The job of a prophet is not an easy one. And we should all know, because we are all in some ways the prophetic seeds the Lord is sowing in the world. We might fall on good soil, or amongst rocks or thorns, but wherever we are, we are expected to bear fruit. We are called upon to preach the Word in our actions and sometimes our words, no matter how difficult a job it can sometimes be. And we prophesy knowing that our words and actions come from our God who is the one who places those words on our lips in the first place. Our witness can be an authentic one if we remember the words of the Psalmist today: “O God, you have taught me from my youth, and till the present I proclaim your wondrous deeds.”
Tag: witness
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Tuesday of the Fifteenth Week of Ordinary Time
Today’s scriptures are full of place-names. The places seem meaningless to us so far away in both time and place. But in those days, those places were extremely important. Isaiah speaks of Jerusalem, Damascus, and Samaria, strategic places in the ancient near east. The Old Testament of course places preeminence on Jerusalem, God’s dwelling-place. God sent Isaiah to prophecy that all of these would be torn down unless the people’s faith was firm.
In the Gospel, Jesus mentions Chorazin and Bethsaida, Tyre and Sidon, Capernaum, and even Sodom. He says that unless Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum learn the lessons of Tyre, Sidon and Sodom, their fate would be much worse than those condemned places.
And so, what of Glen Ellyn, then? Is our faith strong enough to pass the test of today’s Scriptures? The only way we can be sure is through our faith and our witness. We must be certain that each of us individually is living our faith to the fullest, so that our lives give witness to others. Then, with the grace of God, we can convert our village, and our nation, and even our world.
Our task on earth is to build, with God’s help, an earthly city that will lead all people to the Kingdom of God. Our prayer of faith today is, in the words of the Psalmist, God upholds his city forever.
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Wednesday of the Tenth Week of Ordinary Time
Giving the right example is incredibly important for the disciple. We don’t want to lead anyone astray either through carelessness or through bad intent. That’s why Elijah decided to have it out with the prophets of Baal once and for all. He proved conclusively – through the power of God – that there is no god but our God. And woe to those prophets of Baal who were later put to death for their actions. In the same way, Jesus laments those who lead his little ones astray. Today we examine all of our actions and purify our example that God alone may be glorified.
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Thursday of the Seventh Week of Easter
Sometimes we get an idea and it seems well, a little uncomfortable. We may well have had a call or even a gentle moving from the Lord, and are afraid to act on it. Today’s Scriptures speak to those of us who are sometimes hesitant to do what the Lord is calling on us to do.
I think St. Paul must have been exhausted by this point in his life. As we hear of him in our reading from Acts today, he is saved from one angry mob, only to learn he is to go to another. Out of the frying pan and into the fire. He has borne witness to Christ in Jerusalem, but now he has to go and do it all over again in Rome. And underneath it all, he knows there is a good chance he is going to die.
In the Gospel today, Jesus prays for all of his disciples, and also for all those who “will believe in me through their word.” And that, of course, includes all of us. He prays that we would be unified and would be protected from anything or anyone who might seek to divide us from each other, or even from God. He says that we are a gift to him, and that he wishes us to be where he will be for all eternity.
What we see in our Liturgy today is that God keeps safe the ones he loves. If he calls us to do something, he will sustain us through it. Maybe we’ll have to witness to Jesus all over again or we’ll have to defend our faith against people in our community or workplace – or wherever – who just don’t understand. We might well feel hesitant at these times, but we can and must go forward, acting on God’s call. When we do that, we can make our own prayer in the words of the Psalm today: “Keep me safe, O God; you are my hope.”
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Wednesday of the Sixth Week of Ordinary Time
Today’s first reading finds Saint Paul proclaiming Christ to the Greeks at the Areopagus. These people were Gentiles, of course, even pagans. But, as Paul noted, they had an altar to “an unknown God,” and so he finds them very religious. And so he connects Christ to that unknown God, making him known to them, and is able to convert a few there. At the heart of this event is the truth that God known, in some way, by most people, even if they don’t know it. Some have said there is a God-shaped hole in our lives, and we can only ultimately fill it with his presence in our lives. This gives us the mandate to witness to Christ, helping to make him known to all those who don’t know how much they need him. We know that in Christ, we “live and move and have our being.” We have to make sure everyone else knows that, too.
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Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Easter
Paul was obviously a pretty tough guy. I don’t know about you, but if I barely weathered the storm of people throwing rocks at me and leaving me for dead, I might think twice about how I handled my ministry. That’s nothing to be proud of, but I think that’s part of fallen human nature. How blessed we are to have the saints, like Saint Paul, to give example of how to weather the storm and live the faith and preach the word. Indeed, if it weren’t for the grace-filled tenacity of those saintly apostles, we would very likely not have the joy of our faith today.
