Amos/Hosea/Micah: A Call to Justice

by Joe Paprocki DMin, Kevin Perrotta (Editor)

Overview

The prophet Amos, along with the prophets Hosea and Micah, conveys in no uncertain terms what God thinks about oppression, injustice, and neglect of the poor. The blunt language of these prophets can get our attention in a way that few other things can, and this study of Amos, Hosea, and Micah is a call for each of us to return to the ways of the Lord.

A Guided Discovery of the Bible
The Bible invites us to explore God’s word and reflect on how we might respond to it. To do this, we need guidance and the right tools for discovery. The Six Weeks with the Bible series of Bible discussion guides offers both in a concise six-week format. Whether focusing on a specific biblical book or exploring a theme that runs throughout the Bible, these practical guides in this series provide meaningful insights that explain Scripture while helping readers make connections to their own lives. Each guide
• is faithful to Church teaching and is guided by sound biblical scholarship
• presents the insights of Church fathers and saints
• includes questions for discussion and reflection
• delivers information in a reader-friendly format
• gives suggestions for prayer that help readers respond to God’s word
• appeals to beginners as well as to advanced students of the Bible
 
By reading Scripture, reflecting on its deeper meanings, and incorporating it into our daily life, we can grow not only in our understanding of God’s word, but also in our relationship with God.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780829421187
Publisher:	Loyola Press
Publication date:	04/01/2006
Series:	Six Weeks with the Bible Series
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	80
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.25(d)

About the Author

Joe Paprocki, DMin, is National Consultant for Faith Formation at Loyola Press. He has 30 years of experience in ministry and has taught at the high school, college, and general-adult levels. He is the author of several books, including the best sellers The Catechist’s Toolbox, A Well-Built Faith,The Bible Blueprint, and Practice Makes Catholic. Joe, who is currently an eighth-grade catechist, blogs about his catechetical experiences at www.catechistsjourney.com.

