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Thursday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Amos 7:10-17
Psalm 19:8,9,10,11
Matthew 9:1-8
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UMMARY
AMOS: Amaziah is a priest of Bethel who wants to get rid of the prophet
Amos. He tells Jereboam, King of Israel, that Amos is conspiring against him.
Amaziah then goes to Amos and tells him that he should leave Bethel and no
long prophesy there.
Amos answers Amaziah, saying that he, Amos, was no prophet prior to the
time that God called him to prophesy to Israel. He goes on to tell Amaziah
what the Lord God has said - that the sons and daughters of Israel will die by
the sword, the land will be divided and that Israel will be exiled from it. Amos
speaks through and with the authority of God.
MATTHEW: This reading relates the story of Jesus healing the paralyzed man
who was brought to Him by people of great faith. Jesus tells the man that his
sins are forgiven, knowing that the scribes are saying amongst themselves
that Jesus is blaspheming in offering forgiveness for sins. Jesus told the man
ˈYour sins are forgivenˉ, rather than telling him to ˈRise and walkˉ to show the
people the He has God˅s authority here on earth to offer that forgiveness.
Jesus then commanded the man to ˈRise and go homeˉ, which the man then
did. The crowds were then awestruck and glorified God for having given this
authority to men.
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EFLECTION
As I write this, I˅m sitting in an airport in Dallas, Texas en route to my home-
town of Odessa, Texas. I˅m going to visit my father for the weekend, in
which both his birthday and Father˅s Day fall. The flight leaving Los Angeles
was significantly late, causing me to miss my connecting flight here in Dallas
and keeping me on the ground until the next flight ˀ 5 hours from now. This
definitely falls into the category of an incident that is WAY out of my control. I