Readings:
Amos 2:6-10, 13-16
Matthew 8: 18-22
Reflection
Amazingly the rather ancient words of the prophet Amos powerfully strike our hearts today in this 21st. Century. He accused the people of his time of “Selling the virtuous person for silver, the poor for a pair of sandals, of trampling on the heads of ordinary people and pushing the poor out of their path….”
We don’t have to use our imaginations very much at all to see this happening in our world today.
Amos then draws the picture of a very powerful God and warns them of the consequences of their attitudes towards those around them.
We remember that it is this very same God-amongst-us, in Jesus, who warns the ‘would-be’ disciples that discipleship isn’t for the faint-hearted. The Son of Man has no fixed anchors in life but his relationship with Abba.
This is the same God who called creation into being out of love, whose love is everlasting, strong, fierce, indomitable, who strengthens the weary and those who faint on the way.
This is the Emmanuel who died and was raised from the dead for love of all creation.
Our calling is to bring the same type of strong, intense, gentle, healing, reconciling love to those on the margins in our world, as He did.
This is the calling of the Cross.
Fr. Tony Egar, C.P.