Homily for the Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
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As we heard this morning, the Prophet Ezekiel, who lived around the year 600 BC, relates to us as the word of God, one of Sacred Scripture's classic statements: “...they shall know that a prophet has been among them."
Knowing full well that there have been many prophetic voices in the Church throughout the millennia, which would include evangelists, apostles, teachers, martyrs, and saints galore… let’s take a look at our immediate time, indeed, into our immediate lives in order to discover… or perhaps to rediscover our own vocation as prophet to our own generation.
Humility would allow us to consider this vocation, since Our Lord in His Wisdom, has placed us in this time and place: in His Church, and in our present culture, not to conform ourselves to contemporary thought, but to dare to speak His voice therein.
Where to begin?
Saint Paul tells us that humility is required to recognize the presence and power of God in our midst, and especially in our lives. He writes that he was “given a thorn in the flesh” (perhaps a physical or psychological malady or a recurring temptation) so that he might not become too elated, or vain, or self-congratulatory concerning the Revelation of Christ that was extended to him. Let’s consider, then, what “thorn in the flesh” might hinder us from speaking or living a prophetic life? Perhaps:
+ self-doubt+ timidity+ fear of repercussion, even within family life+ acedia or spiritual laziness+ despair about the future of+ the Church+ the nation+ one’s own family
Because true prophecy is usually counter-cultural or at least counter-intuitive, relativistic thought will dismiss both the prophet and the prophecy out of hand in a self-absorbed superiority complex. This means that while a Prophet like Saint John the Baptist “spoke truth to power…” today’s prophet will speak truth to indifference. Where the Baptist was martyred, today’s prophet will be ignored, dismissed as irrelevant and out of touch, or even accused of “hate speech.”
However, humility will lead the hopeful prophet to recognize that Church Teachings are prophetic in their nature and in their essence. The proof that they are prophetic is that they are so readily dismissed, and sometimes by practicing Catholics, as “irrelevant and out of touch” because they are so often counter-cultural, certainly in our present culture as it is. Yet it is their irrelevance that ultimately makes them relevant — and prophetic.
Take, for example, the 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae. Many people, including a shocking number of priests, dismissed this work, most, without having actually read it, as an out-of-touch Pope ranting about Birth Control. Yet Pope Saint Paul VI, writing of the dignity of human life, predicted that a contraceptive mentality would bring:
+ abortion
+ divorce
+ break-up of the family -and -
+ shortage of priestly vocations
These many years later, we see that many, if not most, of his naysayers left the priesthood; Pope Paul VI has been canonized a Saint. G.K. Chesterton spoke of this difficulty a hundred years ago when he stated: “The problem for people who turn away from sound teaching is not that they will believe in nothing… but that they will believe [just about] anything.”
So, then, how are we to move forward, beyond fear and trepidation, to become a prophetic voice? We must first come to realize what a contemporary prophet is up against, though I think most of us already know.
Fifty years ago, Senator Eugene McCarthy observed: “There are only two kinds of religion that are permitted in America:
+ strong beliefs that are vaguely expressed -and -
+ vague beliefs that are strongly expressed.”
Opponents of strong belief call for more than separation of Church and State: they demand a separation of Church and culture, dreaming of a “values-neutral” society (which reflects certain “values” in and of itself), proving their wish to be disordered as well as impossible to maintain except, perhaps, as we see in present-day politics.
A program entitled “The Seven Mountain Mandate,” while a Pentecostal movement, can speak well to Catholic action. It proclaims that Christians should come out of the “prayer closet” to exert influence in seven institutions of the culture:
+ family
+ church
+ education
+ the media
+ the arts
+ business
+ government
That’s a lot to consider! But we must remember that Christianity is not a mere hobby or pastime; it is part of who the Christian person is, reflecting the ontological change — that is, the change in one’s very being — that takes place at Baptism.
Looking at Our Lord, himself, as a model for us as present-day prophets, we listen closely to what He said in today’s Gospel passage: “A prophet is not without honor except in his native place, among his own kin, and in his own house.” Familiarity had bred contempt for Jesus, when they raised questions about His identity, as:
+ hometown boy
+ working-class carpenter
+ son of Mary ( a contemptuous insult suggesting Him fatherless and of no account)
In their interaction with Jesus, Saint Mark provides us with two significant verbs that develop between the Lord and His detractors:
+ the people were astonished at the Lord’s words and deeds…
— and —
+ the Lord was amazed that, in the end, His words and deeds meant so little to them.
Their astonishment was overcome by their lack of faith in Him, which prevented Him from performing miracles for their own benefit.
Christ’s divine commission for us is to go forth and change society for the better, with Truth, Prudence, and Charity. This would entail denouncing sin and error — not in self-righteousness —but in the proclamation of truth that is:
+ divinely revealed
+ universal - and -
+ eternal…
… proffered with the above-mentioned Prudence and Charity.
Christians affirm that there exists objective good and evil; our opponents claim that all is subjective, and to propose otherwise is evil, creating a caricature of Christians as hypocritical. Hypocrisy may, indeed, come to the fore as we, who are imperfect, sometimes fail the prophetic message of the Gospel we proclaim, but a genuine prophet would never describe himself as such, striving to overcome weakness and sin by God’s Grace. Yet we can still live lives that are prophetic in nature:
+ when we seek humility
+ when we trust the source of Church Teaching
+ when we attempt to model a life of virtue
+ when we strive for holiness
+ when we seek for and speak of eternal truth over popular opinion
Doing nothing is not an option. But what lies in store for us? How shall we know in which direction to move? There exists within the living of our faith a certain continuum, with
+ Quietism, the realm of the cloister at one end -and-
+ Activism, the realm of politics at the other.
Our role is somewhere in-between. God will lead us in the direction He chooses for us. We can find courage to attempt a prophetic life from the words that God the Father speaks to Ezekiel:
“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 will know that a prophet has been among them.”