Readings: Ezekiel 2:2-5; 2:33-34; Psalm 123; 2 Corinthians 12:7-10; Mark 6:1-6
Rejection elicits an intense emotion in me, as I am sure it does with you. This is especially true when our own family and friends reject us. Like all the trials we face in life, Jesus also experienced this personal rejection. This is especially true when we live out our call as prophets. The Gospel tells us that we should expect this when we proclaim God’s truth.
Jesus’ fellow Nazarenes, even his brothers, and sisters, (Mark 3:21) reacted to his message in the same way as their fellow Israelites reacted to Ezekiel almost 600 years before. “A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and among his own kin and in his own house.” (Mark 6:4) Thankfully a prophet’s success does not depend on his audience’s reaction but on his faithful proclamation of God’s Word.
The very nature of prophecy is always going to make for a controversial message. The reason God sends prophets is to awaken his people to the need for a change of heart. This is an unwelcome message, for who wants to change, especially if we’re comfortable with the status quo? The prophet’s message will always disturb the comfortable. On the other hand, the disturbed will be comforted. The lowly and disenfranchised people will Love the prophet. The rich and powerful will hate the prophet and seek to silence him even if it means putting the prophet to death. And what is so objectionable about the prophet’s message?
The prophet’s message is simply, a call to love and justice. In Christian terms, this is a call for the reign of God or the Kingdom of God. It is a call that originates from God and is first heard in our soul. Don’t we all want people to be well fed and cared for? Isn’t our desire for security and peace something we wish for everyone? Could there be either peace or security if it wasn’t there for all? Is not our deepest need to love and to be loved? So where is the rub with the prophet’s message? Simply this: In order for the Kingdom of God to reign there is a requirement for an equal sharing of God’s gifts among all His children. Many people who consider themselves Christian see equal sharing as an ideology averse to our competitive, consumer, culture. It is in striving to enrich ourselves; we miss St. Francis’s message that it is in giving that we receive. We can become spirituality impoverished as we attain material wealth.
We need only to look to Jesus as the example of how to forfeit life in order to gain eternity. Aren’t we aware that, though rich, Jesus became poor, so that by his poverty we might become rich? It is appropriate for us who have begun not only to love generously but also to love willingly: for what we start voluntarily will, by the power of the Spirit, be brought to completion. As it is said: “To whom much is given, much is expected.” Our surplus at the present time should supply their needs, so that their surplus may also supply our needs, that there might be equality. As it is written: “Whoever had much did not have more, and whoever had little did not have less.” (Cf 2: Corinthians 8: 9-15)
We also have excellent examples of prophets in our own day. Mother Teresa of Calcutta who looked after the needs of the poorest of the poor in India. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a prophet mighty in word and deed, which led the poor of our own country further down the road to freedom and equality. From our own state of Arizona, there was Cesar Chavez an American labor leader and civil rights activist. His Roman Catholic faith strongly influenced both his social activism and his personal outlook. He founded the Community Service Organization (CSO) and co-founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA). Today we have Pope Francis who has refocused and realigned the Church’s mission in building the Kingdom of God through his actions and words.
Our pope’s outreach to the poor, the migrants, and the imprisoned and his bold words call all of us to become builders of the Kingdom and modern-day prophets. Just as did Jesus’ public first words challenged his fellow Nazarenes in the synagogue on the Sabbath when he read from Isaiah:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring glad tidings to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.”
Our modern-day prophets were not accepted in their native place and among their own kin, but we should repent of our hard-nosed rejection and hardened hearts and accept their messages as from God. – And accept our perfect role.