Skip to main content

14th Sunday of Ordinary Time

By
Prophecy.  Our modern understanding of this word can often skew its relevance to our Christian faith tradition.  For us today, “prophecy” often refers to the future… what is to come.  But prophecy, in the Biblical sense, isn’t so much about the future as it is about the present.  God, through his designated prophet, speaking to the people what they need to hear, at that moment.  What the people need to hear, however, isn’t what they want to hear, making the prophet’s job a thankless one.  Prophecy, like fine art, is all to often only appreciated by those who come after us, the future generations.

The Word for the 14th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Ezekiel 2:2-5
Psalm 123:1-2, 2, 3-4
2 Corinthians 12:7-10
Mark 6:1-6

Our first reading comes from Ezekiel, that priest turned prophet from the first wave of the Babylonian Exile.  This week’s passage is a reflection of Ezekiel’s calling.  God has selected him to speak to the people of Israel.  That he calls them a “rebellious house” tells us that his task as a prophet will not be easy, but his strength will come from the fact that he is speaking for the Lord.  And what is Ezekiel’s message?  We see it reflected in our Psalm:  repentance… pleading for his mercy.

Our Gospel from Mark also speaks to the trials faced by the Lord’s prophets.  Here Jesus, who has been on the road gathering his Apostles and building his ministry has returned to Nazareth.  In the synagogue his teaching is viewed with astonishment.  This son of Mary seems to have been given a wisdom that goes beyond that of the Jesus who grew up among them… and it’s too hard for them to accept.  This leads Jesus to say “A prophet is not without honor except in his native place.”  It’s a phrase many of us find familiar, as many variations of this quote have resonated through history even to today.  It not only speaks to the difficulty a prophet has in getting his message out, but getting past the built-in bias of those who know them best.

Our second reading concludes our study of St. Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians.  Here towards the conclusion of that letter Paul is bemoaning the troubles he is facing personally as he goes about his ministry.  Like our other prophets, Paul is all too familiar with the “angel of Satan” that keeps him from having too much elation in his ministry.  To deal with this, however, he takes a lesson from Christ, for it is in our weakness that we are made strong by Christ.

Final Thoughts:
When it comes to prophecies in the Bible, I think we Christians have a tendency to not give them the attention we should.  Not only do we mistakenly assume God was speaking only to those people at that time, but we Christians, believing that Jesus was the fulfillment of all those ancient prophecies, tend to think of them as something we don’t really need to worry about any more.  If our readings this week show us anything, it’s that these assumptions are just wrong.

The whole reason we have a Bible… the reason why these scriptures were written down in the first place was so that we would never forget.  Hindsight may be 20/20, but if we never look back, we remain blind to what’s in front of us.  Jesus’ death may have redeemed us, but his prophetic words, and those of all the prophets before him, are what will keep us from falling from God’s grace.  And that prophetic voice continues even to today.  It was carried on through the Holy Spirit by all the Apostles, the saints, and the teachings of the church fathers throughout the ages.  Prophecy has a dual nature within our faith tradition… it was first meant to inform those for whom it was first told, but it also is meant to inform us today… least we forget…

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time - Cycle C

By
“In the beginning there was the Word…”  These are the dramatic opening lines from the Gospel according to John, and though we will not be reading from John’s Gospel this Sunday, these words ring true for our readings for this 3rd Sunday of Ordinary time.  The people are in the midst of something new, a new beginning that, as our readings will show, begin with The Word… The Word for the 3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time Nehemiah 8:2-4a, 5-6, 8-10 Psalm 19:8, 9, 10, 15 1 Corinthians 12:12-30 (or 1 Corinthians 12:12-14, 27) Luke 1:1-4; 4:14-21 Our first reading is from the book of the Prophet Nehemiah.  Nehemiah, along with the priest/prophet Ezra, are the architects of the Restoration of Israel.  Their great Exile in Babylon is over and through the grace of the Persian King, Cyrus the Great, Israel is free to return to their land, to rebuild the Temple and to rebuild their lives as the people of God.  In an effort to guild them in this new beginning, Nehemiah and Ezra g...
Post a Comment
Read more

Feast of the Presentation of the Lord

By
February 2nd is the date chosen by the Church to celebrate the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord.  When a significant feast day falls on a Sunday, the Church sets aside the readings for that normal week to celebrate the feast with these special readings: The Word for the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord Malachi 3:1-43 Psalm 24: 7, 8, 9, 10 Hebrews 2:14-18 Luke 2:22-40 or 2:22-32 While the Catholic Church today refers to this day as the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, traditionally it has also been called the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple, Candlemas, the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin, and the Meeting of the Lord .  Prior to the Second Vatican Council, Candlemas was a time where beeswax candles were blessed for use throughout the year, a tradition still followed in some parish communities.  Today the celebration focuses more on the prophecy of Simeon, and Pope John Paul II chose it as a time for renewal of religious vows (not to be confused...
Post a Comment
Read more

8th Sunday of Ordinary Time - Cycle C

By
As with last week’s readings, our readings for the 8th Sunday of Ordinary Time are usually passed over for other feast days, but since Easter is somewhat late this year, we get to finish out this stretch of Ordinary Time with some readings we rarely get to hear during Sunday Mass: The Word for the 8th Sunday of Ordinary Time Sirach 27:4-7 Psalm 92:2-3, 13-14, 15-16 1 Corinthians 15:54-58 Luke 6:39-45 Our first reading comes from the book of Sirach, also known as the Wisdom of Ben Sira, a great sage from Jerusalem who embraced the Wisdom tradition.  The work was originally finished around 175 BCE and was later translated into Greek by the author’s grandson sometime after 117 BCE during the Jewish diaspora that flourished in the later Ancient Greek Empire.  Since our earliest manuscripts for this book were found in Greek, it does not hold the same canonical status for Jews and Protestants, but more recent archeological finds have verified its Hebrew origins.  Like all Wisdo...
Post a Comment
Read more