THE
DECISION TO BE A PROPHET
Read John 10:27-30
The key to hearing the words of Christ is to accept
ourselves as the body of Christ. Jesus said, "My
sheep hear my voice." He said it in answer
to his enemies’ demand, "If you are
the Messiah, tell us plainly." Jesus answered,
"I have told you." Then he said two
things about faith: "The works that I do
in my Father’s name testify to me" and
"You do not believe, because you do not belong
to my sheep. My sheep hear my voice."
To really "hear" Christ’s words;
that is, to understand them, to hear them in a
way that enables us to follow him authentically
and to experience Jesus as giving us life (10:27-28),
we have to listen to him conscious that we are
Christ. His words are the revelation of his self,
and his self is the revelation of what we are
called to be. We are his body; he is the head,
we are the members. We received grace in order
to let Christ be formed in us (Galatians 4:19),
to grow as his body to "the full stature
of Christ" (Ephesians 4:13). We can only
understand Christ’s words if we listen to
them conscious that Jesus is revealing what he
is in order to show us what we are called to be.
If we think he is only teaching us a human level
of perfection, his words will be unintelligible
to us. We have to know what we are before we can
hear what we should do. This is to "be Christ’s
sheep."
Jesus revealed himself through actions as well
as words: "The works that I do in my Father’s
name testify to me." He was "a prophet
mighty in deed and word before God and all the
people" (Luke 24:19). A prophet is one who
professes the faith in a way made credible by
action. And to really win faith, the actions have
to be such that they can only be done by the power
of grace. St. Paul said God worked through him
"by word and deed..., by the power of the
Spirit of God" (Romans 15:18-19). Prophetic
deeds are God’s words made flesh in action.
Jesus said of himself absolutely, "The Father
and I are one." Our actions have to say of
us that, by the gift of sharing in his divine
life, Jesus and we are one.
We were baptized into Christ the Prophet, Priest
and King. We were anointed with chrism to share
in his anointing and in his mission. We were commissioned
and empowered by God to continue his embodiment
of the truth of God as prophets, his life-giving
ministry of love as priests, his efforts to establish
the reign of God in the world as stewards of his
kingship.
To be prophets we have to "hear his voice,"
his living voice. It is not enough just to keep
the laws already established and recognized in
the Church; we have to be receptive to the inspirations
of the Spirit pointing out to us how the general
principles Jesus taught apply to the concrete
circumstances of our own time and place. It is
when we begin to live out the Gospel in new, creative
and innovative ways that we reveal the active
presence of Christ’s Spirit in our hearts
and ourselves as his living body on earth.
In practice we accept to be prophets when we commit
ourselves to a life of continual conversion; that
is, to making constant changes in our lifestyle.
We determine never to ask again just whether something
is right or wrong, but how it bears witness to
the good news of Jesus. As we try, systematically
but freely, gradually and without guilt, to make
everything in our lives bear witness to the values,
the truth Jesus taught, we reveal the presence
of the risen Jesus within us. We experience ourselves
as his body, enlightened and enlivened by his
Spirit. And we know the truth of his words, "My
sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow
me. I give them eternal life..." This is
what it is to live out and experience our baptismal
consecration as prophets.
