Truth

A Reflection on the First Reading for Sunday, July 14th, 2024:
Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

---

Amos
​7.12-15

Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, said to Amos, “O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, earn your bread there, and prophesy there; but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.”

Then Amos answered Amaziah, “I am no Prophet, nor a Prophet’s son; but I am a herdsman, and a dresser of sycamore trees, and the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’”

Pause. Pray. Reflect.

“The truth will set you free… but first it will p1$$ you off!” 

A few years ago, I found these words printed in  a stylish frame in a gift shop.  I literally laughed out loud and seriously considered purchasing it to hang over my desk. It struck me as funny because it’s so true! The truth is freeing but often hearing that truth does pi…tick you off. 

In this reading from the prophet Amos, he is being told in no uncertain terms to buzz off. And for what reason? Because he’s calling out the current leadership of Israel. Amos was speaking the truth, and Amaziah was ticked. Probably by order of the king, or in order to not get in trouble with the king, Amaziah wanted this truth teller to go away – and he told him so. Amos was telling God’s truth. And Amaziah’s response: Go away, speaker of truth!  Stop challenging the status quo.

I get that. I’ve felt that. When someone calls me out regarding something I’m doing or how I am acting, it throws me off balance. I start to question my choices and decisions. It makes me vulnerable. When we’re told the truth – that we didn’t see, or that got lost  or forgotten in the busyness of our doing and being – it can be maddening because all of a sudden it changes our perspective, our understanding of the situation. Sometimes it even challenges what we thought we knew about ourselves. In this hearing of the truth there is vulnerability. And who wants to be vulnerable?

Jesus was. He came as a human with human vulnerabilities so that I might know that in vulnerability God can enter in and transform my heart, my mind… my life! God can change me. He places me in situations or puts Amos like people in my life to reveal His truth to me. And I can be like Amaziah and push that truth away or I can sit in the vulnerability and consider how I can be changed to be more who God calls me to be. 

People of faith before me have faced this challenge and, two thousand years later, this Church still exists. This Church still calls people to it. This Church still has truth tellers. Yet this Church isn’t just about the people in it. It is about Christ, and the truth He brought and continues to bring. And Christ is not threatened by my meagre attempts to tell Him to go away. He will continually find the ways to bring the Truth to my heart. Because Christ wants to build me up so that I can tell the truth of God’s love and mercy as I have experienced it in my life. Witnessing that truth will set people free. But first, they might just get ticked off. 




Aurea Sadi

---