The Message
Reflections on prophets, rejection, and persecution based on today's readings: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/070226.cfm
As we continue to journey through Ordinary Time, the Church continues to provide us with readings centered on one of the great themes of salvation history: the Lord sending prophets, and the people rejecting and persecuting them.
On the surface, this theme can appear to reinforce the very notions of authority that modern man most vehemently rejects. This is, at least in part, why this aspect of the faith is so frequently ignored. Yet the reality expressed continually throughout Scripture—and especially in today’s reading—is that the prophet has no authority in himself. It is the message he bears, and the One who has given him that message, that possess authority.
What we see in these readings is what all prophets have in common: they speak the truth. We all know that truth is sometimes unpleasant, but the truths proclaimed by the prophets are almost always difficult to hear. This is not because their message is inherently negative, but because the very fact that they must be sent is evidence that the people have largely rejected the truth they proclaim.
When we understand that prophets are not sent indiscriminately to any given time with any random truth, but rather are sent to a specific people, in a specific place, at a specific time, to proclaim precisely the truths about themselves and about God that they have ignored for so long, we can begin to see why they are so often rejected. The message they are entrusted to deliver is exactly the message the people most need to hear—and are therefore most likely to resist.
Even more than this, the Lord often sends His message through the most unexpected people so that the very manner of its delivery becomes a humbling experience for a people always in need of having their pride checked. It is a tragic irony that proud people so often accuse the prophet of the very sin that blinds them. “Who does he think he is, telling us what to do?” captures the essence of their objection, and it remains a common reaction to prophets today.
Yet we see with Amos that these attacks do not destroy his confidence. He knows they are false because his confidence is not rooted in himself or in his own merits. Rather, his confidence rests in the fact that it is the Lord who has given him this message. This is also why he has no choice but to continue proclaiming the words entrusted to him. Who is he to refuse what the Lord wills?
Of course, we see this dynamic with the prophets in a way that is very human. But in Christ we see it brought to its fullness. He does not merely claim to speak on behalf of the Lord; He is the Lord Himself. Those who witnessed Him forgiving sins recognized that such an act was a claim to divine authority.
It is truly difficult—indeed, impossible—to comprehend fully the mystery of the Incarnation, of God becoming man. Yet the more we understand what led to it, the more we begin to glimpse the heart of the Lord. Again and again, humanity rejected the prophets whom God sent in His name. Finally, God came Himself. Christ even tells a parable expressing this very reality: the Parable of the Tenants (Mt 21:33–46).
Now, as baptized members of the Church, we too are called to share in Christ’s prophetic mission. But the way in which we exercise that mission has been transformed, just as all things have been transformed by the Incarnation. We do not primarily proclaim that the Lord is yet to come, nor merely recount that He came long ago. Rather, we proclaim that He is with us now.
Certainly, in every age there remain particular truths that societies neglect or reject, and the Lord continues to raise up particular witnesses to call His people to conversion. Yet our understanding of truth itself has been deepened in Christ. Truth is not merely a collection of correct propositions or an accumulation of facts. Truth is a Person, and as a Person He is encountered through relationship.
The great news is that we are not left wondering where to find Him. Truth Himself remains present to us in the Eucharist. There He draws us into the truth of His own divine life—a life of eternal, self-giving love—each time we receive Him in a state of grace.
Perhaps our prophetic mission today is simply to point others back to the Truth who has been so widely ignored: our Eucharistic Lord.