Good Morning. It's early. Today's first reading is Amos 3:1-8; 4:11-12

The wrath of God continues in today's reading. Thing is, it's kind of understandable. I know, I know, it's not popular to sympathize with the Angry-God stuff. We are supposed to act like that behavior is either not there in the old testament or that it doesn't mean anything, but come on! It's all over the place! The way I see it, God kinda has his feelings hurt that the people that he has chosen to reveal himself to are, well, human. Maybe I'm projecting, because God probably doesn't really have the kind of emotions that we do, but I see him really fostering, indulging, and loving this whole tribe, in a very parent-favorite son kind of way. But it seems to him that every time he turns his back for a second, they are sniffing around foreign temples and worshipping those other gods. Not even those other Gods, but poles of wood and altars of stone. They are wasting all of their adoration on objects. Even though it's easy to see this in a jealously context, God is mad because his people are doing stupid things that are only harming themselves. Kind of like when you get mad at your new puppy for eating rocks. You don't want him to keep hurting himself.



The gospel for today is Matthew 8:23-27

This reading is a nice, soothing balm after the Amos passage. Jesus is on a boat with his disciples, crossing the Sea of Galilee I guess, and a "violent storm" breaks out. I've been on a boat in a violent storm, and it can be terrifying and nauseating, and make you feel completely helpless. To make matters worse, the footnotes say that the word actually translates to earthquake. Really? Earthquake in a boat? Doesn't that cause tidal waves and stuff?

Anyway, the disciples are freaking out, and wake Jesus, begging him to save them. I imagine the scene a little like this: Jesus slowly wakes up, rubs his eyes, and says "What's wrong with you? Can't I go to sleep for a minute without you jerks thinking you're gonna die? Do I have to do everything around here?" He gets up, calmly prays and does some storm-directing with his hands, and the weather clears instantly. He goes back to his original spot, lays down, and goes right back to sleep, completely unconcerned.

This is seriously one of my favorite gospel stories because it kind of cracks me up every time that I read it.


The news story of the day is old, but it was a slow news day this morning: Don’t abandon drug addicts, says president of Chilean Bishops’ Conference