Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

There is something about the Old Testament figures of the prophets that most people seem to find strangely appealing. The books of the prophets seem somehow to appeal almost to our sense of adventure. Their words, even when those words are difficult to understand, as they often are, leave us with the feeling that something infinitely important is taking place around us, that we are participants in a great mystery, and that we must sharpen our senses, so as not to be left out, not to miss whatever it is that is happening.

The prophets themselves must have been very compelling men. They were, after all, men who had been touched by God. They were men who had been given, in one way or another, a more profound experience of the truth, of God's word, and they had been sent by God to proclaim that word, to preach the truth to the people, no matter what their personal cost may be.

They must have been, then, men with a great sense of urgency. Men with a mission. And there could be no compromise with that mission. It would be carried out. Opposition may well be, usually was, raised to the mission of the prophets, but that opposition was always, ultimately, ineffective.

And so, common to all of the prophets, in both the Old and the New Testaments is that element of inevitability. Once the mission had been set, once the word of God had been made known to them, the truth that the Father wished revealed would be revealed. The truth would reach the people, and it would take root. The people would be changed because of it. There was nothing that any force, human or demonic, could do to prevent the carrying out of the prophetic mission. It could be delayed, it could be burdened down, it could be made immensely more difficult than it need be ... But it could never be stopped.

The first reading this morning gives us a couple of verses from the book of the prophet Jeremiah. In the first few lines, Jeremiah relates how he recognized that he had been chosen, that in fact it had happened long ago. Even before he was born, he was being prepared for his prophetic mission. The reading omits the next couple of verses. Jeremiah doesn't like the idea at all. He complains strongly, he says, "I can't do it ... I'm not strong enough. I'm too young, nobody will listen to me." and the reading takes up again with God’s response to this. He says, "Don't worry. You don't have to be strong. Because I am. Whatever you accomplish will accomplished in fact, by me, through you. I will make you a fortified city, a pillar of iron, a wall of brass against the whole land. They will resist you, but they will not overcome you, because I am with you."

This passage almost makes it sound as though God were sending Jeremiah into battle. And in a sense, that was the case, not only with him, but with all of the prophets. Sooner or later, it seems that the role of the prophet, the one who speaks the truth as God sees it, sooner or later that role seems to put the prophet at odds with the people, even set him in judgement of the people.

No one likes to be told that the direction they have given to their lives is wrong, that their intentions and those of the Father have parted company. So when someone comes along, like one of the prophets and tells us just that, there are really only two choices. Either change, or get rid of the prophet. It is interesting that consistently throughout the Scriptures, that seems to be one of the marks of true prophecy. The people found it very difficult to simply ignore the prophets. Sooner or later, they had to react, with either compliance, or hostility. For the most part, at any rate. There will always be some people who can ignore anything.

So, while in the course of the history of salvation the role of the prophet may not always have been a smooth one, it has always been a central one. It is not by accident that Christ, in the gospel reading, takes upon himself the role, even the title, of prophet, identifies himself with all of the qualities of that mission. This gospel reading is a continuation of last Sunday's. You may remember that Christ had entered the synagogue at Nazareth, very early in his ministry, and had volunteered to read from the scriptures, as was the custom. And he had chosen to read from the prophet Isaiah, a passage in which Isaiah promises the coming of the final prophet, the one who would reveal the deepest truths, God's plan in its fullness. And then last Sunday's gospel closed with the line which opens the reading today. Christ closed the scripture and said to the people there, "Today all of this has come true, and you are witness to it."

And as the gospel says, that brought mixed reviews. Some agreed, others were more doubtful. And then Christ identified himself with two other prophetic figures... Elisha, and Elijah. Elijah was a great devotional favorite in Christ's time. It was a popular belief that he was to come back to life on the day of Yahweh, the end of the world. And that was too much. The people reacted with hostility indeed. The gospel says they tried to throw Christ off of a cliff.

That startlingly strong reaction can be better understood, I think, by taking a closer look at the passage from Isaiah which Christ quoted in last Sunday's gospel. Christ was reading from the 61^st chapter of Isaiah, and he clearly applies to himself the messianic role described there, the role of "...bringing good news to the poor, freedom to those oppressed to announce, the reading says, a year of favor from the Lord." but Christ does not quote the very next line, a line which had colored very deeply the expectations the people had of their Messiah. Isaiah had written, "...to announce a year of favor from the Lord, and a day of vindication, of revenge, by God." Christ did not include that notion in his claim to be the Messiah. God, in Christ’s teaching, was not coming to take revenge on his enemies, which just happened to be Israel's enemies as well. So their political and military ambition was not going to be the object of the Messiah’s concern. And even worse, the objects of that concern was going to be the poor, the outcasts of society, those whom, by the pious definitions of the time, were presumed to be the outcasts of God as well.

But there was more. Christ's claim to be Messiah not only contradicted their attitude toward the poor and weak, it not only left their political ambitions unfulfilled, that claim shattered another illusion dear to the people as well. Their expectation had been of a Messiah for Israel. But Christ was telling them that his mission was to everyone. He even spoke of that most revered figure, Elijah, as having had a mission beyond Israel, as seen in his care for the needs of the Canaanite woman, a despised foreigner.

And all of that was a bitter pill for the people to have to swallow. They were shocked, they were outraged. Some very dear notions, notions central to their self image had been challenged by Christ. And they were challenged precisely because they were not true. They were notions of the people's own making, rather than of God's.

So already, even at the very outset of Christ's public life, there is set so strongly the theme of the centrality of the truth, the persistence of the prophetic mission in the revelation of that truth, even in the face of great opposition. And the inevitability, the sure and certain ultimate triumph of that Truth. The anger, the shock, the outrage, the violence of the people was powerless. Christ, the gospel says, walked through their midst untouched, and went off to continue what he had begun there. And just so was that outrage to be ultimately powerless even on the cross.

Well, there is a good reason why the liturgy presents us with this kind of imagery, and that is to urge us to reconsider very carefully, our own prophetic mission. Everything that was given to, and demanded of, individuals in the Old Testament, is now given to and demanded of the Church, in the new. Our dedication to the truth must be as uncompromising as was that of Jeremiah. Our persistence must be modelled after Christ's own, and our confidence in the final outcome as strong as that of Paul in the second reading. Our call is a clear one. In the words of God directed to Jeremiah, now directed to each of us, "I know you ... I know who you are and what you can be. I have always known you. And I have a great deal for you to do."

Readings: Jeremiah 1:4-5, 17-19; 1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13; Luke 4:21-30