Jesus is the prophet of prophets.  And we who have, due to our baptism, the calling to be prophets will be so only we do as he.

The people take Jesus as one of the prophets (Mt 14, 5; Mk 8, 28; Lk 7, 16; Jn 7, 40).  The learned, in contrast, take pride in not being so gullible (Lk 7, 39; Jn 7, 52).

Those of Jesus’ native place are not gullible either.  They are aware that he teaches with wisdom.  But they also know that he is a carpenter and they can name his relatives besides.  And, as it turns out, they cannot reconcile these two things that they know about him.  So, they take the easy way out of such cognitive dissonance; they just take offense at him.

We Christians, for our part, believe that Jesus is the Son through whom the Father speaks nowadays.  In time past, he spoke to our ancestor through the prophets.

So, Jesus is, for us, higher than the prophets.  As Son, he is very close to the Father (Jn 1, 18).  Besides, he only speaks what the Father tells him (Jn 12, 49).  Hence, there is no one in a better position to speak God’s word.  In fact, the Son is God’s Word and reveals him.

And we know all this through the preaching of the Galileans who are among those who are like children.  Through the witness also of the one who has exchanged wisdom for folly (Phil 3, 4-8).  The Father, after all, reveals to those who are like children the things that he hides from the wise (Mt 11, 25).  God, yes, chooses those who are foolish in the world, are weak, despised, and count for nothing (1 Cor 1, 27-28).  And when they are foolish and weak, then they are wise and strong.

Prophets:  voice of God; voice of the voiceless

It is not surprising, then, that God makes prophets of those who are not qualified in the eyes of the world.  The not so eloquent and those whose lips are not so clean (Ex 4, 10; Is 6, 5; Jer 1, 6).  He turns them into his voice, and so, into the voice of the voiceless.

This is so since God hears the cry of the poor.  And that is why Jesus cannot but be on the wrong side of history, of the losers.  To be prophets, then, which comes with our baptism, we have to do as he.

To do as Jesus means to go around doing good, to proclaim the Good News, to help those in need.  That is to say, it is our task, as people whom God has chosen, to be “instruments of his immense and fatherly charity” (SV.EN XII:214-216).  We are “to take the love of God far and near.”  This means, of course, that we ourselves must burn with this love, for “we cannot give what we do not have.”  Not to burn with such love is to be among Jesus’ own that do not welcome him.

The same love drives us to help the poor in every way (SV.EN XII:77).  Even to the point of giving up our body and shedding our blood.

Lord Jesus, grant us to be prophets like you, living by the word of God.  Thus, our food will be to do his will, and we shall have the strength to wake up people’s consciences and to work for justice and love.

4 July 2021
14th Sunday in O.T. (B)
Ez 2, 2-5; 2 Cor 12, 7-10; Mk 6, 1-6