The first
reading deals with the witness of the prophet Ezekiel.
The Gospel deals
with the witness of the prophet Jesus. Both accounts leave
no doubt that the prophet is in for trouble: the people, “rebels
who have rebelled against God,” find the prophet “too
much for them.” Paul describes what awaits the prophet:
mistreatment, distress, persecutions and difficulties.
Our age has had its prophets: Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther King, Dorothy
Day, Archbishop Oscar Romero, Thomas Merton, Mahatma Gandhi, Pope John XXIII. Theirs
were not easy lives, and many of them were killed by “rebels who have rebelled
against God.” Because of their lives, which bore witness to “the power of
Christ,” the rest of us have been able to grow in faith.
“Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites. That
message to Ezekiel echoes in God’s sending of today’s
prophets. It would be a mistake to think that only Romero and
Gandhi and those like them had a calling to be prophets.”
We
believe that we are a prophetic race, called to be prophets
in the midst of “a rebellious house.” Our task is “to
bring Good News to the poor,” to speak God’s word in
such a way that “they shall know that a prophet has been
among them.”
The consequence of such prophecy will inevitably
be trial and difficulty, but also the victory of the God whose “right
hand is filled with justice.”
We
urge (everyone), again and again, to spare no labors
and let no difficulties conquer them, but rather
to become day by day more courageous and more valiant.
Arduous indeed is the task which We propose to them,
for We know well that ... there are many obstacles
and barriers to be overcome. Let them not, however,
lose heart; to face bitter combats is a mark of Christians,
and to endure grave labors to the end is a mark of
them who, as good soldiers of Christ, follow him
closely. Pope Pius XI, Quadragesimo Anno (1931) 138 |
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