Thursday of Easter Week

Sir Knights at the
Indianapolis KC State Assembly

For Moses said:

A prophet like me will the Lord, your God, raise up for you
from among your own kin;
to him you shall listen in all that he may say to you.
Everyone who does not listen to that prophet
will be cut off from the people.

The Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI begins the first volume of his book Jesus of Nazareth reflecting on Moses’ words, A prophet like me will the Lord, your God, raise up for you from among your own kin….  I am fascinated by his reflections on Jesus as prophet, especially after reading Abraham Heschl’s The Prophets.

The Hebrew prophets appeared at a time when the entire mid-east was rife with charismatic movements of every religion from Egypt to Mesopotamia. Yet, Heschl insists the Hebrew prophets were not like these others. They made no pretensions to knowledge of the future and made no promises of salvation through arcane rites. They simply demanded that the people, their priests and rulers live in obedience to God. As the Prophet Micah said, You have been told, O man, what is good, and what the LORD requires of you: Only to do the right and to love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God.

We know the right thing to do; we just don’t do it. We relegate God’s demands to those things we must do after we’ve taken care of our own needs. First we’ll buy oversized, gas guzzling automobiles and live in bedroom communities far from supermarkets, schools, places of work, and recreational centers; then we’ll ponder going green. First we’ll buy water in disposable plastic bottles; then we’ll worry about landfills.  First we’ll electrify everything from golf carts to toothbrushes; then we’ll complain about fossil fuels. First we’ll fix our economy, then we’ll worry about impoverished nations. First we’ll make a mess of our world, then we’ll wonder why God is so unfair.

The Prophet Jesus lives among us to show how to live in Truth and Mercy and Goodness. He shows us true beauty and joy. Recognizing him reorients our life and all our choices. We ignore him at our own risk. 

The resurrection of Jesus also demonstrates the enormous resilience of God’s mercy. This is not something we should take for granted but we can rely on God when we finally turn back to him. The irrepressible Word of the Hebrew Prophets was made flesh and lived among us. Even when we have crucified him, our only hope, he returns with healing grace:

Now I know, brothers and sisters,
that you acted out of ignorance, just as your leaders did;
but God has thus brought to fulfillment
what he had announced beforehand
through the mouth of all the prophets,
that his Christ would suffer.
Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be wiped away,
and that the Lord may grant you times of refreshment
and send you the Christ already appointed for you, Jesus,