Today’s first reading is the source of the line in Rev. Martin Luther King Junior’s “I Have a Dream” speech that “we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.” This is from Amos 5:
Wednesday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 379Reading 1
Amos 5:14-15, 21-24
Seek good and not evil,
that you may live;
Then truly will the LORD, the God of hosts,
be with you as you claim!
Hate evil and love good,
and let justice prevail at the gate;
Then it may be that the LORD, the God of hosts,
will have pity on the remnant of Joseph.I hate, I spurn your feasts, says the LORD,
I take no pleasure in your solemnities;
Your cereal offerings I will not accept,
nor consider your stall-fed peace offerings.
Away with your noisy songs!
I will not listen to the melodies of your harps.
But if you would offer me burnt offerings,
then let justice surge like water,
and goodness like an unfailing stream.
This same passage is also an important source for “Amos,” by the Hillbilly Thomists.
