Pio's Proverb 202: Prophets: old and new and you!

This blog was written on April 13, 1998 as a class assignment reflection for Theology at Sacred Heart Major Seminary. I hope it speaks to your heart. I consider Fr. Paul's class the best of my classes. God bless, Fr. Paul. Perhaps we are all called by the Holy Spirit to be a "Prophetic Voice for the Church"!...as Fr. Jim told me this summer that God has called me to be. If He is calling me; then He is calling thee!

Pope Benedict XVI said this on September 22, 2012: 

"Yet, in the face of this situation, Christians are called to act and express themselves with a prophetic spirit capable of seeing in these tranformations the unceasing and mysterious presence of God in history - and thus to shoulder their newly emerging responsiblitites with realism, confidenc, and hope."


Extra. Reflect 3: Pio: 4-13-98 Prophets - how they affect us now in our ministry.

This course - my first on the Old Testament Prophets - has taught me much for ministry today:

(1) That the Prophetic texts, themselves, have been redacted in order to actualize them for later situations and times and that still, these redactions are part of the Jewish canons of Holy Scripture. So, too, we as ministers - ordained or lay - must be able to actualize these text for our own day.

(2) That we learn from all these encounters between God and His prophets and with the chosen people of Jerusalem and Israel, just what God is like and why he acts in the way He does. And What is God like? He is in the answer given by Jonah: "The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the parents upon the children, to the third and fourth generation." So, God is so merciful to those who turn toward Him and a God of retribution to those who hate Him. "The implied point...is that if God’s forgiveness is available to the most wicked people imaginable, then surely it is available to repentant Jews." (Ward). What of the Hitlers and Saddam Husseins of our own day? If they had any remorse and turned to God, God will forgive them. God acts compassionately on those who are helpless and weak. Does not any father help his weak children? How much more so God?

(3) That God strongly counters all the false beliefs, arrogance, self righteousness of believers, corruption in high places and in individuals (like Nathan sent to David) of each generation. He counters by sending His prophets to carry His word - by His sending us in this our day. The counter-cultural message of Pope John Paul in the youth rally in Denver was seen by the Protestants as exactly that. The news media reported the Pope’s message to youth as "counter-cultural". We must follow the lead of this modern day prophet.

(4) That God chooses whom He wills and when he wills to do a special work for a special time or task. First there is the encounter between God and the chosen prophet. This encounter is in itself the Prophet of prophets - God, Himself - who is speaking His own Word on His own behalf to an audience of one - the would be prophet. We learn even from the responses of the prophets and we act like them too. We tend to respond or feel like these chosen prophets felt - that we are not equal to the task - or just not pure enough for the task - or just not old enough for the task - or perhaps too old for the task - or just not articulate enough for the task - and for sure not worthy of the task. How does God respond? God seems to be able to adapt to any disposition with great Wisdom and persuasion - He send hot coals to purify lips, makes the prophet eat the word of God like honey. . . . .even re-inspires His Words when Kings burn them. Our God is very adaptive and proactive. He is engaging and awesome - has a sense of humor in whom He chooses. What I learned is that these chosen prophets were transformed by the Word of God - became more loving of God and more courageous - having the Holy Spirit of courage within them. We should trust in that same Holy Spirit when we are called by the community to go out and preach the Good News by our words, action, and very lives. We have that same Spirit that was given to these great prophets of old. We are called at our baptism into Christ to be prophets to all the nations - that we meet in our community.

(5) That all the prophets point to THE PROPHET - Jesus Christ: On the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-15), when Jesus caught up to those walking about seven miles from Jerusalem, Jesus pretended to know nothing. Those walking responded to Jesus: "‘Are you the only resident of Jerusalem who does not know the things that went on there these past few days?" He said to them, ‘What things?" (They said) ‘All that had to do with Jesus of Nazareth, a PROPHET, powerful in word and deed in the eyes of God and all the people.’." What a perfect description of Jesus, and He was listening to it. The O. T. Prophets’ encounter with God has come full circle now in Jesus. This Jesus is the greatest Prophet of God - whom all the prophets pointed to in some aspect - and even today as we read the Scripture encounters us as we walk along our lives pondering all that has happened in the Paschal Mystery. In Jesus, we can clearly hear our call to be prophets. And "What things" is He asking of us?

(6) That if we are truly called to be prophets, then we are surely called to suffering. All the O.T. prophets and Jesus suffered in being sent unto the nations who would not listen! To the nations who responded to good by malicious plotting to kill the messengers of God. In so many prophets, God - in a mystical manner or in the circumstances of their lives - all felt God’s feelings -of knowing the infidelity and fickleness of God people, His Bride.

(7) That the O.T. prophets as well as Jesus are ALL models for us of great COURAGE and FIDELITY to God in holy OBEDIENCE. God’s Revelation of Himself to His prophets and revealing Himself in the through the prophets and in the Person of Jesus - all come to complete fruition - in holy and humble obedience. [Humility is that constant medicine against the disease of pride and self-righteousness.] So we also must have a humble and obedient heart - ever ready to be sent - even before knowing the whole of our mission. We need to be ready to say, "Yes" as did Mary without her knowing all that it would bring to us in suffering. Being a prophet and be obedient are inseparably linked. Obedience and faith are also linked. Faith and God are so closely linked that just the word "in" between them go together. Likewise God and Jesus are one and the same. And even we with Jesus are inseparably linked because of our adoption as sons of the one same Father. Jesus said obedience is better than sacrifice.

(8) That scholars have discerned an exact time in history - of the Babylonian exile - to which time and circumstance God sent His Word by calling chosen men who became great lovers of God by both hearing the Word and preaching it. So, too, we are called to restore to God all peoples - in this exact time of cultural death,

to go out into the deafness of society who don’t want to hear the Word of God on life issues, on peace, on moral responsibility - speaking the Word of God. So, too, are we called and plant the Word of God mightily in the midst of societal moral chaos. In so doing, we are to become the reality of the Words: "The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord." We need to fill the world with the goodness of God’s Word by living that Word. We can only do this by understanding our call to suffering - as were all the prophets and especially the greatest - Jesus. How are we to be ready? Firstly, we need to be where God can so easily find us best - in prayer - before the Holy Eucharist: where we meet God personally in faith. There is where we will hear clearly the call, and in community - we will be confirmed in that call - since community is where the Holy Spirit speaks most clearly. When we hear, we must change and be formed by the Word we hear.

(9) That we must know that those to whom we are sent are also called to all things restored in Christ. Even the Babylonians and Assyrians of our own day are called. We cannot smash those to whom we are sent, but need to be gentle as Jesus was - ever calling them with meekness - because getting all to the Father is our final goal of all we are called d to do. We are prophets. Let us be prophets and witness to the truth by our lives, by our words, by our deeds, by our faith and by our devotion to Jesus Christ - King and Prophet - Lord and God.

(10) And finally, that we - prophets - are bound together - ordained and lay - in the common call of the One God of the one mission to the restoration of the universe in Christ. We are part of it - our minds, our bodies, our spirits, our lives and our destinies - to witness with the fiber of our beings - God lives and loves and is our final end. In Christ, we are not called to ruin but to total life in God forever -and we must bring those to whom we are called to preach - with us! The greatest result of this class is that God has been walking us through history of His working the lives of many prophets and people of Israel to get us ready for our mission, to understand God more, to have courage to follow our call and to do so in holiness. The prophets of old were lovers of God who became holy. We cannot be true prophets of God without holiness of heart. Amen.

[Thanks, Fr. Paul, for the most important class I have taken for the M.A. The whole class was a prophetic message to all of us.]

Peace and love, Pio  (November 16, 2012).