Read an Excerpt

Amos/Hosea/Micah

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By Joe Paprocki

Loyola Press

Copyright © 2006 Joe Paprocki
All right reserved.
ISBN: 9780829421187

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How to Use This Guide
You might compare the Bible to a national park. The park is so large that you could spend months, even years, getting to know it. But a brief visit, if carefully planned, can be enjoyable and worthwhile. In a few hours you can drive through the park and pull over at a handful of sites. At each stop you can get out of the car, take a short trail through the woods, listen to the wind blowing through the trees, get a feel for the place.
 In this book, we will read the books of three of the prophets: Amos, Hosea, and Micah. Because the excerpts are short, we will be able to take a leisurely walk through them, thinking carefully about what we are reading and what it means for our lives today.
 This guide provides everything you need to explore Amos, Hosea, and Micah in six discussions—or to do a six-part exploration on your own. The introduction on page 6 will prepare you to get the most out of your reading. The weekly sections provide explanations that will help illuminate the meanings of the readings for your life. Equally important, each section supplies questions that will launch your group into fruitful discussion, helping you to both investigate the biblical text for yourself and learn from one another. If you’re using the book by yourself, the questions will spur your personal reflection.
 Each discussion is meant to be a guided discovery.
 Guided. None of us is equipped to read the Bible without help. We read the Bible for ourselves but not by ourselves. Scripture was written to be understood and applied in the community of faith. So each week you’ll find background and explanations in “A Guide to the Reading,” which draws on the work of both modern biblical scholars and Christian writers of the past. The guide will help you grasp the meanings of Amos, Hosea, and Micah. Think of it as a friendly park ranger who points out noteworthy details and explains what you’re looking at so you can appreciate things for yourself.
 Discovery. The purpose is for you to interact with Amos, Hosea, and Micah. “Questions for Careful Reading” is a tool to help you dig into the text and examine it carefully. “Questions for Application” will help you consider what these words mean for your life here and now. Each week concludes with an “Approach to Prayer” section that helps you respond to God’s word. Supplementary “Living Tradition” and “Saints in the Making” sections offer the thoughts and experiences of Christians past and present. By showing what the messages of Amos, Hosea, and Micah have meant to others, these sections will help you consider what they mean for you.
 How long are the discussion sessions? We’ve assumed you will have about an hour and a half when you get together. If you have less time, you’ll find that most of the elements can be shortened somewhat.
 Is homework necessary? You will get the most out of your discussions if you read the weekly material and prepare answers to the questions in advance of each meeting. If participants are not able to prepare, have someone read the “Guide to the Reading” sections aloud to the group at the points where they appear.
 What about leadership? If you happen to have a world-class biblical scholar in your group, by all means ask him or her to lead the discussions. In the absence of any professional Scripture scholars, or even accomplished amateur biblical scholars, you can still have a first-class Bible discussion. Choose two or three people to take turns as facilitators, and have everyone read “Suggestions for Bible Discussion Groups” (page 76) before beginning.
 Does everyone need a guide? a Bible? Everyone in the group will need his or her own copy of this book. It contains the passages from Amos, Hosea, and Micah, so a Bible is not absolutely necessary—but each participant will find it useful to have one. You should have at least one Bible on hand for your discussions (see page 80 for recommendations.)
 How do we get started? Before you begin, take a look at the suggestions for Bible discussion groups (page 76) or individuals (page 79).Minding Our Own Business?
In Charles Dickens’s classic A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by the spirit of his former business partner, Jacob Marley, who has come to alert Scrooge to the three spirits who will visit him in an attempt to save his soul. When Scrooge asks Marley why he is laden down with chains and irons, Marley explains that he is wearing the chains he “forged in life” as a punishment for not making better use of his time on earth. Scrooge protests, “But you were always a good man of business, Jacob.” To which Marley laments, “Business! . . . Mankind was my business! The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!”
 For Jacob Marley, it was too late. For Ebenezer Scrooge, it was not. Neither is it for us.
 Luckily for us, the message that the spirit of Jacob Marley brought to Ebenezer Scrooge is alive and well, not in the form of a specter but in the living word of the biblical prophets. In many ways, Jacob Marley’s message echoes the challenging message that the prophets issued to the people of Israel. Today, more than ever, we need to hear this same message, namely that humankind is our business, “the common welfare” is our business, “charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence” are all our business.
