Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
When it comes to airing and examining different viewpoints, there is a good time and there is a bad time. Amaziah, priest of Bethel, failed to appreciate this. He had no interest in hearing the prophet Amos contradict him. “Off with you, seer, flee to the land of Judah and there earn your bread by prophesying! But never again prophesy in Bethel” (Amos 7:12-13). This Amaziah was quite mistaken. He thought that Amos was a professional prophet who could earn his bread by prophesying, but Amos was only a dresser of sycamores. Worse still, Amaziah failed to appreciate the truth of the prophecy of Amos, because it was the opposite of the lie that Amaziah wanted to hear.
The prophecy was doom, and doom, indeed, befell Amaziah and the entire kingdom of Israel with the invasion of the Assyrians in 722 B.C. If only Amaziah had understood that it was, indeed, a good time to hear a different point of view. If only the message of doom could have been heard and understood, perhaps the people could have repented and the kingdom saved by the mercy of God.
Jesus Christ is the revelation of God’s mercy and he is the greatest prophet of them all. His prophecy is of mercy and salvation for those sinners who repent and believe in him, and doom for those sinners who reject him. His message must never be ignored or altered, which is why he entrusted it to his Church. That is why St. Ignatius Loyola says that “we must praise all the commandments of the Church, and be on the alert to find reasons to defend them, and by no means in order to criticize them.”