The call to be a prophet of God is given to us in our baptism.
Many times, when we hear the word ‘prophet’, we may think that he/she is the one who foretells the future. But the biblical notion of prophet is totally different. A prophet, essentially, is someone who speaks for God – God’s own spokesperson. In clear terms, prophets present before people what they hear from God. Whether this word is happily received by the people or not is not the prophets’ concern. Prophets tell the bitter truth even if it brings them trouble.
In today’s Gospel, we see that Jesus got into trouble. The whole scene at the synagogue was quite bad; people, who had come to have a liturgy of word and worship, became angry and wanted to kill Jesus by hurling him off a cliff. What caused them to be so furious about Jesus? If we pay attention to the Old Testament passages, in which Jesus quotes to the assembly at the synagogue, enough information will be provided…
The people of Israel always boasted about their priority with God. They believed that they were the chosen ones of God and that God loved them more. In fact, they believed that Yahweh was the God of Israel. But Jesus reminded them that God has no favourites – by quoting Old Testament stories:
- There were many widows in Israel but during the time of Elijah, God chose a widow from Zarephath to bring relief to the people.
- Naman the Syrian was cured of leprosy when the lepers in Israel were suffering.
Jesus tells all the people that no one has a “copyright” over God. He does not choose someone as his favourite, and such a God does not exist. The true God is equally available to all humanity – as long as they approach God with faith and trust. The people of Israel were not ready to hear the truth, so they wanted to get rid of Jesus.
Mahatma Gandhi once said: “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” Gandhi wanted to embrace Christ but when he entered the Church to worship Christ, he was thrown out because he was not part of them (white). For Gandhi, these Christians did not truly follow Christ and His teaching. In a word, these Christians were not true prophets of God.
The scene that took place in Nazareth reoccurs every day in our society. Whenever we compromise the commandments of God and give our liberal interpretation on them, we try to ‘hurl Him off the cliff’. The truth is always the same even if the whole world does not accept it.
– Fr. Ranjan D’Sa OCD