 The prophets whose writings we are about to read—Amos, Hosea, and Micah—tell us that other peoples’ business is our business when those people are suffering economic hardship and oppression. The prophets go further still, pointing out that the reason some people are suffering is because of the way others conduct their business. Just as Jesus’ parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19–31) teaches us to pay attention to the poor beggar at our gate, Amos, Hosea, and Micah call us to open up our eyes to the needs of others who are suffering due to the way we conduct business. Reading the prophets’ words is an opportunity to examine how, even without our realizing it, our lifestyle may have a negative impact on the lives of others.
 To grasp the prophets’ message, a little background is helpful. Amos, Micah, and Hosea lived some seven centuries before Christ. Some two hundred years earlier, the Israelites had a united and prosperous kingdom ruled by David and then by his son Solomon. Although Solomon’s reign was characterized by peace and prosperity, his death unleashed dissension and unrest because of heavy taxation and forced labor. His son Rehoboam was unable to maintain unity, and the kingdom split in two—a northern kingdom called Israel, with its capital in Samaria, and a southern kingdom called Judah, with its capital in Jerusalem. With this division, of course, came weakness—something that did not go unnoticed by neighboring rivals such as Egypt and Assyria. Israel and Judah struggled to maintain their independence from these foreign threats, sometimes trying to play them off against each other. Finally, in the year 721 BC, the northern kingdom was invaded and conquered by the Assyrians. As was the practice of warfare at the time, the Assyrians deported many of the inhabitants of the northern kingdom (now known as the “lost tribes” of Israel) and replaced them with foreign colonists. The southern kingdom remained autonomous for another 130 years until the Babylonian invasion of 587. The Babylonians destroyed the temple in Jerusalem, the focal point of God’s presence among the people, and took the king and leading citizens into captivity. The people lost everything: land, temple, and kingship. This began the period known as the Exile.
 It was during the period leading up to the collapse of the northern and southern kingdoms that Amos, Hosea, and Micah spoke the word of God to God’s people. In contrast to what is often thought, biblical prophets were not concerned with foretelling the distant future. Rather, they were mainly concerned about what was going to happen to the people of their own day. To help people understand where they were heading, the prophets directed people’s attention to the past. They reminded people that some five hundred years earlier God had led them from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land. The exodus story demonstrated that God had remained faithful to the promise he had made earlier to Abraham to “give to you, and to your offspring after you, the land where you are now an alien, all the land of Canaan, for a perpetual holding” (Genesis 17:8). The prophets also reminded the people of the social justice that God had required of them when he brought them out of Egypt and made a covenant with them. The prophets observed frequent and blatant disregard for the social justice that God mandated in his law; they felt compelled to point out these transgressions and call the people of Israel to return to faithfulness to the covenant lest they face dire consequences. Because people do not like to be told how to conduct their business, the warning of the prophets went largely unheeded. It was partly owing to the loss of social justice that the kingdoms of Israel and Judah deteriorated and eventually collapsed.
 For the people of Judah who were driven off to Babylonia—in present-day Iraq—the Exile was a devastating experience that posed a serious problem for their faith. They faced the possibility that this was indeed the end for them as a people. To some, it seemed that their God had been defeated, that the covenant was broken forever, and that they were abandoned in a foreign land. During this period of exile, however, the Judeans remained faithful to God, in no small part due to prophets who assured them that God had not abandoned them. When Cyrus of Persia decreed that the Judeans could return home in 538 BC, thousands chose to do so, buoyed by their faith, filled with hope, and eager to rebuild their homeland.
 It is important to note that the books of Amos, Hosea, and Micah were not compiled until after the people returned from exile. When the editors put these books together, they included not only the warnings of the three preexilic prophets, but also messages of hope that later prophets spoke to buoy the spirits of those returning from the Exile and attempting to rebuild their lives. These prophetic messages reminded the Jewish people to look to the future while keeping their eyes on the past, recalling God’s great deeds and the intimacy their ancestors shared with God during times of fidelity. Their words bear the same message for us today.
 Getting back to Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, we find Ebenezer Scrooge, now painfully aware of his own shortcomings and selfishness, begging the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come to offer him some glimmer of hope, namely, the possibility of repentance. “‘Men’s courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if persevered in, they must lead,’ said Scrooge. ‘But if the courses be departed from, the ends will change. Say it is thus with what you show me!’” Scrooge rightly concludes that by changing courses the ends may be changed. The prophets Amos, Hosea, and Micah offer this same proposition: a changed way of living will result in a future not of doom but of promise. Just as the spirits that visit Scrooge point out specific situations for him to face up to, the prophets point out specific transgressions for the people to come face-to-face with. Let’s take a closer look at each of these prophets to see how their message called people to depart from their present courses in favor of a preferred end.
