14th Sunday Homily Epilogue

What is a Prophet?

The Prophets acted as Messengers from God to the people.  They were not necessarily seers, those who could see a future, but they could pronounce consequences of actions.  The prophets were often not listened to; they encountered resistance if not outright hostility.  Ezekiel would endure this and he is warned of this by God.

Israel was told by their prophets to change their ways and to trust more in God, and to do what is right and just for people.  They resisted, sought alliances with other countries and eventually the Babylonians conquered them and sent the elite into exile and destroyed Jerusalem.  

As I mentioned in the homily, the idea at the time was that when a nation was defeated in war it also meant that the nation's god was also defeated.  Israel going into defeat faced an existential crisis.  If they were the chosen people of God and God was defeated, who were they?  Thus God speaks to Ezekiel, tells him to go and tell Israel God remains alive and with them even within the foreign land.  God wants them to change their minds, to be open to new ways.  Israel did this, eventually.  They went back into their Scriptures, re-read it, edited it as well, and sought to understand at a deeper level who God was and how God was for them; how God remained Faithful, even when they did not.  This led to what we now call the Torah and many other books of the Old Testament.

St. Paul

Paul wrote in 2nd Corinthians about his "thorn in his side" and that God spoke to him: "Power is made perfect in weakness".  Paul in his life also had to grow in his understanding of God.  God took Saul's ego and stripped it away, so that Paul would be open to God, who is true power.  We call this humility; to be stripped of and freed from our egos.  When we are humble and humbled, our eyes open to the working of God in our world and in our lives.  When Israel was humbled in exile, they finally began to see differently.

As an aside, Paul's "Thorn", his "Angel of Satan" has been discussed over the centuries.  Nobody knows exactly what it was.  Some thought it was a skin disease or a speaking disorder, but nobody knows for sure, which is the point.  Whatever or whoever it was kept Paul humble, made him rely on grace, and that made him more powerful. 

Humility

Jesus continually called for humility.  Jesus knew this was the path to true freedom.  God humbled God's self, and the Son became human.  The human, Jesus of Nazareth, humbled himself before the Father, and always did the Father's will because Jesus experienced God's love, God's freedom and Jesus wanted that for all of humanity.  The cross stands as that final act of humility and of freedom.

We can all get stubborn; we all experience the tyranny of our egos; we are all victimized by the egos of others.  This diminishes us and life.  Again, all we have to do is look at the unhappy-angry people around us; their egos are on full display.  Their minds closed to any new possibilities.  

This is not a matter of age either.  Young people can act arrogantly and assume they know it all.  Older people act arrogantly and assume all the world must act as they want.  It is an age old cycle.

Faith in God. 

Belief in God, a higher power that transcends you, me and us, humbles us.  It tells us right away that I/we/us do not always have the answers.  Belief in God tells us that we are not the sole power in the universe.  Psalm 95 begins each priest, deacon, nun and brother's day; the Psalm reminds me that that God made the universe, not I; and God is in control, not I.  

Belief in God also then inspires me to discern, to see beyond myself.  When I get so into myself and my thoughts and ideas, I am small and limited.   God expands me, helps me to transcend my limitations; my anger, my sadness, my fears.  This becomes my joy.  God wants all of us to grow so as to take in more of God.  God cannot be anything less, so we humans must grow.

This is the prophetic mission Christ gives to us.  A mission that faces resistances, but nonetheless is part of God's great plan.

Question asked

I was asked if had a particular point or lesson to get people to arrive at in regards to Adult Formation.  I do not have a particular ending point.  All people are at different levels of formation.  What I want is to encourage people to grow; to challenge themselves, to not be satisfied in what they think they know.  I read on twitter that Mary knew Jesus the best, but was humble enough to know there was more.  The people in Mark's gospel did not know Jesus as well, but assumed that they knew him the best.  We can take Mary's lead.

Questions to ponder:  

• How do we envision God?   Has that changed over the years or has it remained the same?  
• When have we resisted new ways?  Been Stubborn?  
• When has insight given us new hope, new joy?  
• What works to humble us, our own thorns?
• What do we think we know about our faith, and are we open to seeing it in a different light?