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Before God called him to be a prophet, Amos was basically a low-paid migrant worker.
He says that he’s not a professional prophet but a dresser of sycamores. We might well wonder, “Sycamores? What?” The word makes us think of our massive 100-foot-high North American sycamores with their palmate leaves, but Amos was referring to a dinky little tree called “the poor man’s fig tree,” which had small fruits encased in a husk that a “dresser” had to pierce with a sharp stick in order for the fruit to grow. The fruit was small, didn’t taste all that great, and wasn’t worth much. It was the fruit of the poor.
And Jesus sent the Twelve out, two by two, to preach the good news. All they were to carry was a walking stick—no rolly bags, no toiletries kit, no food, no money, no extra clothes. They were to be one with the poor, and so are we who follow in their footsteps. Pope Francis has emphasized this again and again.
Back in 1978, Tom Conry published his Ashes collection (OCP 9336), which includes the lovely “You Have Written Your Song.” I wish I could quote the poetic language of the whole song, but the fourth version is particularly pertinent:
You have withered our wisdom and melted our hearts,
Your kindness is legend spoke from father to child,
spoke from father to child.
We celebrate you as a poor man honors his bread.
“As a poor man honors his bread”—that phrase has stuck in my mind for decades. In First World countries like ours, bread is an accompaniment to a meal, not the meal itself. But when in liturgy we break the bread of life and share it with one another, we are the poor who honor God’s gift with our lives.
M.D. Ridge
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