 The prophet Amos does not mince words but speaks in a blunt, sometimes offensive style. His purpose is to provoke people to action by delivering accusations of wrongdoing and divine judgments on those who are violating God’s call to justice. Perhaps Amos learned to speak in such a gruff manner in his first career as a shepherd in Judah. Shepherds were in many ways like cowboys, grizzly outdoorsmen who were unpolished in the ways of tact. Amos, although from the southern kingdom, pronounced his word in the northern kingdom between 786 and 746 BC. He was not a professional prophet in the sense that he was not trained to assume the role. In fact, Amos took great pains to distance himself from those he considered to be career prophets. This was his way of emphasizing that he had been called to prophesy directly by God—in contrast to the professional prophets, whose calling he questioned.
 In his prophecies, Amos indicts just about every nation in the region, but he saves his harshest criticism for Israel, accusing her of blatant injustice and idolatry. Amos tells the people of Israel that they can expect a “day of the Lord” (5:18)—a day when God will bring justice to the earth. But, contrary to their expectations, this will not be a day of deliverance for them from their enemies but a terrible day—a day of darkness, not light, a day when their own injustice will be brought to an end. Amos’s goal was not to condemn people but to call them to salvation, to reform their lives and their society in line with God’s justice so that they might experience his help again.
 We are always confounded when we witness one person unconditionally loving another person whose faults are blatantly obvious to the world. “What does he see in her?” we may ask, or “How does she stay with him?” People may have talked like that about Hosea and his wife, Gomer, who was unfaithful to him. In his own difficult marriage, Hosea saw a similarity to the relationship between God and his unfaithful people. Hosea likens Israel to an unfaithful spouse to highlight the sinfulness of God’s people. Hosea emphasizes the undying and unwavering faithfulness and love that God has for his people, despite their unfaithfulness, by comparing God’s faithfulness to Hosea’s own faithfulness to Gomer. Like Amos, Hosea preached his word in the northern kingdom between 786 and 746 BC. Hosea taught that, just as he could not give up on his wife, Gomer, even after she had strayed, God could never give up on his people, Israel, even though they had strayed into idolatry and ruthless oppression of the poor. As in Amos, Hosea’s harsh indictment of the people is for the purpose of calling them back into a loving relationship with God and one another. While Hosea can often be as blunt as Amos, his comparison of God’s relationship with his people to a marriage includes a tenderness that is absent from Amos’s prophecies.
 The prophet Micah sought to maintain an alertness in the people of Israel and Judah. For Micah, there is a reward up ahead, but that reward will be forfeited by those who neglect their responsibilities. Micah indicts those who exploit the poor as well as those priests and prophets who are mired in corruption. He warns them of the punishment that they will face if they do not heed his words. Through it all, however, Micah sees a light at the end of the tunnel and accompanies each of his judgments with the promise of hope for a better future. The name Micah means “Who is like?”—short for “Who is like God?” This is an appropriate name for him because his prophetic word is designed to help people understand what it means to truly be godlike. In his indictments, Micah points out how ungodlike the people have been. Micah attempts to show how they can live in godlike fashion by loving justice, doing kindness, and walking humbly with God.
 The prophets raise an important question: What do we mean by justice? “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled,” Jesus declared in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:6). The Greek word for “righteousness” can also be translated as “justice.” We sometimes think of justice as a strictly legal term, for example, when we say that someone who is punished for an offense has been “brought to justice.” This understanding tends to equate justice with retribution. The Bible, however, understands “righteousness,” or “justice,” as much more than this. While God does bring retribution on those who do wrong, he also expresses justice through his faithfulness, trustworthiness, and compassion. To say that God is just means that you can always count on him to do the right thing—to show compassion and mercy in all situations. With this understanding, the people of Israel prayed for God’s justice, meaning that they prayed that God would stand by them and do the right thing, being compassionate and merciful toward them. The people, in turn, recognized that God expected them to deal with one another in the same way, namely, by respecting people’s rights, by fulfilling their obligations to one another, by showing compassion and mercy to others in all situations, and by caring for those who are in need of any kind. With this understanding of justice, we realize that God’s call to be just means a summons to practice justice in every aspect of our daily lives.
 To help us live so that justice may prevail in our world today, the bishops of the United States wrote Sharing Catholic Social Teaching: Challenges and Directions, which outlines seven principles of social justice in Catholic teaching.
