The Universal Church celebrates Sunday, July 13, 2024, as the 15th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B. In the entrance antiphon, we pray: “As for me, in justice, I shall behold your face; I shall be filled with the vision of your glory. Amen.”
We are all missionaries and God is calling us in various ways to be the bearers of his message of salvation to the world. That is the main message of this day’s Eucharist. God raises up many unlikely candidates to be his prophets, apostles, and saints to carry his word to men and women of every age and generation, urging them to prepare for our Lord’s coming. This is seen very clearly in the first reading where a farmer-turned-prophet, Amos, is taken from his farm and his sheep and sent to prophesy to his native Israel, calling on its rulers to renounce their bad ways and turn back to their God. In the Gospel, Christ sends out his disciples to go and teach all nations and make them his people. The same call has resounded down the centuries to our day through Christ’s Church. In the Second Reading, Saint Paul begins his letter to the Ephesians: “Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”. We too join him this day to bless the Lord for the unfathomable love He has shown for us. God offers salvation to all without exception. In the course of this Eucharist, let us pray for the grace to hear God’s call and to prophesy to his people.
First Reading: Amos 7: 12-15.
Amaziah, priest of Bethel, said to Amos, "Off with you, visionary, flee to the land of Judah! There earn your bread by prophesying, but never again prophesy in Bethel; for it is the king's sanctuary and a royal temple." Amos answered Amaziah, "I was no prophet, nor have I belonged to a company of prophets; I was a shepherd and a dresser of sycamores. The Lord took me from following the flock, and said to me, Go, prophesy to my people Israel."
Comment.
In today’s first reading, we are introduced to one of the great characters of the Hebrew Bible, a layman called Amos, a farmer-turned-prophet. He lived in the middle of the 8th century before Christ and came from a small village in the country of Judah, about five miles southeast of Bethlehem. He was not a professional prophet and he stresses that it was through God’s direct intervention that he became a prophet. His prophetic ministry was a short but very intense one. He was obedient to the divine call that led him to make very courageous decisions in the face of much opposition, especially from the priestly classes. For Amos, Israel is nothing and God is everything. He makes it clear that he owes his allegiance to God and God alone. Any man, be he king or priest, has no say over him as he boldly carries God’s word to the world.
In the Israel of his day, economic circumstances were relatively favourable, though limited to particular social classes. The ordinary people lived very miserable lives, being often exploited by the well-to-do, quite reminiscent of what is happening in our society today. The poor lived in abject poverty and were greatly repressed by the ruling priestly and princely classes. Despite the material prosperity, there was generalized moral and religious degradation.
Amos openly attacks the rich for their lack of compassion towards the poor. God sent him to the northern kingdom, Israel, which had reached the summit of material power and prosperity. The land was prospering, the cities were elegantly built, the palaces strongly defended and the rich and powerful lived in extreme luxury.
The poor, on the other hand, were afflicted, exploited, and reduced to slavery. There was a total absence of justice and pity in the land: the judges were corrupt and the innocents were brutalized. Amid all this luxury and misery, religion flourished. People thronged to the shrines at festival time to practice elaborate rituals. Amos regarded all those religious rituals as a mockery of God’s compassion because the perpetrators of social injustice sought to conceal their acts by hypocritical religious activities.
In the passage of our meditation, Amos is disturbing the peace of the priest of Bethel called Amaziah. Bethel was the sanctuary of the king and its priest was not happy with Amos’ accusations against the way the country was run. That is why he accuses Amos before the king of subversion. The priest then tells Amos to go back to his homeland, Judah, and leave the king’s sanctuary in peace. Amos reminds him that he did not become a prophet by royal decree. He received it from the mouth of God himself who asked him to “Go, prophesy to my people Israel”.
Our country too has had its share of prophets who have perished under mysterious circumstances because they have dared disturb the peace of the ruling princes and princesses of our land. A few names readily come to mind: Father Francis Mbassi, Jesuit priest Engelbert Mveng, Father Anthony Fonteh in Kumbo, Bishop Jean Marie Balla of Bafia, as well as the Presbyterian minister Michael Bame Bame. Numerous other Christ’s lay faithful have also been harassed, and some have even paid with their lives, for speaking the truth to the powers that be in our land.
We all are called to be prophets for justice and peace wherever we are. And, like Amos, we should be ready to be persecuted for speaking the truth. We pray to the Holy Spirit to increase our faith so as not to be intimidated by those in authority who may try to lead us astray. We make our prayer through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.
Second Reading: Ephesians 1: 3-14.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens, as he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him. In love, he destined us for adoption to himself through Jesus Christ, in accord with the favor of his will, for the praise of the glory of his grace that he granted us in the beloved. In him we have redemption by his blood, the forgiveness of transgressions, in accord with the riches of his grace that he lavished upon us. In all wisdom and insight, he has made known to us the mystery of his will in accord with his favor that he set forth in him as a plan for the fullness of times, to sum up all things in Christ, in heaven and on earth. In him we were also chosen, destined in accord with the purpose of the One who accomplishes all things according to the intention of his will, so that we might exist for the praise of his glory, we who first hoped in Christ. In him you also, who have heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and have believed in him, were sealed with the promised holy Spirit, which is the first installment of our inheritance toward redemption as God's possession, to the praise of his glory.
