Monday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Today's Mass Readings

The prophet Amos is among the most rhetorical in his indictment of the sins of Israel. In the chapter before today’s passage, Amos notes the offenses of numerous other peoples and nations. The people of Israel must have listened to this with delight, believing themselves to be superior to all these other places. After Amos has thus hooked the reader by criticizing other nations, however, he turns to his critique of Israel: “they sell the just man for silver and the poor man for a pair of sandals. They trample the heads of the weak into the dust of the earth and force the lowly out of the way” (Am 2:6-7). These crimes and the other enumerated by Amos are even more egregious than those of other nations because they have been committed by the people of Israel, to whom God has constantly offered his protection and guidance. Hence the passage ends by God announcing the punishment that will befall Israel because of this behavior. So also the psalm criticizes the immoral behavior of the people, calling the people to remember all that God has done for them.

But we would be mistaken if we interpreted Amos and the psalm as merely delivering the message of an angry and vindictive God who is bent on punishment of those who are merely human. No, in fact, the God of Israel is not temperamental and malicious, nor does He make unfair demands. Rather, God calls his people to live up to who they are, made in God’s own image and likeness. God calls the people to be faithful to Him, just as God has always been faithful to them. The threat of punishment, then, ought to be understood as a call to repentance. Through Amos and the psalm, God convicts his people, but he also appeals to them, offering the chance for them to live in justice and to repent of their past and present evils.

So also God continues to call us to repent from our sins against the poor, against the just, against the weak. God calls us to live in the full justice for which we are created. This route, however, is not always clear, nor is it always easy. In Jesus we have been called beyond repentance to discipleship. This is the true justice for which we are made, to live in imitation of Christ, whose life, death, and resurrection image for us God’s love for the world, God’s ultimate mercy on we who continue to sin.

The gospel passage from Matthew indicates the challenges of being a disciple of Jesus. It requires sacrifices and a reordering of priorities. It is a reminder that, though Jesus desires us to follow him, we must be aware of the task we are taking up for everyday life. As we go through today, then, let us take some time to reflect on the ways that being a disciple challenges us. How do we fail as Christians? How do we succeed as Christians? Does Amos also call us to repentance? We might also try to identify something that has been preventing us from embracing a life of discipleship and pray that God might relieve us of this burden.

- Maria Morrow