But contrast the storminess of Paul’s stoning with the wonderful words of encouragement and consolation we have in today’s Gospel reading: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.” We can think of all sorts of situations in which these words would be welcome. We have all experienced health problems in ourselves or in those close to us, job difficulties, family problems, and so many more. How wonderfully consoling it is to know that in the midst of the many storms we daily face, our Savior is there: offering us peace.
But the peace Jesus offers us in this reading is a bit different from what we might expect. It’s not the mere absence of conflict, nor is it any kind of placating peace the world might offer us. This peace is a genuine one, a peace that comes from the inside out, a peace that calms our troubled minds and hearts even if it does not remove the storm. There is a contemporary song that says, “Sometimes he calms the storm, and other times he calms his child.”
God knows that we walk through storms every day. He experienced that first-hand in the person of Jesus as he walked our walk in his earthly life. He knows our joys and our pains, and reaches out to us in every one of them with his abiding presence and his loving embrace. He was there for St. Paul when he was being stoned, and he is there for us too. His presence abides in us through the Church, through the holy people God has put in our lives, through his presence in our moments of prayer and reflection, and in so many ways we could never count them all. This peace from the inside out is one that our God longs for us to know, whether we are traversing calm waters or braving a vicious storm.
We pray, then, for the grace to find peace in our daily lives, the peace that comes from Jesus himself.
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Thursday of the Third Week of Easter
Being in the right place at the right time isn’t usually a coincidence. Far more often than we realize, I think it’s the work of the Holy Spirit. Certainly that has to be the case in today’s first reading. How else would we explain an angel directing Philip to be on a road at the very same time as the Ethiopian eunuch passed by, reading a passage from the prophet Isaiah that referred to Jesus? Seizing the moment, Philip explains the Jesus event to him in a way that was powerful enough and moving enough that, on seeing some water as they continued on the journey, the eunuch begged to be baptized. Then, as the Spirit whisks Philip off to Azotus, the eunuch continues on his way, rejoicing in his new life.
The same is true for those who were fortunate enough to hear Jesus proclaim the Bread of Life discourse that we’ve been reading in our Gospel readings these past days. Having been fed by a few loaves and fishes when they were physically hungry, they now come to find Jesus who longs to fill them up not just physically but also, and more importantly, spiritually. Their hunger put them in the right place at the right time.
Maybe what’s important for us to get today is that we are always in the right place at the right time, spiritually speaking. Wherever we find ourselves is the place that we are directed by the Holy Spirit to find God. Wherever we find ourselves is the place that we are directed by the Holy Spirit to proclaim God. And so we may be called upon to find God in the midst of peace, or chaos, or any situation. We never know how God may feed us in those situations. And we may indeed be called upon to proclaim God in those same peaceful, or chaotic, situations. Because we never know when there will be someone like an Ethiopian eunuch there, aching to be filled with Christ’s presence and called to a new life.
It is no coincidence that we are where we are, when we are. The Spirit always calls on us to find our God and proclaim him as Lord of every moment and every situation.
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Monday of the Third Week of Easter
So they drag Saint Stephen before the Sanhedrin, and make all sorts of false claims against him. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? In fact, Stephen is in good company. He is brought to the same place where his Lord Jesus, and later Peter and the apostles, have gone before him. And just like all of them, even with all the lies and accusations flying around him, he is at peace. The source of his peace, is of course, his Lord who has gone before him, that same Lord who now fills him, as the first line of the reading says, with “grace and power.” We too, will be tested in this life because of our faith. We too, can rely on that same grace and power if we unite ourselves to our Risen Lord.
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Tuesday of the Second Week of Lent
A phylactery was a black leather box that was worn on the arm or the forehead, containing scriptural verses. Maybe the modern equivalent would be a “WWJD” bracelet, or a cross worn around the neck, or even a t-shirt or sweatshirt with a Scriptural verse on it. These are wonderful reminders of who we are called to be, except when we ignore them. We cannot advertise to be one person when in fact we are someone else. We cannot be like the Pharisees who preach but do not practice. Our works must be works of justice, reaching out to those in need, living in right relationship with everyone, or our words are just hollow.
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Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time [B]
When I met with Father Jim before I came here to Saint Petronille a few weeks ago, the one concern I expressed was coming back to my home parish. I thought it might be weird, and I quoted the exact line in today’s Gospel: “A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and among his own kin and in his own house.” I asked him what he thought about that and he said he didn’t know; he’s never had to experience that himself. But, he also assured me that you’d all be on your best behavior! So we’ll just have to see how that goes.
