The prophet Amos, who is from Judah, is told to leave the northern kingdom because the view he shares about the consequence of the direction chosen by the leaders of the kingdom of Israel refutes their plan. The Roman Catholic Lectionary for today includes the text of the prophesy of Amos and the description of his life as a dresser of sycamore trees who is responding to the call from God to speak to the people of Israel about the direction in which they are moving. The language used by Amos is quite graphic. Friar Jude Winkler points out two qualities of Amos which challenge our modern paradigm for providing corrective feedback. The call to change is coming from a person who is difficult because of his country of origin, occupation and direct frank approach. The obedience of Amos to the authority of the priest, in spite of his difficulty with the morality of the actions of the priest, seems to be contrary to our sensibilities which abandon the structure in which we detect corruption. The Gospel of Matthew presents the episode of the healing of the paralytic. When we approach Jesus with our life situation and our action plan for our journey, Friar Jude reminds us that Jesus acts in our lives with the most loving response. The action observed as a result of our bringing our brokenness to the Lord may not be in accord with the expectations of observers. The Pharisees are scandalized by the action of Jesus to take on the role of God to forgive sins. Friar Jude indicates that this is the method of Matthew to show the Divinity of Jesus. Our assumption is often that the physical or emotional situation of the individual who is before Jesus is the highest priority. Our acceptance of the invitation to journey with Jesus may have consequences in the lives of others which are the most loving response which we in communion with Jesus and the Body of Christ choose to accept, today, in faith. The response which brings us peace and joy may look to the world as bending to the orthodoxy like Amos, but the truth of the of the love in our direction will be our faithful hope.
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Consequence of our direction
The prophet Amos, who is from Judah, is told to leave the northern kingdom because the view he shares about the consequence of the direction chosen by the leaders of the kingdom of Israel refutes their plan. The Roman Catholic Lectionary for today includes the text of the prophesy of Amos and the description of his life as a dresser of sycamore trees who is responding to the call from God to speak to the people of Israel about the direction in which they are moving. The language used by Amos is quite graphic. Friar Jude Winkler points out two qualities of Amos which challenge our modern paradigm for providing corrective feedback. The call to change is coming from a person who is difficult because of his country of origin, occupation and direct frank approach. The obedience of Amos to the authority of the priest, in spite of his difficulty with the morality of the actions of the priest, seems to be contrary to our sensibilities which abandon the structure in which we detect corruption. The Gospel of Matthew presents the episode of the healing of the paralytic. When we approach Jesus with our life situation and our action plan for our journey, Friar Jude reminds us that Jesus acts in our lives with the most loving response. The action observed as a result of our bringing our brokenness to the Lord may not be in accord with the expectations of observers. The Pharisees are scandalized by the action of Jesus to take on the role of God to forgive sins. Friar Jude indicates that this is the method of Matthew to show the Divinity of Jesus. Our assumption is often that the physical or emotional situation of the individual who is before Jesus is the highest priority. Our acceptance of the invitation to journey with Jesus may have consequences in the lives of others which are the most loving response which we in communion with Jesus and the Body of Christ choose to accept, today, in faith. The response which brings us peace and joy may look to the world as bending to the orthodoxy like Amos, but the truth of the of the love in our direction will be our faithful hope.
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