Am 7:12-15 / Eph 1:3-14 / Mk 6:7-13
“Time will prove who is right and who is not.”
You have heard something like this before, I am sure. Some people even try to use that to urge “patience” on people today.
Amaziah had no patience for Amos in the first reading this weekend, and though we do not read Amos’ response today, Amos had no patience for Amaziah, either.
“Time” proved Amos right. Amaziah, and the shrine at Bethel, and the entire nation for that matter, were dealt with severely by God for their infidelity to what had been handed on to them.
There are any number of people who try to “adjust” what has been handed down to us to make it fit their own interpretations of how God should act today. In their attempts to be relevant to the desires of modern culture, they forget we have a specific inheritance as God’s possession (see the close of St. Paul’s reading today).
By the unmatched mercy of God, we have been possessed by Him. Because of this we are called to be faithful to what we have received. In that faithfulness we go out to the world, commissioned by Jesus Himself to proclaim liberty to captives, and healing to those in need.
Those who want to “adjust” what we have received (let me be bold here) are not living in the feedom of the Gospel, but in the chains of the tyranny of this age. Amaziah told Amos “Off with you…” Sometimes today these people try to say the same to anyone bold enough to stand with the Magisterium and the full Gospel we have received.
I am afraid they too may face the fate of Amaziah. In compassion, may we pray that this not happen to anyone again. May the Lord of time not only prove the Church right, but restore ALL those who think she is wrong.
