From: Amos 2:6-10, 13-16
Against Israel
[9] Yet I destroyed the Amorite before them,
whose height was like the height of the cedars,
and who was as strong as the oaks;
I destroyed his fruit above,
and his roots beneath.
[10] Also I brought you up out of the land of Egypt,
and led you forty years in the wilderness,
to possess the land of the Amorite.
[13] “Behold, I will press you down in your place,
as a cart full of sheaves presses down.
[14] Flight shall perish from the swift,
and the strong shall not retain his strength,
nor shall the mighty save his life;
[15] he who handles the bow shall not stand,
and he who is swift of foot shall not save himself,
nor shall he who rides the horse save his life;
[16] and he who is stout of heart among the mighty
shall flee away naked in that day,” says the Lord
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Commentary:
2:4-16. This passage contains a brief oracle on Judah (vv. 4-5) and another on
Israel (vv. 6-16). The oracle against Judah is less severe than the previous ones
and the one in vv. 6-16, which are more generic in tone; for this reason, some
authors think that it must be a later addition. It reproaches Judah for breaking
the commandments of the Law and for being unfaithful to God.
The oracle against Israel, on the other hand, is much longer and more explicit.
It mentions Israel’s transgressions (and then punishment) and also the benefits
that the people have received from God. These transgressions will be referred to
throughout the book (cf. 3:1-9:10). They were largely to do with injustice towards
the poor (synonymous with the righteous: cf. v. 6) and the needy (vv. 6-7); incest
or idolatry (v. 7) and aberrant forms of worship (v. 8). They commit these crimes,
forgetting how good God has been to them — setting them free from bondage in
Egypt (v. 10), giving them the promised land (v. 10), and providing them with pro-
phets and Nazirites to be their guides (v. 11). But Israel is proud and ungrateful,
and will be punished. This punishment will be so all-embracing and so sudden
that none will be able to escape or resist it (vv. 14-16).
St Jerome, commenting on v. 14, considers the example of Israel’s pride for the
benefit of his readers. Those will feel devoid of strength who “trust in their own
strength and do not rely on the mercy of God, as Scripture tells us: ‘I will des-
troy the wisdom of the wise, and the cleverness of the clever I will thwart’ (1 Cor
1:19; cf. Is 29:14). Authentic wisdom cannot be destroyed nor knowledge of the
truth undone, but the wisdom of those who believe themselves to be wise and
who trust only in their own understanding will perish. The mighty man who shall
not save his life (cf. Amos 2:14) dies because he is not dressed in the armour
of an apostle. He bears a shield, but it is not the shield of faith; he has girded
his loins, but not with the truth; he wears a suit of armour, but it is not the ar-
mour of righteousness; he carries a sword, but it is not the sword of salvation.
This mighty warrior cannot he made holy by his battles nor wage the war of the
Lord” (St Jerome, Commentarii in Amos, 2, 13-16).
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.
From: Matthew 8:18-22
Demands for Following Christ
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Commentary:
18-22. From the very outset of His messianic preaching, Jesus rarely stays in
the same place; He is always on the move. He “has nowhere to lay His head”
(Matthew 8:20). Anyone who desires to be with him has to “follow Him”. This
phrase “following Jesus” has a very precise meaning: it means being His disciple
(cf. Matthew 19:28). Sometimes the crowds “follow Him”; but Jesus’ true dis-
ciples are those who “follow Him” in a permanent way, that is, who keep on fol-
lowing Him: being a “disciple of Jesus” and “following Him” amount to the same
thing. After our Lord’s ascension, “following Him” means being a Christian (cf.
Acts 8:26). By the simple and sublime fact of Baptism, every Christian is called,
by a divine vocation, to be a full disciple of our Lord, with all that that involves.
The evangelist here gives two specific cases of following Jesus. In the case of
the scribe our Lord explains what faith requires of a person who realizes that he
has been called; in the second case—that of the man who has already said “yes”
to Jesus—He reminds him of what His commandment entails. The soldier who
does not leave his position on the battlefront to bury his father, but instead
leaves that to those in the rearguard, is doing his duty. If service to one’s coun-
try makes demands like that on a person, all the more reason for it to happen
in the service of Jesus Christ and His Church.
Following Christ, then, means we should make ourselves totally available to Him;
whatever sacrifice He asks of us we should make: the call to follow Christ means
staying up with Him, not falling behind; we either follow Him or lose Him. In the
Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) Jesus explained what following Him involves
—a teaching which we find summarized in even the most basic catechism of
Christian doctrine: a Christian is a man who believes in Jesus Christ —a faith he
receives at Baptism—and is duty bound to serve Him. Through prayer and friend-
ship with the Lord every Christian should try to discover the demands which this
service involves as far as he personally is concerned.
20. “The Son of Man”: this is one of the expressions used in the Old Testament
to refer to the Messiah. It appeared first in Daniel 7:14 and was used in Jewish
writings in the time of Jesus. Until our Lord began to preach it had not been
understood in all its depth. The title “the Son of man” did not fit in very well with
Jewish hopes of an earthly Messiah; this was why it was Jesus’ favorite way of
indicating that He was the Messiah—thereby avoiding any tendency to encourage
Jewish nationalism. In the prophecy of Daniel just mentioned this messianic title
has a transcendental meaning; by using it Jesus was able discreetly to proclaim
that He was the Messiah and yet avoid people interpreting His role in a political
sense. After the Resurrection the Apostles at last realized that “Son of Man”
meant nothing less than “Son of God”.
22. “Leave the dead to bury their own dead”: although this sounds very harsh, it
is a style of speaking which Jesus did sometimes use: here the “dead” clearly
refers to those whose interest is limited to perishable things and who have no
aspirations towards the things that last forever.
“If Jesus forbade him,” St. John Chrysostom comments, “it was not to have us
neglect the honor due to our parents, but to make us realize that nothing is more
important than the things of Heaven and that we ought to cleave to these and not
to put them off even for a little while, though our engagements be ever so indispen-
sable and pressing” (”Hom. on St. Matthew”, 27).
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.