Amos was a normal, everyday workingman. We hear about him in the first reading. He lived just south of the border between the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah, on the Judean side. Amos crossed the border into the North and proclaimed God’s truth to those in the City of Bethel. The people there were soft selling their faith. They were part timing their devotion to Yahweh. Amos told them to change their lives and be committed to the Lord. The priest Amaziah told Amos to stop confronting the people and go back to Judah. Amos responded: “I am not a professional prophet. I am an arborist, a dresser of trees. But I cannot refuse to proclaim the Lord.â€
Nor can any of us. We have to “proclaim the word, in season and out of season†as St. Paul writes in 2 Timothy 4:2. We have to proclaim the truth we experience within us whether it is a time others want to hear it, in season, or whether it is a time they would rather we just keep quiet, out of season.