Amos — Chapter 5

Vae desiderantibus diem Domini

'Woe to them that desire the day of the Lord. To what end is it for you? The day of the Lord is darkness and not light.' À Lapide explains the prophetic reversal: the impious who presume on God's favor treat the Day of the Lord as a time of vindication for themselves against their enemies. The prophet inverts their expectation. He cites Augustine's City of God on the self-deception of those who use religion as a cover for violence.

Et reveletur quasi aqua iudicium

'But judgment shall be revealed as water and justice as a mighty torrent.' À Lapide reads this as the positive counterpart to the condemnation of hollow liturgy: true religion floods outward into social transformation. He makes this the basis of a treatise on almsgiving and just wages, citing Leo the Great and Chrysostom's homilies on Matthew. Justice and liturgy are inseparable in the prophetic vision.