08/17/2026
A beautiful read from FRANCISCAN ACTION NETWORK
“Observe what is right, do what is just; for my salvation is about to come, my justice, about to be revealed.” — Isaiah 56:1
This passage appears in the readings for the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, which is speaking to a community returning from exile. They are trying to rebuild their life together after old patterns of injustice had failed them. The prophets are not describing a transaction (do justice so God will act) nor a passive waiting (God will act whether you do anything or not). They are pointing to a reality already unfolding: God’s justice is moving toward the people, and their task is to align their lives with it.
Such alignment requires looking honestly at what is real. The old ways did not work. Social life must be rebuilt with fairness. The injustices that fractured the community must not be repeated. And the circle of belonging must widen. Isaiah 56 goes on to welcome those once excluded from the covenant. Justice, in this vision, is not gatekeeping. It is expanding the table. Isaiah’s call resonates with Micah 6:8, which names the posture needed for this kind of rebuilding: to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with God. Not what is trendy or easy, but what is faithful. Justice work will ruffle feathers. Advocacy will sometimes be confrontational. And unless it is rooted in love, it becomes brittle. Unless it is grounded in humility, it becomes noise. Justice that hopes to heal must rise from something deeper than outrage.
Fr. Richard Rohr, in The Tears of Things, writes that beneath anger is sadness, and beneath sadness is love. The prophets’ anger grew out of heartbreak, and their heartbreak grew out of love. When anger is rooted in love, it has a place to return to. It becomes anchored and capable of pointing toward healing rather than harm. Anger on its own cannot bear good fruit. This is why community matters. Like a flower that cannot live long once cut from its source, justice work cannot survive if disconnected from relationship, prayer, reflection, and the people who help us stay grounded in love
