Often, in our Catholic faith, we speak of John the Baptist as the last of the prophets. He was in fact the final herald of the Messiah, the last to proclaim the coming of the long-awaited One, because it was in his time that Jesus came, fulfilling the prophecies, bringing in His person the fullness of the Father’s promises to His people. In this sense it is true then to acknowledge the role of John as the culmination of the prophets, of those preparing the people of God for the coming of their savior.
However, with coming of Jesus, who is the Christ, the Messiah, prophecy does not cease, its message changes. A prophet is not one who foretells the future, there is nothing in common between a prophet of God and fortune teller. A prophet is one that proclaims the word of God to the world, who brings God’s message to His people. Before the time of Christ that message was primarily twofold: it was a call to repentance, to turn back to God when the people had turned away in sin to serve idols, and a promise that God would save them, that He was sending His Anointed One to redeem them and set them free from captivity.
Once Christ came, the God-Man who did indeed set us free, redeem, and restore us to life through his life, death, and resurrection, the prophetic word received a new purpose. The prophet is now meant to proclaim the good news that we have a savior, a way back into the fullness of life and relationship with God that had been lost through our sin. We do not need to live in fear and condemnation.
In addition to this good news, the call to repentance remains. We continue to live in a world broken by sin. There is darkness, the darkness of ignorance of God and His life-giving ways, all around us and that darkness continues to deepen as more and more people reject the very notion of truth and the light that comes with it.
We are called, through out baptism, to be prophets. We are called to proclaim God’s truth in the world. In order to do that, though, we must be attentive to God. We are not immune to the darkness of the culture that we live in, that we are surrounded by on a daily basis, and so we must seek God’s help, cry out to the Holy Spirit to enlighten us if we are to see clearly.
For a prophet is one that sees clearly, one who sees sin and evil for what they truly are, not deceived by the world’s depiction of them and one who sees the beauty, goodness, and truth of God’s commands, His ways, and the joy of the promises He makes to those who follow Him. Seeing clearly, we must not then be afraid to speak. We must both call sin evil and point out the path that leads to life.
Just like the Old Testament prophets, we live in an age that tends to reject both the word of God and those who proclaim it. If we proclaim truth we risk pushing against the world, but as Flannery O’Connor once exhorted us, “Push back against the age as hard as it pushes against you. What people don’t realize is how much religion costs. The think faith is a big electric blanket, when of course it is the cross.” The age we live in has pushed against the fundamental truths of our faith to a staggering degree and we must have the courage to push back just as hard, knowing that in doing so we risk the same fate as the prophets before us, the fate shared by Jesus. But just as we take our share in His cross so too do we inherit His life and this truth is itself the very good news we are called to proclaim.
Prose for the sake of Poetry 