Dear friends in Christ

This week and last week, the Newsletter has reproduced images from the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome. Last week Ezekiel and this week Amos. We tend to listen to the words of Prophets in the First Reading at Mass, possibly without so much as a second thought for the context in which they were writing. Amos was one of the minor Prophets, inasmuch as his book is a short one in the Old Testament. He stands at the very beginning of the great prophetic tradition of social justice. He sees that at the very heart of the Law is our collective concern for the orphan, the widow, the stranger, the needy. This emphasis is also seen in Ezekiel and Isaiah and Jeremiah and it comes to a rich culmination in the words of Jesus Our Lord. We listen with attention to the words of Amos and allow ourselves to be challenged by what he and his fellow-Prophets have to say to us. As with Ezekiel last week, we must examine ourselves as to whether we have gone into rebellion, like the people the Prophets addressed. The Church of Jesus Christ is the New Israel and although we may not want to hear it, in many ways we have gone into rebellion as they did. We have often departed from the path that God has set-out for us, by worshipping things other than God. We ourselves—Baptised and Confirmed— have the duty and responsibility to call back those who have gone astray, to the family of God, the Church. The Prophets were sent, as Jesus sends out His Disciples in the Gospel of the Mass this Sunday. So, courage and fortitude are expected of us. As we listen again in these weeks to the exhortations of the holy Prophets, let us be encouraged by their zeal for the truths of God.

God bless you!

Msgr Kevin Hale