Where Have All the Prophets Gone?

As I listen to these words of the prophet Baruch – the scribe of Jeremiah, the lover of truth (as he is known among our Greek sisters and brothers), I find my heart trembling for I hear the truth of our own reality today.  Though written for a people in exile in Babylon thousands of years ago, I find myself counted one among the guilty with my sisters and brothers in faith and my fellow citizens of the world as I hear,

• "Justice is with the Lord, our God; and we today are flushed with shame
• “we did not heed the voice of the Lord, our God,
  in all the words of the prophets whom he sent us,
  but each one of us went off
  after the devices of [our] own wicked heart,
  served other gods,
  and did evil in the sight of the Lord, our God”

I flush with shame as I read the psalmist’s prayer from today’s liturgy:

• We have become the reproach of our neighbors,
  the scorn and derision of those around us.

I pray that the glory of the Lord, our God, will deliver us as I hear Jesus challenge our haughtiness as he declares in today’s gospel:

• Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!
• And as for you, Capernaum, 'Will you be exalted to heaven?
  You will go down to the netherworld.

As we listen to these words of Baruch, the psalmist, and Jesus, do we ever wonder where all the prophets have gone today?  It seems so long ago when we had Martin Luther King, Jr., Dorothy Day, Tom Gumbleton, Dan Berrigan, Ardeth Platte, Dorothy Stang, Mother Teresa, – who by their words and actions – called us to an attentiveness to the poor, the dangers of nuclear war, to the care of earth, to the injustice of war.  They and others like them were the ones who challenged our complacency, who called us to our better selves, who recognized that faith and politics really are two sides of the same coin. 

Then I realize that Martin, the two Dorothys, Dan, Tom, Ardeth, and Mother Teresa weren’t born prophets but were shaped, formed as such, by the events of their day, as they looked at was happening around them and in the world and listened to the gospel. They lived into their calling to be prophets by listening to the depths of their hearts, to the Spirit of God nudging them to respond. 

Who are the ones today, like them, who speak truth on behalf of the Lord, 

• who echo the words of Baruch:  “we have been disobedient to the Lord, our God,
  and only too ready to disregard his voice.”
• who pray on behalf of the people:  “Remember not against us the iniquities of the past;
  may your compassion quickly come to us, for we are brought very low.”
• who remind us to heed the word of Jesus despite the cost, for it is then we stand in good company:  “Whoever listens to you listens to me.  Whoever rejects you rejects me.
  And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.”  
   

I’ve been longing for the voices of the prophets who give hope to us today, who speak truth to power, who provoke the complacent, but it seems they speak in whispers because their wisdom is silenced by the voices of the mighty and the pundits.  How I wish I could hear the prophets!

Then the thought dawns on me, perhaps to find the prophets in our midst today we need to look in the mirror and consider, Am I the prophet needed for this moment?  Are you the prophet needed for this time?  Just as that thought enters our minds, another one enters our hearts, “But who am I?  Why would God possibly call me?  How could I, a sinner, be a prophet in today’s world?”

Sometimes the Spirit needed to nudge, poke, and prod the biblical prophets as they tried to get out of their persistent calls:  it took God five times to get through to Moses; Jonah literally tried to run away; Isaiah spoke of his own unworthiness – how could a person with unclean lips preach and proclaim on behalf of the Lord; Jeremiah complained of being too young. Perhaps the Spirit is nudging, poking, or prodding you and me today to make sense of what is happening around us, to call our communities to return to the way of the Lord.

But how do we know whether we are responding to the Spirit of God and not to our own egos?  The simple answer is “by their fruits you shall known them.”  The Spirit of God will call us to love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  However, we can also honestly answer these questions (from St. Mary’s Press*) in our discernment of our call:

• Am I reluctant to speak for God but feel I have to lest the fire in my belly consume me? Or do I eagerly accept the opportunity?
• Am I listening to the voice of God or my own opinions?  Which of these am I communicating as God’s desire?
• Am I willing to pay the cost of preaching the truth (to my reputation, to my freedom) or am preaching what people want to hear, not what they need to hear?
• Am I living the message I preach, knowing it will make others (and myself) uncomfortable and unpopular, that suffering will be a part of speaking the truth?  Or am I living comfortably, enjoying the adulation of the masses and telling others what they need to do while not being affected by it at all?
• Is my message offering hope in a time of suffering and devastation?

Once we have discerned those questions, then we can answer the questions that come from looking in the mirror:

Who am I?  Who are you?  Who are we to be prophets?  We are children of God, made in God’s image and likeness.

Why would God possibly call us?  Because there is a need and the people hunger to hear a word of truth, mercy, healing, and hope.

How could we be prophets in today’s world?  Only by our courage and conviction in the Spirit of God bestowed upon us in baptism. It is that Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus, that calls and compels us to be his voice of reason and truth in our broken and wounded world today.

(Questions for Discerning False vs. True Prophets from St. Mary’s Press https://www.smp.org/dynamicmedia/files/bfbe4234fe080c94dc785d6106b9cd8d/TX004273_2_handout_8A_A_True_Prophet_Versus_a_False_Prophet.pdf?srsltid=AfmBOopPO6gtyFNl7zEaPOYKvim89J8JjRK53RZUpXyTtIT7jHKqXQ7M  )