The Prophet

I studied sciences in my secondary education. This made me a rather logical, rational man. I did not know that my verbal skills were not weak at all. In fact, I won solo verse reading and speech making competitions.
I remember vividly the first time I came across The Prophet written by Khalil Gibran, I was very much impressed. How could people in the world have such beautiful ideas expressed in such a beautiful prose! I had accidentally bumped onto a treasure trove of wisdom. Therefore, I typed up the whole book so that I might be able to read it again and again. Remember, in those ages, personal computers and the Internet were not yet born. Thanks to the convenience provided by the Information Technology, I could see the photo of the young handsome Khalil Gibran with just a few keyboard strokes and an ordinary search engine.

I learned, for the first time, a different meaning of the word "prophet" from the book. A prophet was not a fortune-teller or a seer of the future which was my first understanding. Instead, he was not just a man of wisdom but a wisdom master because he had a group of disciples and followers. How romantic! Of course, this second meaning of the word "prophet" was formed in my mind before I became a Catholic. The Bible has prophets of a different meaning.

In the context of the Bible, prophets were men of God. Abraham was a prophet (Genesis 20:7). Aaron, Miriam and Moses were prophets (Exodus 7:1, 15:20; Deuteronomy 18:15). Joshua, Deborah and of course Samuel were prophets before the kings. When Israel had their kings, there were court prophets. Nathan worked for David. After the first Temple was built and the administration became established, prophets were chosen by God to be His spokesmen to stand up against corrupt kings and officials. They became the conscience of the people, the fighters of social justice. Elijah, Amos and Isaiah came to mind. Elijah had chosen Elisha to be his successor and Isaiah was known to have many disciples.
Being prophets before Israel had their kings was good in the sense that they were able to command people's awe and respect. In those days, God was their king. However, when kings arose to rule in God's stead, most of them failed their jobs because they worshipped idols. The role of prophets as God's spokesmen clashed directly with that of kings. Naturally, most of the prophets suffered and some even died violently as martyrs. When the hearts of the people turned to idols, prophets became unpopular. Thus, being prophets was not a good thing at all.

In the gospel reading today, Jesus was rejected by his own people. They had known him for thirty years and suddenly when he returned after a brief absence, he became a prophet and had followers. Here is what Jesus said.
And Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor, except in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house." (Mark 6:4)
Fr. Milanese is a biblical scholar. In his homily, he explained a few tricky points in the text. He even gave a new understanding of the phrase "the son of Mary" (Mark 6:3) which I have never thought about before. I usually explained that perhaps Joseph was already dead and therefore people knew Jesus as the son of Mary. However, Fr. Milanese explained that it was Mark who wanted to emphasize the divine origin of Jesus. Good point.
However, there was still a puzzling element in the story.
And he (Jesus) marveled because of their unbelief (Mark 6:6).
What made Jesus marvel, wonder? Jesus is God and God is all-knowing. Nothing on earth would surprise Jesus. Didn't Jesus know the secret thoughts in the hearts of men (Mark 2:8)? Of course Jesus knew and therefore the unbelief of his people was not unexpected. Therefore, "because of their unbelief" should not be interpreted literally. Rather, Jesus should marvel at the consequences of their unbelief. Jesus had worked many miracles. Perhaps this was the first time during his public ministry when Jesus experienced the limitations of the range of his power. Jesus' power should know no limit but due to his respect of man's freedom, he was willing not to impose his power over us. Of course God wants all of us to be saved but we can choose hell for ourselves. We can choose not to love God. It would be our free choices.

In the early history of the Church, there were apostles and prophets (1 Corinthians 12:28). Apostles are succeeded by bishops but the office of prophets has disappeared. I learn that when the Church grows, there is a rising need of organization. Bishops are resident and stay with the local people whereas prophets are charismatic and travel around. Prophets were unstable and even unsettling elements in the Church. They were not able to integrate into the Church as an institution. But do we still have prophets nowadays? Yes, we do.
When we are baptized, we are baptized into 3 offices of king, prophet and priest which are the offices of Jesus. Like Jesus, we are kings to carry out God's will. Like Jesus, we are spokesmen of God to spread His messages of salvation in our daily life. Like Jesus, we are priests to offer up our daily life and even our lives as sacrifices to God and to worship Him. We do not do it just for ourselves but also for those who do not know God, do not believe in God.
However, from the story of Jesus, we should expect oppositions when we carry out our office as a prophet. We should be prepared to be rejected and become unpopular. But we believe that with God's help, our efforts to build up the Kingdom of Heaven on earth will prevail.

Dear Lord, we are weak and worthless. May our meagre efforts be able to transform the world into a better place for our children and our children's children. Amen.