"A prophet like me will the LORD, your God, raise up for you
from among your own kin;
to him you shall listen.
The Book of Deuteronomy contains a promise that is completely different from the messianic hope expressed in other books of the Old Testament, yet it is of decisive importance for understanding the figure of Jesus.
Thus begins Pope Benedict's first volume of his wonderful Jesus of Nazareth. He continues:
The object of this promise is not a king of Israel and king of the world -- a new David, in other words -- but a new Moses. Moses himself, however, is interpreted as a prophet.The Holy Father's book opened my eyes to the ministry of Jesus as prophet. Further reading of Abraham Joseph Heschl's The Prophets deepened my understanding of Jesus and the role of the Church in the world today.
It seems the people in Capernaum were equally unprepared for a prophet when Jesus "taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes." They were "astonished" at his teaching.
I take that word astonished to mean more than conventionally pleased or surprised. It wasn't simply that they had known this fellow Galilean for many years and never expected much of him. Rather, his countenance and his words and then his authoritative healing of the possessed man, opened a portal into an entirely unexpected reality:
This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”Christians are people who live with one foot in this world and the other in a world so wonderfully strange that our neighbors can hardly imagine it. We see things they cannot see, and expect things they would never dream. Our senses are trained and disciplined by the Word he has spoken to us. Our imagination is colored by the stain glass windows in our churches; and our ears, tuned to the song of angels. We cannot regard people and events of this world with the usual lens of competition/enemies/survival. Rather, we see the world as God's creation and its people as cherished but distressed children of Our Father. Our mission is not to overcome them as enemies but to welcome them even when they fear and despise us.
In today's second reading, Saint Paul teaches us more about this "kingdom" in which we live.
I should like you to be free of anxieties.This freedom, as he goes on to say, means we don't have to conform to the expectations of others, including their expectations about marriage, for instance. Whereas others were:
eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage up to the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.we have the choice to follow the Spirit of God as we make our daily choices and lifelong commitments.
We also have the freedom to hear the prophetic judgments of God concerning our moral behavior. We need not endorse the killing of incarcerated criminals or the invasion of defenseless nations. As a prophetic people we know the mind of God on such matters and may speak up to protest such mindless, counter-productive behaviors. We have seen that Saint Paul's admonition --
Bless those who persecute [you], bless and do not curse them.
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| Ice-covered rocks jut out from hillsides at the Mount |
This is the way the New Moses teaches us; he is the Prophet whom the Lord our God has raised up for us.
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I love to write. This blog helps me to meditate on the Word of God, and I hope to make some contribution to our contemplations of God's Mighty Works.
Ordinarily, I write these reflections two or three weeks in advance of their publication. I do not intend to comment on current events.
I understand many people prefer gender-neutral references to "God." I don't disagree with them but find that language impersonal, unappealing and tasteless. When I refer to "God" I think of the One whom Jesus called "Abba" and "Father", and I would not attempt to improve on Jesus' language.
You're welcome to add a thought or raise a question.