But it is a valid concern, because, as I believe today’s Liturgy of the Word is saying, we are all of us called to be prophets. When we are baptized, we are anointed with the Sacred Chrism oil, the oil whose name has the same root word as the word “Christ.” In that anointing, we are called to be other christs to the world, we are anointed as Jesus was, priest, prophet and king. So the mission is laid out for us on our baptism day. As priests, we are called to sacrifice for the good of others. As prophets, we are called to speak the truth and witness to the will of God. As kings, we are called to reign eternally with Christ our King in the kingdom that knows no end.
Today, I want to focus, as our readings suggest, on the whole idea of us being anointed as prophets to the world. This presents two important issues. First, whether we like it or not, we are called to be prophets. And second, whether we like it or not, there are prophets among us.
So first, we are called to be prophets. And we may in fact not be thrilled about being prophets. With good reason, I think, because a prophet’s job is not an easy one. Prophets are called to witness to the truth, and quite often, people just don’t want to hear about the truth. God says as much to Ezekiel in today’s first reading: “Hard of face and obstinate of heart are they to whom I am sending you.” You know, that’s not a scriptural quotation you’ll often see on a vocation poster! But it’s a warning we all need to hear, because we will always in our witnessing to the truth come up against those who don’t want to hear it. You might be witnessing to the truth by taking a stand against a business practice you aren’t comfortable with. You can bet that won’t be popular. You might be witnessing to the truth by refusing to allow your children to participate in sports when it conflicts with coming to church on Sunday, that won’t be popular either. Whenever we exercise our ministry as prophets, we are certain to run up against people who are hard of face and obstinate of heart, but our call is the same as Ezekiel’s: witness anyway.
And second, we need to recognize that there are prophets among us. And that’s hard too because prophets can be a real pain. None of us wants to be confronted when we’re straying from the right way. None of us wants to hear the truth about ourselves or others when we’ve been blocking it out. None of us wants to be called out of our comfort zone and have to extend ourselves to reach out in new ways or meet the needs of those we’d rather ignore. But prophets insist that we do all those things.
It’s harder still when we know those prophets. They might be our spouses, our parents, our children, our best friends, and because they love us they will witness the truth to us. But how ready are we to hear and respond to that truth when we are called to it? Wouldn’t we too want to dismiss the carpenter’s son – or daughter – the one whose parents or sisters or brothers live with us, the one we have watched grow up, the one who shares our life with us? Who are they to be witnessing to the truth anyway? That’s the kind of thing Jesus was dealing with in his home town.
It’s like the Procrustean bed from Greek mythology. The mythical figure Procrustes was a son of Poseidon and a bandit from Attica, with a stronghold in the hills outside Eleusis. There, he had an iron bed into which he invited every passerby to lie down. If the guest proved too tall, he would amputate the excess length; victims who were too short were stretched on the rack until they were long enough. Nobody ever fit the bed exactly because it was secretly adjustable: Procrustes would stretch or shrink it upon sizing his victims from afar. Procrustes continued his reign of terror until he was captured by Theseus, who “fitted” Procrustes to his own bed and cut off his head and feet. And so a Procrustean bed is any kind of arbitrary standard to which exact conformity is enforced. We might be a lot like Procrustes when we refuse to admit that people among us are prophetic, when we refuse to hear the truth from them.
And here is a very important truth, the truth that I think we are being asked to take away from today’s readings: the prophetic ministry continues among us. There are times when we will be called to hear the prophets, and times when we will be called to be the prophets. Neither task is an easy one: the truth is very often difficult to deal with, no matter what side of it we are on. But honoring the truth is the only way we are going to get to be with Jesus who himself is the way, the truth and the life. So it is the vocation of us Christian disciples to constantly seek the truth, proclaiming it when necessary, hearing and responding to it when called upon, but always to be open to it.
Ezekiel says at the beginning of today’s first reading, “As the LORD spoke to me, the spirit entered into me and set me on my feet.” We might be ready to skip over that detail but I think we need to dwell on it a bit because it’s important. The truth is a heavy thing, and very often can flatten us. It might seem to crush the prophet who has to bear it or even knock the wind out of the one who has to hear it. But it doesn’t go away. We are given the truth, and the strength of the Spirit who picks us up and puts us on our feet. So we prophets can depend on the strength of the Spirit to bear the news, and we hearers can depend on the grace of the Spirit to receive the news and heed its call. The prophetic word is difficult, but our God never leaves us to bear it alone.
In our second reading, it is Saint Paul who makes the call so plain to us. He was afflicted with that thorn in the flesh. Maybe the thorn was the call to witness to the truth as he so often was. It wouldn’t go away, but God did give him the grace to bear it. And the words he heard from God are the words we prophets and hearers of the prophets need to know today: “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.”
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