Word to the Wise
Thursday, March 7, 2024 - 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; when you call to them, they will not answer you. Say to them: This is the nation that does not listen to the voice of the Lord, its God, or take correction. Faithfulness has disappeared; the word itself has vanished from their speech. [Jeremiah]
Jeremiah has been traditionally referred to as "the reluctant prophet." He makes it clear from the day of his calling that he didn't want the role and felt unqualified for it. [Jer. 1:4-10] God thought differently. Perhaps Jeremiah knew what the usual fate of true prophets is: opposition or indifference. The opposition can be violent, as it was in Jeremiah's case. He was thrown at one time into a dried-up cistern. The plain fact in the Old Testament is that Jonah was the only "successful" prophet. Nineveh repented.
It can be a helpful Lenten exercise to ask oneself who the prophetic figures have been to each of us? Was it a parent, sibling, friend, doctor, political figure/activist? The role of a prophet is to confront people with what they believe and warn them about the consequences. It is as if a prophet holds up the mirror of hypocrisy and forces us to look into it.
Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophetic promises, but his words are also prophetic. Can we read the Sermon on the Mount or the parables of the Good Samaritan or the Prodigal Son or the Unforgiving Servant or Lazarus and the Rich Man or the Final Judgment without feeling confronted with our beliefs and actions as Christians? Has faithfulness become a part time thing? We do fail and we have the Sacrament of Reconciliation to help us stay close to Jesus' teachings, but the idea is not simply to avoid sin but to grow closer to the Lord. That means a change in attitude as well as behavior. Listening alone is not enough. The whole person will be constantly challenged to conversion. To be a faithful Christian is to be "a work in progress." Prophets are there to cheer and challenge. AMEN