Word to the Wise
Sunday, July 7, 2024 - 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time - B
[Ezek 2:2-5; 2 Cor 12:7-10; Mark 6:1-6]Hard of face and obstinate of heart are they to whom I am sending you. But you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord God! And whether they heed or resist - for they are a rebellious house - they shall know that a prophet has been among them. [Ezekiel] "A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and among his own kin and in his own house." [Mark]
Prophetic people are uncomfortable people. They confront us with our lifestyles, culture, politics and even our faith. In the Old Testament, prophets had a formal status of sorts, but the role was not one that was sought! Jeremiah resisted. Jonah tried to run away. Isaiah protested. The fate of many of them was not only to be rejected but sometimes killed by those to whom they were sent.
By the time of Jesus, the role was not as prominent. John the Baptist came closest to the old model. Jesus was later seen by the early Christian community as a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. The "songs of the Suffering Servant" in Isaiah, which we hear in Holy Week, portray a figure burdened with the role of prophetic responsibility It is clear that Jesus' own hometown and family were not ready to accept him as a prophet, which, as God tells Ezekiel, was to be expected!!!!
In our own day, prophets suffer much the same fate as the biblical ones did. Martin Luther King, Jr. is widely seen as a prophetic figure, directly confronting a nation with its racial prejudice. Popes John XXIII and Francis have exercised prophetic roles in confronting the Body of Christ with its enclosed and "self-referential" stance in the modern world. John Paul II confronted our own country with its "culture of death." Prophets are called to "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." Whether they speak internationally or locally, they may be saying to us: "Thus says the Lord!" We ignore or reject them at our own risk. AMEN