Fourth Ordinary Sunday, Year B
Theme: Different Shades of Prophets 先知無雙譜
Human beings are insatiably curious but I do not know whether God created us this way or we became like this after the fall of our First Parents. The Bible tells us that in the beginning God created a universe suitable for the emergence of intelligent creatures. The zenith of God’s creative act was the creation of human beings in His image (Genesis 1:26) so that we are able to interact with Him. With intelligence, we are able to understand that our Creator is infinitely perfect in all manners. The known universe with its immense diversities and all its inhabitants, including us, testify that the Creator is a Grand Designer and His Creation is an outflow of His essence which John the Apostle named “love” (1 John 4:8). Out of love, God created humanity and assigned them to manage the world (Genesis 1:27, 2:15). God’s Creation was good but it was not yet perfect. There is room to grow and develop until it reaches perfection! The stage was set for God’s renovation plan to unfold. Men were living in blissful innocence (2:25) until Satan tempted the woman to eat the “fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil” which God had previously told Adam not to eat lest he died (2:17).
Obviously, humanity was no match to angels in terms of strategy and strength. Moreover, they were unprepared for this ambush and consequently fell in action! However, God did not abandon His images. He declared the proto-gospel in the form of an enigma, “I will put enmity between you [Satan] and the woman, and between your offspring and hers. They will strike at your head, while you strike at their heel” (3:15). In hindsight, we know that God was announcing a prophecy about how the Son of God would be born of a woman and He would defeat Satan in a mortal combat! Throughout history, God has been dropping us hints of how His Grand Design would unfold. That is the mission of Old Testament prophets whose role is to proclaim the words of God to the people. Let us briefly review what prophets have done in the Pentateuch.
Abraham was the first prophet mentioned in the Bible (Genesis 20:7) but he did not proclaim any word of God. Instead, Abraham interceded for Abimelech so that the latter might live! Very often, Christians, especially the righteous ones, have overlooked this mediator role of prophets! They are more eager to console the underprivileged, tgeno exhort and to pronounce judgment on the wicked instead of interceding for them. Jonah whom we read of last Sunday was such a prime example. Let us turn our attention to another prophet in the Pentateuch. During the Exodus to the Promised Land, Moses always handed down God’s messages to the Israelites and yet the Pentateuch does not explicitly called Moses a prophet. God affirms Moses’ role as a prophet in the first reading today, “I will raise up for them [Israelites] a prophet like you from among their kindred, and will put my words into the mouth of the prophet; the prophet shall tell them all that I command” (Deuteronomy 18:18). As a prophet, Moses did more than just proclaiming God’s word. Once he interceded successfully for the Israelites whom God wanted to annihilate because they worshipped the Golden Calf after Moses had gone up to Mount Horeb [Sinai] to receive the Ten Commandments. Eventually God changed His mind and spared the Israelites (Exodus 32:9-14). Both Abraham and Moses have set us examples to intercede for the wicked. Christians, will you not do better to pray for those who persecute you?
If you were still reluctant to pray for the wicked, perhaps another interesting prophet in the Pentateuch would change your mind, Balaam! Balaam was probably a diviner because seeing the approach of Israelites, Balak the king of Moab sent a team of divination experts (Numbers 22:7) to summon Balaam to curse the Israelites because “Whoever you [Balaam] bless is blessed and whoever you curse is cursed” (22:6). Did it not sound familiar? It did because God told Abraham in similar terms, saying, “I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you” (Genesis 12:2b-3a). Here, we see a difference between a diviner and a prophet. People thought that diviners had the power to bless and curse effectively whereas prophets were actually channels to convey God’s blessings and curses upon the others. Prophets themselves did not have the power to bless or curse. What made Balaam the diviner interesting was that God turned him, a diviner upon whom the Torah would frown, into a prophet through whom God imparted His blessings on the Israelites and made known His will to the pagans (Numbers 23-24)! Nothing can prevent God from making wicked people perform His will. If Caesar Augustus was wicked, he unwittingly fulfilled the prophecy of the birth of the Messiah in Bethlehem by ordering a nationwide census (Luke 2:1-5).
Prophets come in different shades. Most well-known ones are mighty and ferocious such as Moses, Joshua, Samuel, Elijah and Elisha etc. because of their juicy stories. But there are also mild and even tragic ones such as the major prophets and even prophetesses such as Miriam (Exodus 15:20), Deborah (Judges 4:4), Huldah (2 Kings 22:14) in the Old Testament and Anna (Luke 2:36) in the New Testament. God even punished Miriam for challenging the authority of her brother Moses (Numbers 12:10)! Once more, nothing can prevent God from making anybody an instrument of His grace! Prophetesses show clearly God’s modus operandi: might is NOT always right. Meekness can be as powerful as, if not more powerful than, physical might! Most people know that the Blessed Virgin Mary is the best exemplar of all disciples but few would recognize that she is also a prophet! It is not because the Church gives her a devotional title “Queen of Prophets” but because of her words to the servers at Cana, “Do whatever he[Jesus] tells you” (John 2:5)! Not only did the BVM intercede for their lack of wine, but she also instructed the people to do God’s will. Human strength is always inferior to God’s. Therefore, it is not necessary to resort to might in order to get things done. Meekness and mildness are also able to achieve when we allow God to intervene. He is able to get the job done more fruitfully and effectively.
Beloved brethren! Through baptism, we partake in the threefold ministry of a king, a priest and a prophet of Jesus Christ who is the Prophet foretold in the book of Deuteronomy. Let us invoke the Holy Spirit to grant us love, meekness and wisdom to discharge the prophet ministry of good news. Amen.
2021 Reflection
Picture Credit: creazilla.com
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