Homily Notes for the 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2018
26th Sunday (Who Are the Prophets Among Us?)
Recently, there was a news item about a man who is declaring himself a prophet. He is making various political pronouncements saying that he has been appointed by God to speak for the Lord. His actions can lead to the question, “How do we know who a true prophet is and who is not.”
We see that idea being debated in the 1st reading today. Moses has been called the first of the Old Testament prophets. He was also the leader of Israel as the people marched through the desert to the promised land. Moses carried a great burden. At times it became too much. He thought he had to settle every dispute that arose between people. Moses believed that he had to be everything to everyone. All of us who are ministers know about the temptation to try to control everything that happens in a religious group.
God tells Moses that he needs to share his burden which leads to the Biblical scene we read about today. Moses appoints 70 elders to help him with his ministry. The elders are to help settle disputes and they were to help with administration. Also, they were to prophesy. The elders received a dose of the Spirit. God sends the Spirit to rest on them. But two elders named Eldad and Medad were not with Moses when this great outpouring of the Spirit happened. Still, the spirit came to them in their tents. Eldad and Medad began to prophesy. Since they did not receive the Spirit in the same way as all the others, the question is asked, “Are they true prophets.” Moses, of course, says that all the people have a share of the Spirit. He refuses to limit the outpouring of the Spirit to a certain few. But he did not say that all people are true prophets. In the Old Testament there was always a debate about true and false prophets.
We could say that there are three basic criteria for prophesy. The first way to tell a true prophet is that they go back to the source of the tradition. A Christian prophet, for example, would go back to the person of Jesus. If a prophet contradicts the preaching of Jesus, they are a false prophet. The root of Jesus teaching is his law of love. Does the prophet call us to love God and neighbor more or does the prophet’s message give us a pass on this?
The second sign of real prophets is that they suffer because of the message they proclaim. If a prophet is gaining materially from the message they share their prophesy must be called into question. Also, if they are affirmed by the elites of society their message is probably false. The Kings of Israel often rewarded prophets by having them at court so that they could sing the praises of the King in the name of God. Such prophets were false prophets. A true prophet critiques the power structure as they function outside it. For that reason, they are often villainized. A prophet is usually not lionized when they first speak. The truth of their words is proven over time.
The last sign of a true prophet is that the people who follow that prophet will suffer. The message of a true prophet is challenging. For that reason, their followers often turn away because imitating the prophet’s example is just too difficult. And this means if we follow the Gospel message in all its purity we are probably going to get into trouble. To really imitate Jesus leads to both joy and conflict in life; joy in realizing that we are obeying God’s call, conflict because we reject worldly values.
Most ordinary people are not prophets all the time. But sometimes individuals are involved in prophetic actions. At key moments there are people who act like prophets.
Robert Morneau, who has been the Auxiliary Bishop of Green Bay Wisconsin for many years took an extraordinary step recently. He has been one of the most popular spiritual writers around. He is retired, but he asked the Pope to let him resign from all active ministry in the church so that he could concentrate on the spiritual and corporal works of mercy. He wanted to give up all ecclesial privileges.
Why? Because he believed that he mishandled a sex abuse case back in 1979. The case was long settled, but upon reflection he felt that he did not do enough to protect children. So, he gave up the honor of being a bishop. This decision will lead to many ramifications. Perhaps Robert Morneau was trying to heal the church he loves in some concrete, tangible way. His action, it could be argued, was a prophetic action which could lead to lot of soul searching among those who know him. He wants to make amends, to do penance whatever the personal cost so he has taken this action. We need more such prophetic actions if the church is to heal.
We need to be careful when someone says they speak for God. We can tell what is prophetic and what is not? The main proof is this, the person speaking unselfishly seeks to serve the Gospel of Jesus Christ even if the sacrifice is great.