♦ Dignity of the Human Person. All human life is sacred, and all people must be respected and valued over material goods. We are called to ask whether our actions as a society respect or threaten the life and dignity of the human person.
♦ Call to Family, Community, and Participation. People have not only a right but also a duty to participate in society. As the principal social institution, the family must be supported so that people can participate in society, build a community spirit, and promote the well-being of all, especially those who are poor and vulnerable.
♦ Rights and Responsibilities. Every person has a right to those things required for a decent human life, such as food, clothing, and shelter. As Catholics, it is our responsibility to protect these basic human rights in order to achieve a healthy society.
♦ Option for the Poor and Vulnerable. In our world, some people are very rich while, at the same time, many are extremely poor. As Catholics, we are called to pay special attention to the needs of the poor by defending and promoting their dignity and by assisting them in meeting their immediate material needs.
♦ Dignity of Work and the Rights of Workers. The basic rights of all workers are to be respected: the right to productive work, fair wages, and private property, and the right to organize, join unions, and pursue economic opportunity. Catholics believe that the economy is meant to serve people; work is not merely a way to make a living but is an important means by which we participate in God’s creation.
♦ Solidarity. Because God is our Father, we are all brothers and sisters, with the responsibility to care for one another. Solidarity is the attitude that leads Christians to share spiritual and material goods, uniting rich and poor, weak and strong; solidarity helps to create a society that recognizes that we all depend upon one another.
♦ Care for God’s Creation. God is the creator of all people and all things, and he wants us to enjoy his creation. The responsibility to care for all that God has made is a requirement of our faith.
 Physical fitness experts will tell you that, while exercise should not cause pain, there can be little benefit or muscle growth without physical stress. Muscles that are not accustomed to stress react painfully at first. For this reason, many people who are out of shape avoid exercise because they cannot get beyond the initial pain. In much the same way, we sometimes avoid spiritual growth because of the initial pain of conversion. More often than not, conversion is a call to mobilize spiritual muscles that have been lying dormant. Spiritual growth often involves recognizing sins of omission and the harm of what we have failed to do.
 Amos, Hosea, and Micah call us to spiritual growth, since spirituality is manifested in the way we act toward our neighbors. Their initial call may cause us great distress, because we realize we are being called to flex spiritual muscles that have either never been used or have atrophied. If we heed the words of the prophets, recognize our weakness, and begin flexing the muscles of compassion, unselfishness, mercy, forgiveness, and justice, we may feel some pain. But the benefits will be a spiritually healthy relationship with God and neighbor, leading to a world in which justice prevails.
 The prophets’ call to justice is at the very heart of what it means for us to be disciples of Christ today. At the Last Supper, Jesus instituted the Eucharist with these words: “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19). John’s Gospel tells us that at the Last Supper, Jesus got up from the table and washed the feet of his disciples, then told them, “You also should do as I have done to you” (John 13:15). When Jesus told us to “do this” in his memory, he was telling us to do much more than celebrate the Last Supper meal—the Mass. He was telling us to give ourselves to others as he gave himself for us. We learn what it is that we are to do in this way of life, in part, from the powerful words of the prophets in Scripture, who call us to live in such a way that justice may prevail.Week 1
God’s Wake-Up CallQuestions to Begin
15 minutes
Use a question or two to get warmed up for the reading.
 1 Are you a morning person? What does it take to wake you up and get you started in the morning?
 2 If you could choose any place at all, where would you get away to in the middle of summer? in the middle of winter?Opening the Bible
5 minutes
Read the passage aloud. Let individuals take turns reading sections.
The Reading: Amos 2:6–8; 3:1–8, 10–15Indictment Handed Down
 2:6 Thus says the Lord:
  For three transgressions of Israel,
   and for four, I will not revoke the punishment;
  because they sell the righteous for silver,
   and the needy for a pair of sandals—
 7 they who trample the head of the poor into the dust of
    the earth,
   and push the afflicted out of the way;
  father and son go in to the same girl,
   so that my holy name is profaned;
 8 they lay themselves down beside every altar
   on garments taken in pledge;
  and in the house of their God they drink
   wine bought with fines they imposed.God Means Business
3:1 Hear this word that the Lord has spoken against you, O people of Israel, against the whole family that I brought up out of the land of Egypt:
 2 You only have I known
   of all the families of the earth;
  therefore I will punish you
   for all your iniquities. 3 Do two walk together
   unless they have made an appointment?
 4 Does a lion roar in the forest,
   when it has no prey?
  Does a young lion cry out from its den,
   if it has caught nothing?
