your challenge, should you accept it, is to identify the seven significant, defining sorrows of your life. Do not settle for six; do not go for eight. Seven it is. You will sigh with relief as you identify them. And bring them to prayer. And conversation with others. And you will find peace. Consolation. Even fruit from them. I did it for myself and it worked. But it did take a little time.
In the first reading at mass this morning (Sept. 28, 2025; 26th Sunday of Ordinary Time) we hear Amos scourging Israel for its complacency and "failure to grieve the collapse of Joseph." Like the gospel about Lazarus and Dives, the mortal sin is passive, not active; negligence; indifference; complacency. The poor and lowly are suffering; but the affluent are relaxed and carefree.
Why the grieving about Joseph? What/who is Joseph? Joseph represents the two tribes descended from him, part of the ten tribes of Israel Amos was chastising. They were indifferent to the sufferings of the poor. It calls to mind, also, of course Joseph the Patriarch. His brothers, after casting him into a well, sat down to eat. They were complacent. They did not grieve him.
I wondered: what is it about which we are called to grieve? Then I remembered the seven sorrows and asked myself: What are the seven sorrows, in our age, of Holy Mother the Church. These would also be the sorrows of our Mother Mary who is herself the center of the Church.
I identified these seven:
1. Priest Sex Scandal. This is a sorrow of immense gravity, on many levels. It is violation of the innocent, the young, the vulnerable. It is a desecration of the priesthood, a most trusted and holy reality. It was, in addition, covered up by Church authorities, compounding the suffering of the innocent.
2. Persecution of the Church Globally. At the hands of communism and Jihadist Islam there are massive persecutions and killings across the globe, recently in Africa. Our mainstream press has little interest so this is widely unknown.
3. Loss of Faith By So Many. Starting in 1965, after the Council, there has been a massive exodus out of the Church. We boomers are the "lost generation" in that so many of us have left the Church. This has been followed by our children and their children.
4. Division of Church and Rejection of Faith Within. Again, since about 1968 (Humanae Vitae) we have a divided Church, a schism with a progressive wing that embraces the Cultural Revolution and rejects fundamental Catholic teaching and practice around family, sexuality, unborn life, gender and other. This has caused immense confusion and a weakening of our Catholic life for those who remain.
5. Destruction of Family Life. Divorce, children separated from parents, loneliness, babies conceived outside of marriage, widespread fatherlessness.
6. Violation of Femininity and Maternity. This takes many forms around the world: Islamic polygamy and honor killings, abortion itself as violation of the mother, pornography, faux feminism, adultery.
7. Decline of Virility and Paternity. The masculine role...in family, Church, society...is always to image the paternity of God. The assaults on masculinity are intended to render the world Godless.
The readings from Amos and about Lazarus are not a call to action. It is a Word to the heart. A call to open our hearts in compassion. To renounce complacency. To see the suffering, near to us and around the world. And to join our Mother the Church and our Mother in heaven in prayer to heaven. And then to do what we can, even, especially when it is small. Because we are small. But God is great! And he lifts up the poor.
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