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From: Amos 7:10-17

Dispute with Amaziah

[10] Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying,
“Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel; the land is
not able to bear all his words. [11] For thus Amos has said, ‘Jeroboam shall die
by the sword, and Israel must go into exile away from his land.’”

[12] And Amaziah said to Amos, “O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah,
and eat bread there, and prophesy there; [13] but never again prophesy at Be-
thel, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.”

[14] Then Amos answered Amaziah, “I am no prophet, nor a prophet’s son; but
I am a herdsman, and a dresser of sycamore trees, [15] and the Lord took me
from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, “Go, prophesy to my people
Israel.’

[16] “Now therefore hear the word of the LORD. You say, ‘Do not prophesy a-
gainst Israel, and do not preach against the house of Isaac.’ [17] Therefore thus
says the LORD: ‘Your wife shall be a harlot in the city, and your sons and your
daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be parceled out by line;
you yourself shall die in an unclean land, and Israel shall surely go into exile
away from its land.’”

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Commentary:

7:1-9:10. This section is the third part of the book. It consists of five visions,
with a doxology that comes near the end (9:5-6). Mixed in are some interesting
details about Amos and his teaching — the account of his call (7:14-15), a dra-
matic description of the “day of the Lord” (8:9-14), etc. The passage ends with
an announcement of punishment (9:7-10) that serves to underscore the opti-
mism of the final oracle, which is about future restoration.

Most of this passage is taken up with the “five visions of Amos”; these are writ-
ten to a fairly fixed pattern, in a mixture of prose and verse. The visions mean
that Amos’ ministry includes that of “seer” as well as prophet. The message of
the visions is clear: the Lord cannot be appeased by external, schismatic rites
that fail to touch men’s hearts or move them to conversion.

7:7-17. The vision of the plumb line (vv. 7-9) exposes the rottenness within the
people. They are not level, not right; when they are checked, they are found to
be askew (v. 7). From now on, the Lord is not going to overlook their infidelities;
what is out of line will be destroyed (v. 9). That may be why the prophet no lon-
ger intercedes; he simply notes something that will happen inexorably.

The vision is followed by an account of Amos’ altercation with Amaziah, the
priest of the sanctuary of Bethel (vv. 10-17). Amaziah, a supporter of King Jero-
boam, sees in Amos a prophet who is only going to cause trouble in the king-
dom: he has no interest in trying to understand Amos’ message — which in fact
exposes injustices and deceit to which Amaziah is party.

Amaziah calls Amos a “seer” (a translation of one of the Hebrew terms used to
designate a prophet). But Amos does not regard himself as a prophet in the nor-
mal sense, a “son of a prophet” (v. 14), that is, a member of a group or fraternity
of prophets, of which there were many in Israel, at least from the time of King
Saul onwards (cf. 1 Sam 10:10-13; 19:20-24), nor is he an “official” prophet, a
member of the staff of the royal household. Amos’ reply is clear: he is a herds-
man and a dresser of sycamores. But the Lord sent him to “prophesy” to Israel
(v. 15). Amos, then, was an ordinary man (not a prophet, not a priest) who was
commissioned by the Lord, out of the blue, to proclaim a message. A call from
God is something so imperative that no one should refuse it (cf. 3:8), but at the
same time it gives meaning and strength to the person’s life: it confers on him a
sense of authority even over institutions such as temple and king. He therefore
has the last word (v. 17): “God’s calling gives us a mission: it invites us to share
in the unique task of the Church, to bear witness to Christ before our fellow men
and so draw all things toward God. Our calling discloses to us the meaning of
our existence. It means being convinced, through faith, of the reason for our life
on earth. Our life — present, past and future — acquires a new dimension, a
depth we did not perceive before. All happenings and events now fall within their
true perspective: we understand where God is leading us, and we feel ourselves
borne along by this task entrusted to us” (St Josemarla Escrivá, “Christ is Pas-
sing By”, 45).

*********************************************************************************************
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 9:1-8

The Curing of a Paralytic

[1] And getting into a boat He (Jesus) crossed over and came to His own city.
[2] And behold, they brought to Him a paralytic, lying on his bed; and when
Jesus saw their faith He said to the paralytic, “Take heart, My son; your sins
are forgiven.” [3] And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, “This man
is blaspheming.” [4] But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think
evil in your hearts? [5] For which is easier to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven’, or to
say, ‘Rise and walk’? [6] But that you may know that the Son of Man has autho-
rity on earth to forgive sins” — He then said to the paralytic — “Rise, take up your
bed and go home.” [7] And He rose and went home. [8] When the crowds saw
it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men.

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Commentary:

1. “His own city”: Capernaum (cf. Matthew 4:13 and Mark 2:1).

