These reflections are a result of more than 40 years of ministry as a Roman Catholic priest. Most of these years I spent in the Diocese of Charlotte which covers Western North Carolina. Now I am retired, and live in Medellín, Colombia where I continue to serve as a priest in the Archdiocese of Medellín.
Though they offer sacrifice, immolate flesh and eat it, the LORD is not pleased with them. He shall still remember their guilt and punish their sins; they shall return to Egypt. (Hos 8:4-7, 11-13)
At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd. (Mt 9:32-38)
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/070522.cfm
“They shall return to Egypt” is a figurative way of saying they will be held captive and become slaves again, negating the salvation the Lord won for them. But God has compassion on us in sending us the Good Shepherd.
Thus says the LORD: I will allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak to her heart. She shall respond there as in the days of her youth, when she came up from the land of Egypt. She shall call me “My husband,” and never again “My baal.” (Hos 2:16, 17c-18, 21-22)
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/070422.cfm
In the daily Mass we begin reading the Prophet Hosea. Hosea and Amos were contemporaries. Hosea is from the northern kingdom and prophesied there. Hosea uses the image of adultery (being unfaithful) as a sign of Israel’s relationship with God. Today is also the Fourth of July, Independence Day in the United States. Perhaps, Hosea and Amos still have words to speak to us today.
May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world . . . From now on, let no one make troubles for me;
for I bear the marks of Jesus on my body. (Gal 6:14-18)
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/070322.cfm
The stigmata (bearing the wounds of Christ in one’s flesh) is not something to marvel at, as people tend to do. The problem is that people never recognize the wounds of Christ in the poor, in those ravaged by disease, in those marginalized by society. Their wounds are the true stigmata of Christ, and those wounds accuse us all. Perhaps Saint Paul has a point in reminding us that we should only boast in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Thus says the LORD: On that day I will raise up the fallen hut of David; I will wall up its breaches, raise up its ruins, and rebuild it as in the days of old. (Am 9:11-15)
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/070222.cfm
Some folks think that these final verses from the prophecy of Amos are an editorial addition from a later time. It is true that these last verses are quite different from the previous prophetic preaching in that they hold out the promise of restoration. But even so, I don’t think the Davidic kings would refer to their palaces as “the fallen hut of David.” Of course, the Virgin Mary reminds us all that God “casts down the mighty from their thrones . . . and fills the hungry with every good thing.”
Hear this, you who trample upon the needy and destroy the poor of the land! . . . Yes, days are coming, says the Lord GOD, when I will send famine upon the land: Not a famine of bread, or thirst for water, but for hearing the word of the LORD. Then shall they wander from sea to sea and rove from the north to the east In search of the word of the LORD, but they shall not find it. (Am 8:4-6, 9-12)
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/070122.cfm
A famine for hearing the word of the Lord . . . the Prophet Amos means business. How can the prophet say such words to us? Well, that has always been our problem. Just like the people to whom these words were first addressed, we separate “Love God” from “Love Neighbor” when they really go together, as Jesus taught us.
