14th Sunday of Ordinary Time - Cycle B

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 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 on 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, an idea that’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 that message 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, lest we forget those lessons.