Saturday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Amos 9:11–15
It was five in the morning.
I was standing in a queue for bread.
The bakery would not open until seven, but the line was already long.
I had brought a book with me, to escape for a while from the harsh reality of life into a fictional world of adventure, where good still triumphed over evil.
I hoped I would get a loaf of bread for my family.
Around me, people were talking about the economic crisis.
Everyone blamed the government. Everyone complained about the situation.
But no one offered consolation.
Most of us thought it would never end.
Then John Paul II came, and he ignited hope in us.
Today, we conclude our journey with Amos, the prophet of social justice.
Until now, we have heard him expose the sins of his people.
He spoke against injustice, against empty worship, against the trampling of the poor.
He warned Israel that disaster was coming.
But at the end of the book, after so many hard words, we hear something unexpected:
“I will plant them upon their own ground; never again shall they be plucked from the land I have given them, says the Lord, your God.”
The Bible is unique in many ways.
But one of its most powerful patterns is this:
after disaster, God begins again.
We see it after the flood.
The waters cover the earth. Everything seems lost.
And then, a new beginning.
We see it again at the end of the Book of Revelation.
The old world passes away. Tears, death, mourning, and pain are no more.
And then, a new heaven and a new earth.
The Bible is the book that sustains hope.
It does not deny judgment. It does not pretend that our choices have no consequences.
Punishment in the Bible is often educational.
It teaches us that life cannot be built on injustice, lies, violence, and greed.
But punishment does not have the last word.
As the sun rises after a thunderstorm, so renewal comes after tragedy.
Israel would be crushed by the mighty Assyrian empire.
The kingdom would fall.
The people would be scattered.
And yet Amos dares to speak of rebuilding, planting, returning, living again.
God can rebuild “the fallen hut of David.”
He can rebuild what history has broken.
He can give hope when a people have no strength left to hope for themselves.
This is the final word of Amos.
Destroyed cities will be rebuilt. Vineyards will be planted. Gardens will bear fruit again.
And the people, once uprooted, will be planted by God.
So let us not lose hope.
So let us not lose hope.
Let us always remember the famous words of Julian of Norwich:
“All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.”
After the storm, the sun rises again.
Biblical Reflections on the Gospel of Matthew
Scripture Attribution
New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993
the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of
Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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