Word to the Wise
Thursday, March 27, 2014 - 3rd Week of Lent - Thurs
[Jer 7:23-28 and Luke 11:14-23]I have sent you untiringly all my servants the prophets. Yet they have not obeyed me nor paid heed; they have stiffened their necks and done worse than their fathers. When you speak all these words to them, they will not listen to you either....
For Jews there are two principal sources of revelation: the Law and the Prophets. [Remember how Moses and Elijah appear with Jesus at the "transfiguration?"] There were times when neither of these sources of revelation had a lot of influence, as the Old Testament unsparingly shows! Like every human group, they would rise and fall according to the degree that they were faithful to the covenant and open to authentic prophecy. If they turned toward other religious deities followed by their neighbors [Canaanites] or conquerors [Greeks, Romans], they declined and grew corrupt.
God's message to Jeremiah in today's first scripture makes all of this very clear. Jeremiah was a reluctant prophet to begin with [cf. Jer 1:6-10] and now God says that Jeremiah had better not count on being as successful as Jonah! When prophets call people to account there is resistance and hostility, as Jeremiah would learn! This has been the fate of all true prophets. Jesus would experience the same kind of rejection that Jeremiah did. In today's gospel he is accused of being possessed by a demon!
Although prophets in our own day do not have the institutional/social status they had in Old Testament times, they do exist. We can see the prophetic office at work in Pope Francis! As long as he says certain things in a certain way, he will be the darling of the church. But if he goes against the agenda of the media or certain entrenched circles in the church, he will experience the hostility and resistance that Jeremiah did! It is important to listen to what he says as much as how he says it! He (and, I hope, we) will know how Jeremiah suffered. We will suffer, too, if we fail to listen and heed! AMEN