Daily Archives: June 30, 2026

Meeting God in the Disruptions

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Today’s readings for Mass are an odd pair: Amos and Matthew. The first reading from the Book of Amos is a prophetic oracle of judgment. Amos speaks in stark images of roaring lions, traps, trumpets, and disasters before concluding, “Prepare to meet your God.” The Gospel from Gospel of Matthew tells the familiar story of Jesus calming the storm at sea. One sounds like doom and the end of the world; the other is a miracle story of rescue. Yet, in their own way each asks how we respond when God disrupts our sense of security?

Amos is speaking to the prosperous Northern Kingdom of Israel during a time of relative peace and economic success. The people assume that God is with them because life is good, so everything must be fine. The prophet offers a different vision. He describes a series of seemingly inevitable events.  If the lion roars, that means it has prey in sight. If the city guards sound the trumpet warning, people’s natural response is to be frightened.  Amos is pointing out cause and effect. Then comes the key verse: “Indeed, the Lord GOD does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants, the prophets.” (Am 3:7, NAB)

Historically, Amos preached during the reign of Jeroboam II (about 760–750 BC). It was one of Israel’s most prosperous periods. Economically trade flourished, borders expanded, and wealth increased. Spiritually and socially, however, Amos saw something very different: exploitation of the poor, corrupt courts, dishonest business practices, luxurious living by the wealthy, empty religious observance, over confidence that because Israel was God’s chosen people, disaster could never happen.

Our reading omits Amos 4:6-10, which explains the disasters: drought, failed harvests, some military defeats and more. The disasters Israel is experiencing were not random. They are prophetic wake-up calls. God has been speaking, but the people have refused to listen. There is a heartbreaking refrain that punctuates each disaster: “Yet you did not return to me.” Again and again God allowed hardship, not out of cruelty, but to call his people back. Yet they remained unmoved. Thus Amos concludes: “Prepare to meet your God.” That is not merely a threat. It is an invitation to conversion before it is too late.

“Too late” happened in In 722/721 BC, the Neo-Assyrian Empire conquered the Northern Kingdom. The capital was razed, many inhabitants were deported, and the kingdom ceased to exist.

Amos portrays a God who warns repeatedly before judgment falls. Judgment is not God’s first word. His first word is always an invitation to return. In that sense, Amos is remarkably consistent with the Gospel. God is patient, persistent, and merciful but he also takes human freedom seriously. If people continually refuse every invitation to conversion, there are real consequences. That makes Amos less a prophet of doom than a prophet of urgent hope: it is not too late to return but the time to return is now.

The Gospel is a different kind of wake-up call. The disciples also experience something that shatters their security. A violent storm threatens the boat but unlike Israel in Amos the disciples do exactly the right thing. They cry out: “Lord, save us! We are perishing!” (Mt 8:25).  They do this with imperfect faith: “Why are you terrified, O you of little faith? (v.26).  Nonetheless, they turn toward Christ. Israel ignored God’s warnings. The disciples run to Jesus.

Amos describes people who are spiritually asleep during good times. The disciples discover their weakness during bad times. Both groups encounter God through disruption but they respond differently.

Most of us don’t like interruptions and disruptions. We prefer stability, predictability and control. Yet throughout Scripture, God often speaks through interruptions. For Israel it was drought, famine, and military threats. For the disciples it was a storm. Today, our “interruptions” include illness, unemployment, family struggles, disappointment, and unexpected changes. The question we face is not whether disruptions come. The question is will the disruptions drive us away from God, or toward him?

There is one subtle connection between the readings. In Amos, God asks Israel to prepare to meet him. In the Gospel, the disciples discover that God is already in the boat with them. The God whom Amos tells Israel to prepare to meet is the same God who has entered the storm with his disciples in the person of Jesus.

We do indeed prepare to meet God. Not because he is distant, but because in Christ he has already come to meet us. The storms of life become not simply tests of endurance but opportunities to discover that the Lord is nearer than we realized. Jesus is already in the boat…so, stay in the boat.

Image credit: ChatGPT / Dalle-3, June 29, 2026 from prompt: “Please prepare a 1200×675 px image appropriate to the daily mass readings: Amos 3:1-8; 4:11-12 and Matthew 8:23-27.”

Opposition to Jesus

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The Sunday to come is the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time. The transition of Sunday gospels from the 13th to the 14th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year A) passes over Matthew 11:1-24 which can be aptly described as the warnings of Matthew 10 coming true. (Note: these verses are read on the 3rd Sunday of Advent) There will indeed be opposition within and from the people of Israel. There have been all manner of opposition alluded to in Matthew’s narrative, e.g., Herod, the devil in the wilderness temptation, persecutions mentioned in the Sermon on the Mount, scribal accusations after healing on the Sabbath, Pharisees condemning Jesus because he ate with sinners and tax collectors, and more. As this chapter unfolds, clear lines of demarcation will be evident between doubt and unbelief on one side and belief on the other.

The verses passed on between Sunday gospels are focused on doubt and unbelief (11:2–19; 11:20–24). Our gospel passage focuses on belief (11:25–30).

Opposition to Jesus is described in two sections. The encounters with doubt and unbelief are not limited to Jewish people unduly swayed by an unbelieving religious leadership (woe to the towns of Chorazin and Bethsiada in v.21; Capernaum in v.23). The doubts are also among those who perhaps know Jesus well. One very “close to home.”

Mt 11:2-19 recounts the scene in which disciples of John the Baptist come to Jesus and ask: “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?” John’s arrest was mentioned in 4:12, yet the full story of his imprisonment will wait until 14:3–12.

John, as his question seems to show, was perhaps having second thoughts about Jesus’ true identity. His hesitation was probably due (as v. 6 suggests referring to taking offense) to a discrepancy between his expectations for ‘the coming one’ and what he actually heard about Jesus. The ministry so far recorded does not match up with the expectations of 3:11–12, and the miracles which are its most obvious feature were not a part of the common Messianic expectation. John may also have found it difficult to accept a Jewish ‘Messiah’ who failed to fast as his own followers did (9:14 ff.), and who kept the sort of company which a careful Jew would avoid (9:9 ff.). It is perhaps that Matthew is using this pericope as a way to note a degree of opposition from within the people of Israel.

What all share in common is that each of them have been witnesses to the words and actions of Jesus which point to the kingdom of heaven. Nonetheless, the Kingdom was being attacked by people who obstinately refused its authority (11:12, 16–24).  Why? Perhaps they considered themselves wise in their own eyes and rejected Jesus’ revelation.  There are more passages as Matthew’s narrative unfolds: unbelief and doubt(12:1–21; 22–50) and belief passages (12:2, 10, 24; 18:6; 25:45).

John the Baptist and his followers may have doubts. Major towns of Galilee may have rejected Jesus’ message of the Kingdom of Heaven, but despite the rejection in vv.20-24, some people accept Jesus’ mission and message – and it is for this that he gives praise to God.  In context these words are not a prayer of thanksgiving for a successful mission (cf. Lk 10:21-22), but are a prayerful reflection on the failure of the Galilean mission. The prayers highlight another Matthean theme: reversal. Those who are considered wise and learned are in fact not – at least in the things of the kingdom of heaven. Yet those who are childlike have understood and accepted the revelation of the kingdom in the person of Jesus.

Image credit: Pexels via Canva, CC 0