After prophesying the death of Jeroboam and the exile of Israel, Amos, a native of Judea, sent by God to prophesy in the northern kingdom, is invited by the official prophet of the kingdom, Amaziah, to return to Judea. His experience helps to frame the nature of the prophet: he is called and sent by God. Amos hears these words: "Seer: go, flee to the territory of Judah. There you will be able to earn your bread, and there you will prophesy. But in Bethel do not prophesy again, for it is the sanctuary of the king and the house of the kingdom.' But Amos answered Amaziah: 'I am not a prophet nor the son of a prophet. I was a shepherd and a cultivator of sycamore trees. But the Lord plucked me from my flock and said to me, 'Go, prophesy to my people Israel.'" The vocation of Amos does not take place for reasons of lineage or science, but only by divine election.
The prologue of the letter to the Ephesians is a blessing that is a paradigm of Paul's prophecy and illustrates seven aspects of God's action with man: God's election, predestination to divine filiation in Christ, redemption in his blood, the revelation of the mystery of the recapitulation of all things in Christ, being heirs in hope, the gift of the promised Spirit and living for the praise of God and for his glory. An admirable synthesis of the message that the evangelizer spreads.
In Mark we read a collection of brief sayings of the Lord, which paint a portrait of the way his disciples evangelize. They are not sent out singly, but with another, with the support of the staff for the weakness of the body and the support of the brother for any other need of fraternity and communion. They have the same power as Jesus to cast out unclean spirits.
The detachment is radical: "He commanded them to take nothing for the journey, neither bread, nor bag, nor money in their purses, but only a staff, and that they should wear sandals and not two tunics. These are not the things in which to find support. Their destination is the home: the place where one lives and loves, where each one is each one, where the family is. This reminds us of the conversions, in apostolic times, of an entire family upon hearing the proclamation of the Gospel. "And if in any place they do not welcome you or listen to you, when you go out from there, shake the dust off your feet as a testimony to them.". They accept not having been welcomed and listened to: they do not go away burdened even with a grain of dust of rancor, judgment or bad thoughts. They leave it in God's hands and forget it. They preach and heal, like Jesus. They anoint with oil many sick people, a symbol of the style of their action, which heals and softens. Anointing that refers us to this Gospel every time we offer it or receive it.
The homily on the readings of Sunday 15th Sunday
The priest Luis Herrera Campo offers its nanomiliaa small one-minute reflection for these readings.
