July 2, 2026
Thursday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 380
Reading 1
Amos
7:10-17
Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent word to Jeroboam,
king of Israel:
"Amos has conspired against you here within Israel;
the country cannot endure all his words.
For this is what Amos says:
Jeroboam shall die by the sword,
and Israel shall surely be exiled from its land."
To Amos, Amaziah said:
"Off with you, visionary, flee to the land of Judah!
There earn your bread by prophesying,
but never again prophesy in Bethel;
for it is the king's sanctuary and a royal temple."
Amos answered Amaziah, "I was no prophet,
nor have I belonged to a company of prophets;
I was a shepherd and a dresser of sycamores.
The LORD took me from following the flock, and said to me,
'Go, prophesy to my people Israel.'
Now hear the word of the LORD!"
You say: prophesy not against Israel,
preach not against the house of Isaac.
Now thus says the LORD:
Your wife shall be made a harlot in the city,
and your sons and daughters shall fall by the sword;
Your land shall be divided by measuring line,
and you yourself shall die in an unclean land;
Israel shall be exiled far from its land.
Responsorial Psalm
Psalm
19:8, 9, 10, 11
R. (10cd) The judgments of the Lord are true, and
all of them are just.
The law of the LORD is perfect,
refreshing the soul;
The decree of the LORD is trustworthy,
giving wisdom to the simple.
R. The judgments of the Lord are true, and all of them are just.
The precepts of the LORD are right,
rejoicing the heart;
The command of the LORD is clear,
enlightening the eye.
R. The judgments of the Lord are true, and all of them are just.
The fear of the LORD is pure,
enduring forever;
The ordinances of the LORD are true,
all of them just.
R. The judgments of the Lord are true, and all of them are just.
They are more precious than gold,
than a heap of purest gold;
Sweeter also than syrup
or honey from the comb.
R. The judgments of the Lord are true, and all of them are just.
Alleluia
2
Corinthians 5:19
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ
and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Matthew
9:1-8
After entering a boat, Jesus made the crossing, and came
into his own town.
And there people brought to him a paralytic lying on a stretcher.
When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic,
"Courage, child, your sins are forgiven."
At that, some of the scribes said to themselves,
"This man is blaspheming."
Jesus knew what they were thinking, and said,
"Why do you harbor evil thoughts?
Which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,'
or to say, 'Rise and walk'?
But that you may know that the Son of Man
has authority on earth to forgive sins"–
he then said to the paralytic,
"Rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home."
He rose and went home.
When the crowds saw this they were struck with awe
and glorified God who had given such authority to men.
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Commentary on Amos
7:10-17
Today we see Amos expelled from the sanctuary of
Bethel, which, as mentioned, was in Israel, the Northern Kingdom. The reading
begins with Amaziah, the priest at Bethel, telling Jeroboam, king of Israel,
about the things Amos has been saying against the king:
Jeroboam shall die by the sword,
and Israel must go into exile
away from his land.
By “Jeroboam”, he means the royal house, where the king’s
name also represents the dynasty. In fact, Jeroboam will die a natural death (2
Kings 14:29), but his son and successor Zechariah will be assassinated (2 Kings
15:8,10).
By any standards, these would be regarded as treasonable
words and they were seen as such. The fact that they would be proved true was
not relevant at this time. And, as far as Amos was concerned, he was simply
transmitting words of warning from God to his people.
Amaziah, the priest, who comes across as someone more
interested in his personal position and career with the king than in the
service of God, is determined to get rid of this trouble-maker.
The contempt that Amaziah feels for Amos is clear:
O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, earn your
bread there…
Amos is never again to prophesy in the shrine at Bethel,
which Amaziah describes as the king’s sanctuary and a royal temple. Amaziah’s
allegiance is to the King of Samaria rather than to Israel’s heavenly King.
Amos is dismissed as a prophet for hire who need not be taken seriously.
Amos, however, makes no claims to being a member of a school
of ‘professional’ prophets. He is neither a prophet nor a prophet’s son. He
denies any connection with any school of prophets or their disciples. No one
had hired him to announce judgement against Jeroboam and Israel.
He says that he was a simple shepherd (although the unusual
Hebrew word used could mean he tended cattle also) and a “dresser of sycamore
trees”. The “sycamore” here was a large tree which bore a fig-like fruit and
also provided good timber. In order to ensure a good crop, the gardener had to
slit the top of each fig and this is presumably implied by the rare word
“dresser” of sycamores.
Amos says:
…the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord
said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’
If Amos was prophesying, it was simply in response to
instructions which God had given him. He has been made a different kind of
shepherd for a flock that is straying far from the Lord.
Amos then proceeds to utter a savage prophecy against the
priest Amaziah, even though Amaziah had told Amos not to prophesy (which was,
in fact, telling the prophet to disobey God). There are four points in his
prophecy:
- Amaziah
will be exiled to gentile, “unclean” and idolatrous territory where his
ceremonial purity as a priest will be defiled;
- his
sons and daughters will be slaughtered;
- he
will lose his family estate;
- his
wife will be reduced to prostitution in order to survive.
