To begin with, it is not a prophet who predicts the future. Diviners are not prophets. Besides, most of the time these diviners are usually wrong. A prophet does not say what will happen, but lives and acts in such a way that things happen in another way. His word connects with realities that we have forgotten. The prophet does not predict the future but opens us to a new reality and invites us to enter it. It is our call to listen and to enter that new path or to reject it. But always, by the earthquake that his word and his presence in our life aroused, we will know that there was a prophet among us.
The crowds admire him, they flock to him, and this success begins to worry the religious authorities in Jerusalem. Because what Jesus teaches, what he does, often contrasts with the tradition of the ancestors, with what the rabbis, the scribes and Pharisees teach. And he violates the Sabbath when people are in need; then he frequents the houses of the tax collectors and sinners; he caresses the lepers, he announces a face of God who loves all, regards no one as unclean, rejects no one, forgives sinners without first questioning if they are repentant. First, he forgives, and then, when his love envelops them, they realize that they are far from God and from themselves, they repent of the condition they are in. Therefore, they change not because of threats that God will punish them but by love.
Jesus came to Nazareth with the 12 with high hopes, with an excellent disposition. The conclusion of his journey is very bitter. Quoting a proverb, he says: “A prophet is not without honour except in his native place and among his own kin and in his own house.” There is also a similar reference at the beginning of the Gospel according to John: “He came to his own, and yet his own people did not receive him.”
Today there is no lack of prophets, but we refuse to accept them as such. Simply because we know them. We use the same argument that Jesus’ countrymen used. And we close ourselves off to the new possibilities, ways and hopes that God opens up to us through them. Because the prophets are men and women animated by the Spirit of God. In them lies the power of Christ, the power of God. Certainly, they have their weaknesses. They are not canonised saints. But, as Paul says in the second reading, they have almost certainly learned to live with their limitations and to glory in Christ and not in themselves. Through them the Spirit speaks. If we don’t listen to them, too bad for us!
For your reflection
Who are the prophets for you today? To what extent do you listen to them? Do you feel that, if you listened to them, you could live differently?
Father Fernando Torres CMF
www.ciudadredonda.org
Translated by Father Alberto Rossa CMF