 5 Does a bird fall into a snare on the earth,
   when there is no trap for it?
  Does a snare spring up from the ground,
   when it has taken nothing?
 6 Is a trumpet blown in a city,
   and the people are not afraid?
  Does disaster befall a city,
   unless the Lord has done it?
 7 Surely the Lord God does nothing,
   without revealing his secret
   to his servants the prophets.
 8 The lion has roared;
   who will not fear?
  The Lord God has spoken;
   who can but prophesy? . . .Heading for Trouble
 10 They do not know how to do right, says the Lord,
   those who store up violence and robbery in their
    strongholds.
 11 Therefore thus says the Lord God:
  An adversary shall surround the land,
   and strip you of your defense;
   and your strongholds shall be plundered.
 12 Thus says the Lord: As the shepherd rescues from the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear, so shall the people of Israel who live in Samaria be rescued, with the corner of a couch and part of a bed. 13 Hear, and testify against the house of Jacob,
   says the Lord God, the God of hosts:
 14 On the day I punish Israel for its transgressions,
   I will punish the altars of Bethel,
  and the horns of the altar shall be cut off
   and fall to the ground.
 15 I will tear down the winter house as well as the
    summer house;
   and the houses of ivory shall perish,
  and the great houses shall come to an end,
says the Lord.Questions for Careful Reading
10 minutes
Choose questions according to your interest and time.
 1 The words of Amos might be described as a wake-up call. Who is Amos trying to wake up?
 2 In 2:6–8, what “trans­gres­sions,” or wrongs, is Amos attempting to call his listeners’ attention to?
 3 In 3:1–2, what reason does God give for being particularly hurt?
 4 What seems to be the point of the questions in 3:3–6?
 5 What feeling are you left with in 3:13–15?
A Guide to the Reading
If participants have not read this section already, read it aloud. Otherwise go on to “Questions for Application.”
2:6–8. To get the attention of his listeners, Amos uses a very effective approach. In the section before our reading begins (1:3–2:5), he has publicly denounced the sins against humanity committed by a number of neighboring nations, all of which are hostile to Israel. Like a crowd at a political convention, the listeners to Amos’s tirade most likely cheered the condemnation of their enemies. But then Amos throws a powerful punch: he includes Israel in the list. Imagine the shock to Amos’s audience as he mentions Israel and, instead of acquitting her, condemns her injustices in the harshest terms. By including Israel in his list of nations guilty of sins against humanity, Amos is showing that Israel’s privileged status as a chosen people does not give her a license to violate the requirements of justice.
 What exactly is Israel guilty of? According to Amos, some people in Israel are growing in prosperity at the expense of the poor. Amos points out that the wealthy are selling people into slavery “for silver . . . for a pair of sandals” (2:6) by brutally enforcing laws aimed at collecting debts from those who do not have enough to meet their needs. In 2:7, Amos points out that the deplorable sexual practices of some people are acts that profane God’s holy name, a profanation that occurs anytime they act in a way that is contrary to what God’s name stands for—namely, justice, compassion, and mercy. In 2:8, Amos talks about “garments taken in pledge.” He is referring to a practice by which a lender takes the outer cloak belonging to the borrower as a sign of the borrower’s pledge to repay (Exodus 22:25–27; Deuteronomy 24:12–13). This cloak is to be returned at sunset so that the borrower can use it as a blanket to keep warm at night. Amos points out that the wealthy are not only keeping these cloaks but are reclining on them, committing sexual sins while under the influence. In the meantime, the poor are freezing without their cloaks.
 3:1–8. Today’s fascination with courtroom drama is nothing new. Amos uses the image of a courtroom to make his next point. As chapter 3 begins, Amos is presenting a lawsuit against the people of Israel. This is a covenant lawsuit, meaning that God will argue that he has kept the promise of faithfulness he made when he entered a covenant with the people of Israel but that they have reneged on their agreement to obey him. The passage follows a legal pattern: the defendant is summoned, the crimes are listed, the judge speaks, and the verdict and punishment are handed down.
 Despite the accusatory tone of 3:1, God expresses his favor toward Israel in the first part of 3:2. Perhaps, the listeners might think, God is going to exonerate us. No such luck. Instead, God announces that only punishment will follow. His point is that their status as the chosen people does not grant them immunity from prosecution for their crimes against their neighbors but rather lays on them a greater responsibility to treat others justly.
 Apparently, some of Amos’s listeners dismiss his prophecies as empty ranting. So, in 3:3–6, he defends himself, using a list of rhetorical questions. To his listeners, these questions would be as sarcastic as the familiar contemporary question “Is the pope Catholic?” Amos poses these questions to illustrate the point that nothing happens by chance. Every effect has a cause. “Well,” Amos declares, “cause and effect is at work right now. God’s inspiration is the cause of my prophecies of judgment. So take warning, and change your ways!” (see 3:7–8).
