Spending several days just immersed in the Scriptures together with brother priests from all over the country was really good for the old mind, heart, and soul.
This coming week, I’ll be making pilgrimage with several parishioners and a hundred or so Catholics from the diocese of Cleveland, to join several thousands of fellow pilgrims from around the country in Indianapolis for the historical National Eucharistic Congress. I’ve put details regarding the Congress in the bulletin, and I ask that you keep me, the parish delegates and diocesan delegates in prayer this week. I hope to invite our delegates to share their experiences with the parish in the next few months of being sent on pilgrimage by the bishop.
In the first reading, we hear about how the prophet Amos had been sent by God to a place called Bethel. He wasn’t raised in Bethel, which is in Northern Israel. Amos grew up in the south, in Judah. And Amos didn't have special prophetic training--he wasn’t raised in the Temple; he wasn’t attending a special training course or formal formation program for prophets. He was a shepherd and fruit farmer. As we heard in the reading, “I was no prophet, nor have I belonged to a company of prophets; I was a shepherd and a dresser of sycamores.”
But God sent the ordinary man, whose grow up in a simple family of agricultural workers to prophecy to the king of the north.
And God sent Amos at a very interesting point in Israel’s history. It was a time of relative prosperity, economic growth and military success. But it was also a time of rampant social injustice and religious corruption. The king and the national business elite, we might call them, were growing in wealth by exploiting the poor. Business owners were fixing their scales, cheating their customers. The king allowed the idolatrous practices of the Canaanites to pervert the religious worship of the nation mandated by the one true God.
And so God sent Amos to warn the king, to warn the leaders, to warn the people, to repent or there would be consequences. And was Amos’ message well received? Well, we heard today how the corrupt and idolatrous priest of Bethel, Amaziah, told Amos to leave and never come back, for God is not in charge here, but the king. The corrupt clergyman takes the side of the king over God!
The Word of God was not welcome in Bethel. The prophet is often tasked with sharing unpleasant unwelcome messages. The king doesn’t like to hear that he is not in charge of the universe. The prophet speaks truth to power, calling sinners to repentance, to bring their lives back into alliance with the one and only power that matters—God. If your life is not in line with God, you will bring ruin to yourself, to your family, and your nation. But that message is not welcome by those who cling to their earthly power and positions of privilege.
And to speak truth to power, God chose the ordinary farmhand, Amost as his prophet, just like Moses, who was a simple shepherd, and David, who was a simple shepherd, and the apostles, who were simple fishermen. What’s the lesson? Trust God. He calls ordinary people—manual laborers—not just people like us, but us, he calls us to deliver powerful messages rooted in the Word of God.
Recall that in our baptism, each one of us has become an anointed prophet. You and I have the task of being prophets. Well, what is a prophet? Remember, in the biblical sense, a prophet is not just someone who foretells the future. Christian prophets aren’t fortune tellers with the ability to predict the outcome of the World Series. But in Scripture what do we see the prophets doing? We them diagnosing the spiritual illnesses of kings and peasants, friends and family, and pointing them to God who alone can heal them. The prophet is the spiritual diagnostician who recognizes when someone or some institution is not in line with God, and says something—he does something. The prophet speaks the truth in love.
Now, as a priest, certainly, I have a prophetic role, liturgically, I share in my homily, what the Lord has placed on heart through prayer, reflection, training and experience. And also in spiritual direction and counseling and the other different facets of priestly ministry, I have a prophetic role here in the parish. But ya’ll do to! Not necessarily liturgically, your prophetic role is fulfilled in gatherings of family, friends, and coworkers. When you take a family member out lunch and share your concern because they have not baptized their children and are not going to mass, that’s a prophetic action very pleasing to the Lord. When you share with a friend who has become consumed in materialism or fallen into new age or protestant error, that they would do well to come home to the faith, that’s prophetic. When you ask a coworker to stop taking the Lord’s name in vain and blaspheming in your presence, that is prophetic. And that’s part of our role in the Church.
The prophet Joel foretold a time when the spirit of prophecy would be poured out on all flesh. And it happened! Through baptism. All who are baptized are prophets. As Paul says in our second reading, In him we were also chosen, destined. We who have heard the word of truth, are to share it.
Now, scripture says, that prophecy is not a matter of personal interpretation. In other words, prophecy is not about sharing your opinion; it’s about sharing but the Word of God. And so we do well to be immersed in God’s word—the Scriptures--and the doctrines of our faith which apply God’s word to particular topics and circumstances. Read the bible every day. Read Catholic biblical commentaries. Catholic scripture studies. Podcasts that break open the scriptures. That you might be immersed and rooted in God’s word. Tolle et lege, take and read. So that you can be equipped with what you need for your prophetic mission.
In the Gospel, the Lord tells the apostles to take nothing—barely anything—for their prophetic journey: just the sandals on their feet and the word of God in which he had formed them. They were to trust Jesus—that he had given them everything they needed for the task for which he had appointed them. Trust God, that what you need is to be formed in the Word of God, so that you can help souls who are lost return to the Father, to repent, and be free of their demons. Some, like the corrupt priest in the first reading might not welcome the truth, but some people will, and there life will be changed for eternity because you had the care and courage to share the truth with them for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.
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As you may have heard, seen, or read, yesterday, at a
presidential campaign rally in Butler, PA, there was an assassination attempt
on former President Donald Trump. It appears that the the former president
suffered a bullet wound to the ear, while a member of the audience was killed
by a stray bullet, and another was injured.
This is a sad, but, sadly not a surprising act, as the level
of violent rhetoric in our nations political life has been on the rise. Please
pray for our nation, for president trump and his family, for the safety of our
political leaders, and for an end to domestic terrorism and the attitudes and
actions which breed it.
Yesterday, July 13 was the anniversary of the third
apparition at Fatima, when our Lady appeared to the three shepherd children,
and introduced herself as Our Lady of the Rosary. The first apparition was on
May 13, the same day that Pope John Paul II survived an assassination attempt
in St. Peter’s square. Please pray the rosary for peace, safety, and
deliverance from evil. Following the final blessing, we will offer special
prayers (Leonine prayers) for our nation and for the repose of the victim.
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