Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time – July 14, 2024
Jesus sends us out into the world to announce the Gospel, and we should not be deterred when the message is not received. But there’s more the Spirit is saying to us today, and we can’t be like Amaziah in the first reading who exiles the prophet because he doesn’t like what he hears.
Amos, the herdsman turned prophet, was sent to the temple at Bethel in the Northern Kingdom of Israel, to its priests, religious leaders, and king. To them Amos was to convey how the Lord despised empty worship concerned only with solemnities, burnt offerings, and religious piety and not with mercy and justice for those most in need (Am 5:21–24).
Will we and our religious leaders have listened to the prophets among us, or, in the end, will those prophets be shaking the dust of our own delusion from their feet?
Many years later, Pope John Paul II would give the same warning to his own bishops, clergy, and people: “We cannot delude ourselves: by our mutual love and, in particular, by our concern for those in need we will be recognized as true followers of Christ. This will be the criterion by which the authenticity of our Eucharistic celebrations is judged” (Mane Nobiscum Domine 38).
This week culminates a multi-year, multimillion-dollar effort in the United States at reviving devotion to the Eucharist. Will we and our religious leaders have listened to the prophets among us, or, in the end, will those prophets be shaking the dust of our own delusion from their feet?
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