Saturday of the Seventeenth Week of Ordinary Time

Today's Mass Readings

Prophets can be annoying. Perhaps better put, prophets know how to get to the heart of the matter. They speak out when others are silent. They rock the boat. They push people to think in new ways even though those new ways are very unpopular, sometimes even unheard of. Prophets have a message for a city, a country, or a world. That was true of all the prophets of old – think of Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Isaiah, all the great Old Testament prophets. John the Baptist was a prophet – Herod even recognized that the people regarded him as a prophet. Jesus was the Great Prophet. They all spoke for God. Jesus was the Word of God Incarnate. His word was in truth the Word of God’s love and mercy and of God’s judgment, too.

All the prophets, and Jesus too, pointed out the errors of the ways of a people, a culture. They proposed something new. Something different. There are prophets in modern times as well. Some of those newer prophets speak with a certain eloquence. Others speak even louder with their deeds. Saints too are prophetic. St. Benedict, St. Francis of Assisi, all the great founders of orders – St. Ignatius, (today) St. Alphonsus Ligouri.

Jesus, in yesterday’s Gospel, acknowledged that prophets are rarely accepted in their own place, in their circles. We can see that in the life of Jeremiah and in John the Baptist himself. But why not? Human nature is such that people like the way things are, most of the time. And it is the work of prophets to shake up the status quo. Some people are quickly open to the idea of a new way, or quickly see when practices are unjust or dishonest. Others, not so much.

In times of skepticism and suspicion, we need to be careful and listen attentively to true prophetic voices. The thing about a prophet is, if people really listen, they know the word of a prophet is true. Let’s always pray for the grace to accept the true prophetic voices of old and in our midst, and above all, the word, the promise, the love of the Great Prophet: Jesus himself.
Reflection by Fr. Peter Ullrich, OSB