July 15 // Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Reading I: Amos 7:12-15
Responsorial Psalm 85:9-10, 11-12, 13-14
Reading II: Ephesians 1:3-14 or 1:3-10
Gospel: Mark 6:7-13

According to Sr. Patricia Bruno, OP who twice led our parish retreat here at Assumption, “Prophets share God’s anger, sorrow, disappointment, revulsion towards evil, sensitivity and seriousness about concrete events of their lives.” They, like Amos who we read in today’s first scripture “have an empathy with God that enables them to see the world through God’s eyes. They think God’s thoughts because they share God’s emotions and values. This is what it means to be filled with the Spirit of God. This is what enables us to read the signs of the times with honesty and truth. Honesty and truth can also question our motives and feelings that lurk behind the anger or sorrow we feel when confronted by unjust situations. Are we really seeing the situation from God’s point of view or from our own? Have we made God into our image or have we allowed God to reshape us into God’s likeness? …Each situation requires study … Consulting others, discussing alternative possibilities and carefully planned actions reinforce a positive outcome. Whether we are discussing our personal lives or world events, prayer and the practice of nonviolent communication are essential as we strive towards a resolution.”

God uses some very ordinary people, like Amos, to be prophets. Like the prophets of old let’s listen to God, and to people who are suffering. Let us love much and be very careful to say only what is true.