Prophet, awkward
The first reading and the gospel reflect and complement, as well as the promise requires the gift, calling and waiting for that moment. Subject of promise and expectation is the great prophet that God will raise as a second Moses.
Salvation history is the history of God speaking to his people in this story appears as one of the prophetic lines of force running throughout Israel's existence as a people, and characterized his religious experience since the time of Moses.
raise up a prophet in their midst
The prophet is not only the person who discloses or predicts a future event. He is first of all an agent with the Absolute, true bearer of the prophetic word of God grafted in this context need the word of God and is characterized as a point of encounter with the truth and God's will Very often the prophet denounces the wrongs that are committed against the law even if there is legal observance of the letter, he struggles against the empty habits of a past that is confused with his death survivors. He condemns the external worship and the sacrifices that hide the hypocrisy and injustice.
The prophet is from God "to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant" (Jer 1:10). For this reason, its impact on the people is more often a clash that meeting.
The Law was for the jew privileged place of encounter with God's will, but carried with it the danger of literal observance, legal, without a soul or heart. The meeting between the prophet and the people of God is the ground of the Law. Prophecy and the Law (institutions, traditions and religion) do not express two options or two different contents, they are distinct functions of areas which are not mutually isolated.
There are also false prophets (first reading), there are people who delude themselves to be bearers of God's word, when they are only echoes of human words.
in the gospel of Jesus is presented not only as one who closes the series of prophets, ancient history, but as one who brings to fulfillment the promises, in whom is revealed and realized God's plan for humanity.
He does not just like the scribes and Pharisees to repeat and remember the word of God, he "taught as one having authority" and accompanies his words with the power of miracles. Healing dell'indemoniato becomes a prophetic sign of liberation in progress, the coming of the kingdom of God, the beginning of the new people.
prophets and prophetic communities in the Church
there still prophets? What is their task in the Church? Which signs are present?
vision of human history according to the logic of God is given to us by the word that he has entrusted to the human community. That word is not buried in a book, but living in a community and thus builds community and the community, reading and updating the word, enriches, deepens.
The prophetic denunciation
The function of the prophet is primarily "critical". The Church as a human reality is subject to the temptation to rest on the achievements made, or the regret of lost equilibrium. The temptation to give to institutions, to religious expression character of finality and absoluteness, and at every step of his journey. It is easy to always consider what is gained only a moment in history. The Christian community needs its own critical report when it considers that it is now clear testimony of communion with God
The initiative is not prophetic denunciation of the Church but the Holy Spirit. The prophets meet where and when you least expect them least. The Spirit raises up prophets even beyond the borders of sociology of the Church. Every man, every human community can become prophecy.
There is only a prophecy in the Church, but the Christian community itself is prophecy against the entire human community: a source of criticism against any absolute, or dehumanizing ideology, or oppressive power. Allegation of racism, economic exploitation, lack of respect for life. All this presupposes a community in ongoing monitoring of its fidelity to the message, because his prophecy is not counter-alienating.
Christ has called us to his kingdom and glory
From the 'Letter to the Christians of Smyrna "by St. Ignatius of Antioch, bishop and martyr (Intr.; Capp. 1, 1 -4, 1 Funk 1 , 235-237)
Ignatius, also called Theophorus, turns to the church of God and of His beloved Son Jesus Christ. This church, located in Izmir in Asia, wishes to enjoy all the best in the purity of the spirit and the word of God: for God's mercy it has obtained all grace, full of faith and charity, and no gift is lacking. E 'worthy of God's holiness and fruitful.
I thank Jesus Christ that God has made you so wise. I've seen that are based on an unshakable faith, as if you were nailed, flesh and spirit, a cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that you are full of love in Christ's blood. You believe strongly in our Lord Jesus, truly believe that he follows "the seed" of David according to the flesh "(Rom 1, 3) and is the son of God according to the will and power of God, who really was born of a virgin; who was baptized by John to fulfill all righteousness (cf. Mt 3, 15), which was really nailed to the cross for us in the flesh under Pontius Pilate and Herod the Tetrarch. We are in fact the result of his cross and of his blessed passion. You have firm faith that by his resurrection has raised his banner in the centuries to gather his saints and his followers, both Jews and Gentiles, the one body of his Church.
He suffered his passion for us, because we were saved, and He suffered truly, as it really raised himself.
I know and believe firmly that even after the resurrection he is in his flesh. And when he showed it to Peter and his companions and said: Touch me, handle me and see that are not a disembodied spirit (cf. Lk 24, 39). And just touched him and believed in the reality of his flesh and his spirit. For this reason they despised death, and triumphed over it. After his resurrection, then Christ ate and drank with them just as a man of flesh and blood, although it was spiritually united to the Father.
you remember these things, beloved, though we know that ye glory of my own faith.
0 comments:
Post a Comment