11 July 2021
Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Last week, we heard the Gospel passage proclaimed in which Jesus marvels at the lack of faith which he meets in His unwelcoming hometown, a hometown which presumes to know him. Now that the Twelve have seen both the marvels that the Lord has done in overcoming nature, demons and disease, as well as the rejection He faces from those who have known Him the longest (but the least), now Jesus has prepared them. They are ready to allow His grace to work through them. They are ready to face the sting of rejection. They are ready because the Lord has made them ready.
Consider for example the prophet Amos who we hear today. Like the Twelve, he had not especially gone seeking out the Lord. Rather, the Lord had found him in the midst of his tasks of herding sheep and taking care of fruit plants in the southern kingdom of Judah. From the fields, the Lord had sent him to the northern kingdom of Israel to prophesy to His people about the demise coming in response to the rampant greed and corruption that made the rural poor of the northern kingdom suffer so intensely. The rulers and elites in the northern kingdom thought that they were fine, since they had built religious centers and were outwardly very zealous in offering sacrifices and prayers. The Lord had sent Amos to them to tell them that such practices were reduced to mere show when coupled with such neglect and outright abuse of the poor. Amos had been content to work the land far away from the North. Yet, the Lord chose him, and made him ready to prophesy and to be rejected.
As we hear Amos tell us of his prophetic call, as we hear the Lord Jesus send out the Twelve, let us ask to be attentive to the voice of the Lord. Let us pray with the Psalmist, “I will hear what God proclaims; the LORD —for he proclaims peace.” (Ps 85:9) Let us realize with St. Paul that the Father chose us in Christ, (Eph 1:4) and wants to make us ready to seek repentance and healing (our own and that of others) when with the Lord we see how sin causes our brothers and sisters to suffer.