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July 6, 2024The word of God that we just heard invites us to meditate on a very important Biblical figure: the prophet. Who is a prophet and what is his importance in the history of the salvation? Is Jesus just a prophet or is he someone greater? Do we still have prophets in the Church today? First of all, let's try to understand what it means to be a prophet.
In the first reading we heard, we see that God sends one of his prophets among his people, because the people are losing the right path, they are forgetting that they are the people chosen by God and that they belong to God alone. The people fall into sin and forget the covenant that God established with the people. In this perspective, the prophet is a man chosen by God to bring his word to the people. The prophet is a mediator between God and his people. The prophet does not announce his own opinion but transmits the word that he heard from God.
What does the prophet announce? First of all, he rebukes the people for having forgotten the covenant, for having distanced themselves from the Lord. Furthermore, he shows the negative consequences of sin: whoever commits sin becomes a slave to sin. Finally, the prophet manifests himself as a man of hope because he reminds that God is faithful to his love for him even if we have betrayed him. For this reason, the prophet invites the people to start the journey again and return to the Lord and to move away from sin: the prophet invites conversion. However, there are many instances in the Bible that shows us that the people do not listen to the prophets and continue to distance themselves from God and fall into the slavery of sin.
Jesus himself in the Gospel appears at the beginning as a bearer of the word of God, he announces the kingdom of God, but he too is rejected. From the Gospel we learn that the people reject Jesus because he simply appears as one of them, whose family they know. It seems impossible that one of them could be a great prophet. This is why Jesus says that no prophet is accepted among his own people.
However, in this way Jesus shows us that he is much more than a prophet, he is much more than a bearer of the word of God. Jesus Christ is the very Word of God who became flesh and came to live among us. He is the son of God. Jesus is the fulfillment of all the prophecies. He himself will bring the new and eternal alliance to fruition with the gift of his own life for the forgiveness of all our sins. The refusal by the people will be welcomed by Jesus as the supreme opportunity to give his life for our salvation. The life of the Church, our Christian life is based on Jesus, fulfillment of all prophecies.
Now we can ask ourselves: are there still prophets in the Church today? Or are they just something from the past? The Second Vatican Council dared to say that the people of God are a prophetic people. So, in a certain sense we all are prophets, as we have been baptized, we have received confirmation, we have a sense of faith and above all we are animated by different charisms that the Holy Spirit never stops giving to the Church.
So, you, dear faithful, are a prophetic people; every time you live according to the Gospel, every time you let yourselves be guided by the Holy Spirit and give your Christian testimony in daily life, you are prophets. In this way you bring the word of Jesus to others.
The Holy Spirit then, through his various charisms, makes us creative in our Christian testimony. In every era there are different gifts. In our time we have many lay associations and movements that help us to rediscover our baptism and to be prophets, that is, bearers of the word of God in daily life, in our families, among young people, with friends, in society and in schools.
Finally, to be a prophetic people it is not enough to have received the sacraments of baptism and confirmation, it is necessary to grow the gifts that God has sown within us. We need to train ourselves in the Christian life in a constant way. This is why I am very happy today to be among you and to be able to lay the foundation stone of a new building which will be at the service of this parish, the pastoral center for Christian formation initiatives, for the catechism and for the residence of the priests. In this way, it will be possible to better organize Christian formation for children, young people and adults to grow in faith and be able to bring the joy of faith to everyone. May this new building be at the service of the people of God, a prophetic people, called to bear witness to Jesus in the world.
May Mary, Our Lady of Arabia, always keep us close to Jesus. May the Holy Martyrs Arethas and companions support us on our journey.
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