I recently had the privilege of baptizing the adopted daughter of my 1990’s Junior Prom date. Standing by the font in the parish church where Marybeth and her husband were now raising their own family, she and I shared a grace-filled moment that Sunday afternoon in which we realized how incredibly beautiful – and how very funny – life can really be. She said she never expected to be a mom again in her 40s, and she certainly never thought her former high school dance partner would be the priest who presided over this sacred moment in the faith life of her daughter.
We often hear it said that God writes straight with crooked lines. There may be some truth to that. After all, Amos – the shepherd and dresser of sycamores in today’s first reading – never expected to be a prophetic voice in the society in which he found himself. But God took him exactly where he was – with all his talents and limitations – and asked him to help his fellow Israelites to grow and bloom into what God had intended His people to be: fruitful and life-giving.
Can not the same be asked of us? Similar to Amos and the Gospel Twelve summoned by Jesus, can’t we also go into the world as we are and proclaim the Good News: that we are loved and forgiven by the very God who gave His life for each one of us? Aren’t we called to be prophets in our time as well?
As Marybeth and her family were leaving the church after the Baptism that Sunday, she handed me a small box within which was a Greek cross the teen-aged me once gave her as a Christmas gift to celebrate her family’s heritage. I was stunned that she saved it after more than 25 years. “I plan on giving it to her when she gets older,” Marybeth told me, cradling the sleeping child in her arms. “And now you get to bless the necklace you once gave me – pretty cool, huh?”
Yes, definitely pretty cool -- and a beautiful moment along life’s journey when we see how God works through those sacred moments we call sacraments. They are, in fact, prophet-makers.