A friend of mine wrote a
beautiful and touching story which she posted on her web blog and on facebook
the other day, much of which I won’t repeat this evening/morning but I bring it up because the context for her
story was her first-ever trip last week to Washington DC for the National March
for Life. Along with the youth group she
leads. She writes how she’s always
considered herself to be “pro-life” but that she’s always kept this belief
pretty much to herself. She tells how she
feared that the pro-life people she’d meet there would be radical, unfeeling
zealots, as the news media so often tends to portray. And how nervous she felt about making a
public display of her private beliefs.
I
bring this up today because by her public witness, by her example to these
youths she traveled with, and then by her writing about it on the internet, my
friend has taken on what can only be described as a prophetic voice. A prophetic
voice. What is a prophet?
It’s
not, as we might think, someone who predicts the future. No, a prophet is one who speaks up and speaks
out in the face of injustice and evil. One
who speaks the truth – who rejoices with the truth. One who will not remain silent - refuses to
remain silent. One who stands up and
tells all that God commands. And that, I
think, is the message of today’s Gospel.
Jesus announces to the local Synagogue that “no prophet is accepted in
his own native place,” and indeed, by the end of this Gospel, his neighbors
from Nazareth are ready to throw him down the hill and kill him!
All
through His life, Our Lord speaks out prophetically, against the injustices of
His time. About the need to care for
each other, especially the poor and the forgotten. Against the hypocrisy of the Scribes and
Pharisees. Against the evil in men’s and
women’s hearts. And we know what that
got him – we know how His earthly journey ended – hanging on the Cross! So in a way, today’s Gospel is a
foreshadowing of His passion and death, but Jesus didn’t let the danger He
lived with stop Him from speaking out.
He continued to speak and teach and witness with a strong, true,
prophetic voice.
Well
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you and I are called in our baptism to
be prophets, to speak with a prophetic voice. As you and I were baptized, as we were
anointed with the sacred oil of Chrism, the priest or deacon proclaimed the
following words “As Christ was anointed priest, prophet and king, so may you live
always as a member of His body.” As
members of His body, we must also live prophetically, modeling ourselves on
Christ’s example. Following Christ’s
word. His heart. There is a
popular Christian rock song that says it well – the refrain goes like
this “Oh Jesus, friend of sinners, break our hearts for what breaks
yours.” For authentic followers of the
Lord, to remain silent, to do nothing is not an option.
But
you and I know that isn’t easy. Nor is
it comfortable. In fact, it takes us
right out of our comfort zones. We’d
often time much rather just relax and forget about the poor, the homeless, the
unborn, the immigrant. Those poor
people down in Haiti.
Ya
know, I was listening to Father John Riccardo, who has a weekly show on
Catholic radio, and he speaks of folks who would just rather tune all that out
and just “watch the big game. Don’t they
know there’s a big game on? I can’t be
concerned about that stuff because I gotta watch the game.”
Or
I might show concern about an issue for a day or two, but then go about my
life…the routine of life takes over.
And
isn’t it true that most of the time we’re worried about what others will think
of us? What will my family and friends,
folks I work with, kids I go to school with – what will they think of me if I
speak up, if I refuse to shut up and be quiet?
I saw an answer to this question this/yesterday morning – I was driving
on Calkins Road out in Henrietta and I saw a sign in front of a protestant
Church that went something like this “Better to earn the praise of God than the
esteem of people.” Still, we want the
esteem of people. We crave the esteem of
people. I know I do. I don’t want people to think I’m some kind of
wingnut. To speak prophetically takes
courage and it takes discernment – to be open to what the Lord is speaking in
our hearts. And it takes grace – the
grace that comes especially from the Eucharist, which we will soon share in
communion.
But
in speaking prophetically, we must never forget the first commandment of the
Lord is love. We witness authentically
only when we witness with a patient, kind, humble love, such as St. Paul writes
so beautifully about in today’s letter to the Corinthians. It is worthless to proclaim our faith - we
become a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal - if we speak without love. This love is not a feeling, but rather an
intentional, decision about how to act and behave, made with our wills, our brains.
In
her internet post, my friend remarked about how when she got to Washington last
week, she found none of the radical, unfeeling zealots she feared seeing
there. No. She found nothing but kind and compassionate,
truly “pro-life” men and women and young adults and children at every turn, folks
who expressed compassion and concern and love for all the victims of abortion,
the unborn as well as the mothers and fathers who find themselves trapped and
see no way out of making this “choice.”
My friend found both prophecy and love there.
So
we ask Our Lord for the grace and strength and courage to speak courageously
and prophetically, compassionately and lovingly to our world. A world broken by poverty and greed, sexual
license and selfishness, hatred and intolerance. A world so badly in need of our witness for Jesus
Christ, a world so badly in need of the healing, the redemption, and the love
that come only through Christ Our Lord. Amen.
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