And he repeats again the prophecy he had made earlier: the
people of Israel will be driven into exile, repeating exactly the words Amaziah
had attributed to Amos at the beginning of the reading. All of these things, of
course, took place.
The reading epitomises the challenging but indispensable
role of the prophet. His responsibility is to speak out clearly the truths he
sees, however unpalatable they may be. He is bound to arouse hostility against
himself by those who do not want to hear what he has to say. Yet prophets are
absolutely essential; we need them, even if we do not like their messages.
There is a distinguished line of prophets in the Old
Testament, of whom Amos is an excellent example. But there are also prophets in
the New Testament. Jesus was a prophet, as was John the Baptist (although
usually regarded as the last of the Old Testament prophets). Both died because
of the messages they gave in word and deed.
The letters of Paul rank ‘prophets’ very high in the list of
charisms in the Church—immediately after ‘apostles‘:
Now you are the body of Christ and individually members
of it. And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets… (1
Cor 12:27-28)
Down the centuries there has, thankfully, been a long list
of prophets, some of whom fell victims of the Church itself. Even some of those
regarded as heretics were prophets in their own way and, while much of what
they said was regarded as not in harmony with tradition, they often forced the
Church into changing direction. Without Luther and the other Protestant
reformers would there have been a Council of Trent? Would there have been a
Counter-Reformation?
The Second Vatican Council, too, produced many prophetic
voices which led to insights not dreamed of by its first organisers. One
example was Bishop Helder Camrara of Recife in Brazil. He was once credited
with saying: “When I give help to the poor, people call me a saint; when I ask
why they are poor, they call me a Communist.” Bishop Camara was a prophet.
In our recent past, one thinks, too, of Bishop Oscar Romero,
martyred in El Salvador, or of the martyred Baptist pastor, Martin Luther King,
Jr. In one case, a prophetic voice for the downtrodden poor and, in the other,
a voice demanding equality for the black people of the United States.
Who are the prophets in our Christian communities today? Do
we recognise them? Do we listen to them? May we have many more of them.
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Commentary on
Matthew 9:1-8
After the cure of the two demoniacs (see the Gospel passage
from Wednesday of Week 13 of Ordinary Time), Jesus and his disciples now
re-cross the lake and come into his own town. This refers not to Nazareth, but
to Capernaum, which is the centre out of which he operates in Galilee. As usual
with Matthew, he just gives the bare bones of a story which is told in a much
more interesting way by Mark (2:1-12). Matthew concentrates on what Jesus says
and does—he leaves out the details.
Some people brought a paralysed man lying on a mat to Jesus.
Moved by their faith in him, Jesus says to the man,
Take heart, child; your sins are forgiven.
In Mark’s version the degree of the man’s faith is indicated
by his being carried up on to the roof of the house by some friends and being
let down through the roof at the feet of Jesus. Matthew says nothing about
this.
The man was probably not expecting to hear Jesus mention his
sins. As far as he was concerned, that was not the reason he had come to Jesus.
Some scribes nearby were surprised too and even shocked. They were thinking:
This man is blaspheming.
Fully aware of what they were thinking, Jesus asked them:
For which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or
to say, ‘Stand up and walk’?
Obviously, it is much easier to say, “Your sins are
forgiven.” How can you know if it has taken place? But Jesus goes on:
But so that you may know that the Son of Man has
authority on earth to forgive sins—he then said to the paralytic—“Stand up,
take your bed, and go to your home.”
And the man did just that: he rolled up his mat and walked
out of the house to his home.
The people around were awestruck and praised God for giving
such authority to human beings. They did not yet fully recognise the identity
of Jesus, but they did realise that God was acting before their very eyes. The
scribes for their part were reduced to silence. Matthew’s use of the word ‘men’
seems to point to the power of Jesus being passed on to his followers—his power
to heal and to forgive.
To understand this story we need to be aware of the close
links that the people of the time saw between sickness and sin. Sickness,
especially a chronic sickness, was often seen as a punishment for sin, either
the sin of the person himself or of a parent. We remember, in John’s Gospel,
how the people asked Jesus if the man was born blind because of his own sin or
the sin of his parents (John 9:2). Similarly, after Jesus had healed a man
crippled for 38 years, he told him not to sin again, for fear something worse
might befall him (John 5:14).
In telling the paralysed man that his sins were forgiven,
Jesus was going to the root of his problem. We can probably say that sin in
some form or other is at the root of all our problems. Jesus had been
challenged for telling the man his sins were forgiven. To prove that he had the
power to do this, he cured the man’s paralysis, which, in the minds of the
onlookers, was the result of his sin. If there was no more paralysis, which was
caused by sin, then the sin had been taken away too.
Nowadays, we do not see something like paralysis or a
disability as a punishment from God—we do not believe that God works like that.
On the other hand, it is likely that many health problems which we have can be
linked with a disharmony in our lives arising from a conflict between what we
are truly meant to be and what we tend to be. We refer to some sicknesses as
‘dis-eases’. They are the result of harmful stress when we are out of harmony
with ourselves, with other people and with our environment. In that sense, we
can see a clear link between sin and sickness.