2-6. The sick man and those who bring him to Jesus ask Him to cure the man’s
physical illness; they believe in His supernatural powers. As in other instances
of miracles, our Lord concerns Himself more with the underlying cause of illness,
that is, sin. With divine largesse He gives more than He is asked for, even though
people do not appreciate this. St. Thomas Aquinas says that Jesus Christ acts
like a good doctor: He cures the cause of the illness (cf. “Commentary on St.
Matthew”, 9, 1-6).

2. The parallel passage of St. Mark adds a detail which helps us understand this
scene better and explains why the text refers to “their faith”: in Mark 2:2-5 we
are told that there was such a crowd around Jesus that the people carrying the
bed could not get near Him. So they had the idea of going up onto the roof and
making a hole and lowering the bed down in front of Jesus. This explains His
“seeing their faith”.

Our Lord was pleased by their boldness, a boldness which resulted from their
lively faith which brooked no obstacles. This nice example of daring indicates
how we should go about putting charity into practice—as also how Jesus feels
towards people who show real concern for others: He cures the paralytic who
was so ingeniously helped by his friends and relatives; even the sick man him-
self showed daring by not being afraid of the risk involved.

St. Thomas comments on this verse as follows: “This paralytic symbolizes the
sinner lying in sin”; just as the paralytic cannot move, so the sinner cannot help
himself. The people who bring the paralytic along represent those who, by gi-
ving him good advice, lead the sinner to God” (”Commentary on St. Matthew”,
9, 2). In order to get close to Jesus the same kind of holy daring is needed, as
the Saints show us. Anyone who does not act like this will never take important
decisions in his life as a Christian.

3-7. Here “to say” obviously means “to say and mean it”, “to say producing the
result which your words imply”. Our Lord is arguing as follows: which is easier
— to cure the paralytic’s body or to forgive the sins of his soul? Undoubtedly, to
cure his body; for the soul is superior to the body and therefore diseases of the
soul are the more difficult to cure. However, a physical cure can be seen, where-
as a cure of the soul cannot. Jesus proves the hidden cure by performing a visi-
ble one.

The Jews thought that any illness was due to personal sin (cf. John 9:1-3); so
when they heard Jesus saying, “Your sins are forgiven”, they reasoned in their
minds as follows: only God can forgive sins (cf. Luke 5:21); this man says that
He has power to forgive sins; therefore, He is claiming a power which belongs
to God alone—which is blasphemy. Our Lord, however, forestalls them, using
their own arguments: by curing the paralytic by saying the word, He shows them
that since He has the power to cure the effects of sin (which is what they believe
disease to be), then He also has power to cure the cause of illness (sin); there-
fore, He has divine power.

Jesus Christ passed on to the Apostles and their successors in the priestly mini-
stry the power to forgive sins: “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive sins of any,
they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained” (John 20:22-23).
“Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven, and
whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in Heaven” (Matthew 18:18). Priests
exercise this power in the Sacrament of Penance: in doing so they act not in
their own name but in Christ’s—”in persona Christi”, as instruments of the Lord.

Hence the respect, the veneration and gratitude with which we should approach
Confession: in the priest we should see Christ Himself, God Himself, and we
should receive the words of absolution firmly believing that it is Christ who is ut-
tering them through the priest. This is why the minister does not say: “Christ ab-
solves you...”, but rather “I absolve you from your sins...” He speaks in the first
person, so fully is he identified with Jesus Christ Himself (cf. “St. Pius V Cate-
chism”, II, 5, 10).

*********************************************************************************************
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.

Scripture readings from the Jerusalem Bible by Darton, Longman & Todd

Readings at Mass

Liturgical Colour: Green.

First reading	Amos 7:10-17 ©

Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent word to Jeroboam king of Israel as follows. ‘Amos is plotting against you in the heart of the House of Israel; the country can no longer tolerate what he keeps saying. For this is what he says, “Jeroboam is going to die by the sword, and Israel go into exile far from its country.”’ To Amos, Amaziah said, ‘Go away, seer;’ get back to the land of Judah; earn your bread there, do your prophesying there. We want no more prophesying in Bethel; this is the royal sanctuary, the national temple.’ ‘I was no prophet, neither did I belong to any of the brotherhoods of prophets,’ Amos replied to Amaziah ‘I was a shepherd, and looked after sycamores: but it was the Lord who took me from herding the flock, and the Lord who said, “Go, prophesy to my people Israel.” So listen to the word of the Lord.

‘You say:

‘“Do not prophesy against Israel,

utter no oracles against the House of Isaac.”

‘Very well, this is what the Lord says,

‘“Your wife will be forced to go on the streets,

your sons and daughters will fall by the sword,

your land be parcelled out by measuring line,

and you yourself die on unclean soil

and Israel will go into exile far distant from its own land.”’

Responsorial Psalm	Psalm 18:8-11 ©