I was no prophet but a shepherd and dresser of sycamores. It was the Lord who said to me, “Go, and prophesy to my people Israel.” No one is happy to be the recipient of bad news, especially when the bad news is coming from God. The people of the northern kingdom of Israel had had enough of Amos and his threats (prophecies of doom). His constant reminder to them of the community’s failures as well as the fate that awaited them had now become too much even for the priest Amaziah. Not wanting to find himself on the wrong side of the king, Amaziah reported Amos the prophet to the king. In his defense, Amos says that he is no conspirator against the king and his kingdom, and that he can possibly have no bone to pick with the king. If anything, he is from Judah, and was never trained as a prophet. His sin? Unlike the people to whom he was sent to preach, he had obeyed the Lord: “Go and prophesy to them,” the Lord had told him. And this is what he was doing.
A prophet as a messenger of God relays the message of God without any addition or subtraction. The words that issue from his mouth are never his, and he can never alter them. A prophet preaches in season and out of season, that is, when he is favored and when he falls out of favor. Amos was no doubt never favored in the first place, for his message had remained consistent: the imminent destruction of Israel. However, even after being told to flee back to his native kingdom, he still prophesied against the king. 
The call to prophecy is a challenging one, especially when one is sent to call a people to repentance. It is a call whose only qualification is obedience to God’s voice. And for the most part, a prophet will preach by his life. At our baptism, we take upon ourselves the prophetic mandate to become preachers of the word of God. Like Amos, ours is also a responsibility to relay the message of God as we receive it, even if it will lead to our discomfort. May we, like Amos and the other prophets, remain steadfast and faithful to both our call and to the Lord.