28 June 2016 - Tuesday of the 13th week of Ordinary Time - Amos 3:1-8, 4:11-12

     If you recall, for the last several weeks, we had been hearing from the 1st and 2nd books of Kings in our first readings in the daily masses.  Today, we hear from the prophet Amos. Amos was a shepherd from the southern kingdom of Judah.  God called him to be a prophet, sending him to the northern kingdom of Israel.  Amos confronted the people for the way they were devoted to worshipping God in their liturgies and prayers and piety, but ignored the injustices around them. Indeed, Amos is now a voice of social justice in the Hebrew Scriptures whose voice still calls out to us today. Amos today tells the people that although they were favored by the Lord in all of the human family, they did not respond in love and service. 

     As we hear about the prophet Amos' call to bring God's message to the world around him, we might think about how we celebrate a wide variety of saints in our faith, men and women from different cultures and different times in history who served the Lord in many different ways.  These men and women reflect the signs of their times and the different realities that have faced the Church.   St Irenaeus was born in the early second century near the city of Ephesus in western Turkey.  Irenaeus moved to the city of Lyons in southern France where he served as a priest and then as the Bishop for 25 years.  He was martyred during a time of persecution in the Church there.  Irenaeus is most remembered for his writings in defense of Church doctrine, especially against the heresy of Gnosticism, a major philosophy that was present during the first centuries of the Early Church.   Gnosticism saw the material world as being inferior to the spirit world; it saw a need for human beings to gain salvation and liberation from the material world.   The Church, however, saw the world as intrinsically good as a part of God’s creation.  Irenaeus said: “He who is the Son of God became the Son of Man, that man might become the Son of God.”  He saw a unity between God and man, a unity between man and all of creation, very different from the dualism proposed by Gnosticism.  

     As Amos confront the reality of his day, of the way the people were not practicing the mercy and justice of God in their daily lives, and as Irenaeus confronted the heresies that were trying to take control of the Early Church, we also are to read the signs of the times in our modern world. Are we practicing justice and mercy in our lives?  Are we turning away from the word of God and turning away from his laws and commandments?  How are we called to turn back to the Lord.