 3:10–15. The punishment that Amos warns of is not at all attractive—defeat at the hands of the Assyrians, a ferocious military enemy. Amos makes it very clear that God does not impose this punishment arbitrarily. It is an inevitable effect of the people’s own sinful decisions and actions. As long as the wealthy of Israel fail to protect the poor and vulnerable of their own society, they cannot expect to find protection for themselves from the dangers that surround them.
 As far as Amos is concerned, the trial is over, and the verdict has been handed down: guilty as charged. The punishment, though harsh, fits the crime. The Israelites are guilty of a serious breach of contract, namely, appalling social injustices (2:6–8; 3:10) and cruel economic inequities. The poor are reduced to slavery (2:6), while the wealthy enjoy luxury housing (3:15). The Israelites have broken the covenant with God, while God has faithfully upheld his end of the bargain.Questions for Application
40 minutes
Choose questions according to your interest and time.
 1 In light of Amos’s words that you have read thus far, what might he be saying to you about:
♦  your participation in parish life?
♦  your way of handling matters in the workplace?
♦  your pattern of relating to family members?
♦  your participation in civic affairs, both locally and nationally?
In these areas, what have you done well? Where can you be doing better?
 2 In your parish, community, nation, or the world, who are the people who are striving to send a message regarding injustice? What specific actions are they calling people to? Are others listening and responding? Are you listening and responding? Is there a wake-up call that you have heard but have failed to act on?
 3 Based on these passages from Amos, what is God most concerned with? In what ways are God’s concerns applicable today?
 4 In addition to the economically impoverished, who are the poor in our society? How are the poor being trampled upon in society today? in other places in the world? What have you done or can you do to address the needs of the poor in your community? in the nation? in the world?
 5 When Amos speaks of God’s name being “profaned,” he is speaking about acts of social injustice. How is God’s name being profaned today? What can you personally do to bring honor to God’s name?
 6 Amos threatens that God will punish Israelite society if evils are not corrected. What “punishments” are we living with today as a result of not addressing social ills in the past? What “punishments” does society face in the future if we do not address some of today’s social ills?
 7 After learning about some of Amos’s strategies described in these passages, what strategies would you say work best for issuing a wake-up call about injustice in today’s society? What are the areas that we should focus our efforts on?The first step in listening to the word God speaks to us through Scripture is to begin reading the Bible, and to begin reading it daily.
George Martin, Reading Scripture as the Word of GodApproach to Prayer
15 minutes
Use this approach—or create your own!
 ♦ Invite participants to pause in silent reflection, calling to mind the ways that they have failed to act for those who are suffering injustice. Pause for a moment in silence. Then pray the Confiteor aloud together:I confess to almighty God,
and to you, my brothers and sisters,
that I have sinned through my own fault
in my thoughts and in my words,
in what I have done,
and what I have failed to do;
and I ask blessed Mary, ever virgin,
all the angels and saints,
and you, my brothers and sisters,
to pray for me to the Lord our God.Living Tradition
Consistently Pro-Life
This section is a supplement for individual reading.
Every week, Deacon Richard Kulleck of the Most Holy Redeemer Parish in Evergreen Park, Illinois, coordinates the efforts of volunteers at a Public Action to Deliver Shelter facility on the Southwest Side of Chicago, providing hospitality, meals, and shelter to those who are homeless. Like the many Christians who struggle against abortion, euthanasia, military aggression, capital punishment, sexual exploitation, and unjust distribution of resources, Deacon Rich is pro-life.
 Being pro-life is often equated with the struggle to end abortion and, indeed, this effort is at the very heart of the pro-life movement. However, to be pro-life is to be consistent in our approach to all life issues, from the cradle to the grave. The late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago articulated with particular clarity what it means to have a “consistent ethic of life.” Cardinal Bernardin used the image of a “seamless garment” to teach us that all life issues, while not equal, are intimately linked. Having a consistent ethic of life does not require every individual or group to struggle equally for all life issues. However, while struggling for a particular life issue, someone who has a consistent pro-life ethic will be sensitive to other life issues. This is not to say that all life issues are morally equivalent. Rather, it is to affirm that all life issues are linked by a common thread: our belief that all human life is sacred.
 People like Deacon Rich and the myriad of other people who struggle to uphold the dignity of life help us to see that having a consistent ethic of life leads not only to individual acts of charity but also to involvement in political life. In the words of Cardinal Bernardin, “When human life is considered ‘cheap’ or easily expendable in one area, eventually nothing is held as sacred and all lives are in jeopardy.” Catholics are called upon to be pro-life by consistently standing in defense of the dignity of human life, beginning with the life of the unborn and continuing to the grave.

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Excerpted from Amos/Hosea/Micah by Joe Paprocki Copyright © 2006 by Joe Paprocki. Excerpted by permission.
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