Tuesday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time
The prophet Amos offers us a scathing account of God’s power in today’s first reading. The major plotline of the Old Testament is that Israel is called by God, sometimes obeys and often disobeys. Many of the stories are about Israel’s failures. The reading from Amos is a prophecy about God’s response to those failures. It begins with a reminder that God has called Israel as a special people from among all the peoples of the earth. God has a special relationship with Israel, marked by the covenant and sustained by the Law. Even in the midst of great trial, the Israelites still did not return to God. They are elsewhere described as a “stiff-necked people” for this recurring theme!
The first reading ends with a haunting phrase: “Prepare to meet your God, O Israel.” It’s difficult not to be a little frightened by this reading. Even the images Amos gives are frightening: a lion catching prey, a bird caught in a snare, a trumpet sounding to warn the people of war. One is left with a sense of dread. But as much as the reading is about fear, it’s also about faith--namely, the lack of faith God finds in his chosen people. Despite this, however, God remains with Israel, constantly calling them back to the promises of God.
Today’s gospel is also about faith and fear. Especially when read in light of the first reading, the story of the frightened disciples on the boat causes us to reflect on what scares us as well. The disciples wake Jesus from his on-board nap because the storm around them has become so violent. Jesus asks them a curious question, “Why are you frightened?” One can only imagine their befuddlement: the storm has frightened them! But Jesus posits faith as the opposite of fear. The story ends with Jesus being described by his disciples as the one “whom even the winds and sea obey.” By waking Jesus, the disciples mistook him for a simple miracle worker or protector who could fight the storm. With his actions, they are reminded that he is God Incarnate, the Word through whom all of creation has been made.
This means that God is ever close. It is something the Israel forgot during its misdeeds and lack of faith, and it is something we forget when we sequester God to the sky or to the church on Sunday. “Prepare to meet your God”; he is Jesus Christ, who leads us from fear to faith.
- Katherine Schmidt