Prophets

Most societies attach an inordinate importance to conformity. Observance of conventions is often rigorously insisted upon and those who step out of line can sometimes be severely ostracized. Beneath the charm of a village, there often lurks a lethal intolerance. Is this why many youngsters seem so eager to escape into the anonymity of the city?

Returning to his home-town Nazareth, Jesus discovered that he was not accepted there. Jesus was even amazed at his own country men and women's lack of faith. A prophet is not welcome in his own village. In fact, nobody is welcome who seeks to disturb the time honoured conventions. Truth and religion have long since been domesticated into a cosy conformism. Nobody is allowed question the reigning orthodoxy.

Yet Jesus' whole life is an assault on conventional wisdom, or "normalcy." It is this very normalcy that keeps people from God. Eventually it was this normalcy that crucified Jesus, foreshadowed in today's Gospel reading of Jesus' rejection at Nazareth (Mark 6:1-6).

Little has changed since Jesus' time. Prophets still go unrecognized in their own times and in their own homelands. Some, like Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi, had their voices silenced by an assassin’s bullet. Others, like Andrei Sakharov, after a life-time of prison and persecution, die almost within sight of the promised land. Nelson Mandela lived to see it, after spending twenty-seven years in prison. But his persecutors scarcely learned their lesson. His prison silence resounded throughout the world. Prophets such as these often seem fated to receive the recognition abroad that they are denied at home. And those distant admirers who crown them with accolades, make sure to keep their own radicals on a tight leash. Prophets are uncompromising. Prophets are those who comfort the disturbed, but certainly disturb the comfortable. Their demands are not negotiable. That's why prophets are always unpopular.

We are all called, by our baptisms, to be prophets. Not just to be queens/kings and priests. We celebrate the feast of Christ the King, even remember his Priestly interventions. But what about a feast for Christ the Prophet? Is Christ the Prophet still unpopular and unwelcome in our own Christian Churches? As prophets, we too, like Jesus, should stand up and speak out against the injustices of our time. It matters little whether people listen or not. Perhaps, this is one best way to honour Christ the Prophet.