Comment
Saint Paul’s Letters to the Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, and Philemon have traditionally been referred to as his “Captivity Epistles” because they were written when the Apostle Paul was in one prison or another. In the course of his ministry, Saint Paul suffered imprisonment in Ephesus, Caesaria, and Rome. Church historians believe he wrote the Letter to the Ephesians from Rome from the years 61-63 AD.
In Saint Paul’s time, Ephesus was the leading city in Asia Minor. It had been conquered by Alexander the Great in 334 BC and later came under the dominion of Rome in about 133 BC. From then it became the administrative and religious center of the Roman province known as “Asia”.
From ancient times, this city gave its religious allegiance to the oriental goddess of fertility, whom the Greeks identified as Artemis and the Romans with Diana and whose magnificent temple was regarded as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The city of Ephesus was also famous for magic and occultism and its inhabitants were notoriously superstitious – very much like what we see in the city of Douala today. That is why Saint Paul found it challenging to establish a faith that directly countered the practices of the day.
In the passage selected for our meditation, which is the opening chapter, Saint Paul begins with a greeting which identifies who he is and his authority to write this letter. He is an apostle of Jesus Christ. He then recognizes the dignity of the people he is addressing by calling them “Saints” and “faithful of Christ Jesus”.
As we saw in the first reading, concerning the call of Amos as a prophet, Saint Paul tells his converts that a calling to the apostolate is something that comes from God. It is a grace, a sign of God’s special love. In Saint Paul’s case, this calling was revealed to him by Christ himself on the road to Damascus (Acts 13: 2f). This letter is a beautiful hymn of praise to God for the plan of salvation he has devised and brought to fulfillment through his beloved Son, Jesus Christ.
This plan of salvation has not only been devised for the Jews but also the Gentiles. Jews and Gentiles now join to form a single people, the Church with Christ as the head. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, Saint Paul praises God the Father for all that his Son Jesus Christ has done to save us.
What lesson am I, as an ordinary Christian living in the city of Douala, taking home from this reading? It is full of lessons but one strikes me more forcefully than others, which is, the challenge for me to have the same attitude of praise of the Lord as Saint Paul has throughout his letter. I agree here with Saint Augustine who says, “Our entire life on earth should take the form of praise of God, for the never-ending joy of our future life consists in praising God, and no one can become fit for that future life unless he trains himself to render that praise now.” I therefore pray for the grace to render praises to the Blessed Trinity, who is God as Father, God as Son, and God as Holy Spirit, One God, now and forever. Amen.
Gospel acclamation: “Alleluia, alleluia. May the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, enlighten the eyes of our hearts, that we may know what is the hope that belongs to our call. Alleluia.”
Gospel: Mark 6: 7-13.
Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over unclean spirits. He instructed them to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick-- no food, no sack, no money in their belts. They were, however, to wear sandals but not a second tunic. He said to them, "Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave. Whatever place does not welcome you or listen to you, leave there and shake the dust off your feet in testimony against them." So they went off and preached repentance. The Twelve drove out many demons, and they anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.
Comment
In today’s Gospel, Jesus summons the twelve apostles and sends them out on a missionary tour. Like the prophet Amos, the chosen followers of Jesus have to carry the word of God as a challenge to others. In this mission, the apostles have the authority and power of Jesus and that is what they have to travel on.
They are not to rely on their own resources but on the authority that has been given to them and the hospitality that will be offered them. With no bread and no money, they have to depend on the kindness of others: that vulnerability makes the message they are carrying their real resource. If people give them bread to eat, it means they are not only hospitable to Christ’s disciples but also to the word they preach. If they are not accepted, they have no option but to move on. And when a town rejects their message, they are to shake the dust from their feet and move on.
Both the prophets and the apostles have to rely on the authority and the power given to them by God. In taking to the road, they will test their message on foreign soil; they will see if their conviction can succeed beyond national frontiers and personal indifference. Can their vocation survive rejection and even persecution? It is not only the message they carry that is being tested, it is also the messenger himself.
The same process continues to this day in the life of the Church. Whether we are clergy or laity, each time we carry God’s message into our families and society at large, we receive similar reactions. We are either received well or badly. Where we are well received, we must preach the Gospel – even if it is only through the example of a good Christian life; where we are received with hostility, we shake the dust from our feet and head somewhere else. Even Christ himself was not well received in his own village and their unbelief disarmed him and he could not perform miracles among them, as we heard in last Sunday’s gospel. He had to go elsewhere where people were well disposed to receive him.
So, what am I hearing in this Gospel? First of all, I marvel at the striking way God repeatedly calls up prophets, apostles, and saints from among us to carry his word to others. People we may not always associate with God’s ministry are those he chooses from among us to be his most faithful missionaries. In the first reading, he picks a farmer and sheep grazer, Amos, to take his message to the king of Israel. In the Gospel, Christ selects fishermen from their nets in Galilee and commands them, as we see today, to go to the nations and make disciples of them.
Down the centuries many have been called in the same unexpected and unpredictable manner. Great Saints like Saint Francis of Assisi, Ignatius of Loyola, Saint Augustine of Hippo in North Africa, and Saint Teresa of Calcutta, India, among numerous others, all have distinct stories to tell of how they were called to carry God’s message to the world.
That call, brothers and sisters, is also being daily extended to us all. We are all missionaries and are expected to do our mission with no other motive than to praise and obey God. The apostles, through their preaching and healing, were living witnesses of God, proclaiming the Good News and thereby proving worthy of their call. We too must demonstrate our Christian discipleship by the simplicity of our way of life, trust, and generosity, through Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.
Comments