Perhaps if we looked at our own lives we might see that some
of our physical and mental ailments are due to a lack of harmony between God
and others and our surroundings. Let’s think about that today.
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Thursday, July 2, 2026
Ordinary
Time
Opening Prayer
Father, you call your children
to walk in the light of Christ.
Free us from darkness and keep us in the radiance of your
truth.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives
and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Gospel Reading - Matthew 9: 1-8
Jesus got back in the boat,
crossed the water and came to his hometown. And suddenly some people brought
him a paralytic stretched out on a bed. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the
paralytic, 'Take comfort, my child, your sins are forgiven.'
And now some scribes said to themselves,
'This man is being blasphemous.' Knowing what was in their minds Jesus said,
'Why do you have such wicked thoughts in your hearts? Now, which of these is
easier: to say, "Your sins are forgiven," or to say, "Get up and
walk"? But to prove to you that the Son of man has authority on earth to
forgive sins,' -- then he said to the paralytic-'get up, pick up your bed and
go off home.'
And the man got up and went home. A feeling
of awe came over the crowd when they saw this, and they praised God for having
given such authority to human beings.
Reflection
•
The extraordinary authority of Jesus. To the
reader, Jesus appears as a person invested with extraordinary authority, by
means of the words and actions (Mt 9: 6, 8). The authoritative word of Jesus strikes
evil at its root: in the case of the paralytic man on sin that affects the man
in his liberty and blocks him in his living forces: “Your sins are forgiven” (v. 5); “Get up pick
up your bed and go off home”
(v. 6). Truly all the form of paralysis of the heart and the mind to which we
are subject are cancelled by the authority of Jesus (9: 6), because during his
life on earth he met all these forms. The authoritative and effective word of
Jesus awakens the paralyzed humanity (9: 5-7) and gives it the gift of walking
(9: 6) in a renewed faith
•
The encounter with the paralytic. After the
storm and a visit in the country of the Gadarenes, Jesus returns to Capernaum,
his city. And as he was on his way, he met the paralytic. The healing did not
take place in a house, but along the road. Therefore, along the road that leads
to Capernaum they brought him a paralytic man. Jesus addresses him calling him “my
son,” a gesture of attention that soon becomes a gesture of salvation: “your
sins are forgiven you” (v. 2) The forgiveness of sins which Jesus pronounces on
the part of God on the paralytic refers to the bond between sickness,
failure and sin. This is the first time that the evangelist attributes this
particular divine power to Jesus, in an explicit way. For the Jews the sickness
of a man was considered a punishment because of sins committed; The physical
illness was considered always as a
consequence of one’s own moral evil or due to parents (Jn 9: 2). Jesus
restores to man the condition of salvation freeing him from illness as well as
from sin.
•
For some of those who were present, for the
Scribes, the words of Jesus which announce forgiveness of sins is a true and
proper blasphemy. According to them Jesus is arrogant because God alone can
forgive sins. They do not manifest openly such a judgment of Jesus but express
it by murmuring among themselves. Jesus who penetrates their hearts sees their
considerations and reproves them because of their unbelief. The expression of Jesus “To prove
to you that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins...” (v.
6) he is going to indicate that not only God can forgive sins, but with Jesus,
also man (Gnilka).
•
The crowd, differently from the Scribes, is
seized by fear before the cure of the paralytic and glorifies God. The crowd is
struck by the power to forgive sins manifested in the healing. People exult
because God has granted such a power to the Son of man. Is it possible to
attribute this to the ecclesial community where forgiveness of sins was granted
on the order of Jesus? Matthew has presented this episode on forgiveness of
sins with the intention of applying it to fraternal relationships within the
ecclesial community. In it the practice to forgive sins, by delegation of
Jesus, was already in force; a practice which was not shared in the Synagogue.
The theme of forgiveness of sins is repeated also in Mt 18 and at the end of
the Gospel it is affirmed that this is rooted in the death of Jesus on the
Cross (26, 28). But in our context the forgiveness of sins is linked with the
demand of mercy present in the episode which follows, the vocation of Matthew: «…mercy is what pleases me,
not sacrifice. And indeed, I came to call not the upright but sinners” (Mt
9: 13). Such words of Jesus intend to say that He has made visible the
forgiveness of God; above all, in his relationships with the Publicans or tax
collectors and sinners, in sitting at table with them.
•
This account that takes up again the problem of
sin and reminds of the bond with the misery of man is something to be practiced
in the forgiveness which should be given, but it is a story that should occupy
a privileged place in the preaching of our ecclesial communities.
Personal Questions
•
Are you convinced that Jesus, called the friend
of sinners, does not despise your weaknesses and your resistance, but he
understands and offers you the necessary help to live a life in harmony with
God and with the brothers and sisters?
•
When you make the experience of betraying or
refusing friendship with God do you have recourse to the Sacrament of
reconciliation that reconciles you with the Father and with the Church and
makes you a new creature by the force of the Holy Spirit?
Concluding Prayer
The precepts of Yahweh are honest, joy for the heart; the
commandment of Yahweh is pure, light for the eyes. (Ps 19: 8)
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