Prophetic Presence
Discipleship
is a painful yet liberative consciousness of eroding oneself to make realize
the immanence of God. It is a call to become manure to the seeds of
transformation constantly and mysteriously being nourished by the Spirit in the
fertile soil of the Father dampened by the blood of Christ the Son. It is an
invitation to become a prophetic presence in the world upholding the kingdom
values as well as the veracity of the statements made by Jesus the Christ. But
let us bear in mind that the path which needs to be traversed is really narrow.
St. John of Kronstadt reminds us;
Why is it that only the narrow
way and narrow gate lead to life? Who makes the way of the chosen narrow? The
world oppresses the chosen, the flesh oppresses them, the devil oppresses them;
it is these that make our way to the kingdom of heaven narrow.[i]
The
Lection set apart for today is Matthew 7: 13-27 which is an exhaustive
pericope. It speaks about the narrow gate of the kingdom of God; the false
prophets; tree being known by its fruits and the entwined relationship between
faith and praxis. I would predominantly focus on the prophetic vocation a
disciple ought to possess which kind of encapsulates the premise of the
passage.
Prophets
are the ones who dare to dream; who have the nerve to imagine the alternative
belittling the price they might need to pay for it. Since prophets are the
spokespersons of God, speaking truth to power becomes their ethical mandate.
For a prophet, preaching and praxis go hand in hand. Defining prophets as
future-tellers is a kind of reductionism that nullifies the gravity of the
vocation. The Future infringes the Present and thus Prophets are those who are
all the more concerned about the perils of the Present for the sake of a
renewed Future. Eric D. Barreto opines;
Prophets
are not prognosticators guessing at what the future holds. Prophets look at the
world as it is and imagine its transformation through a God-infused
imagination…The prophet does not guess what’s next. The prophet does not set
her eyes to the future but plants herself in the present, in all its
blessedness and mire, and says God is present here. She declares a new world
and in this bold, courageous declaration God acts. In the very act of speaking
a God-inspired word of consolation and hope, the prophecy comes to life in our
midst as we lift our hands to serve our neighbour and move our feet to go to
the most desolate places and discover there that God and God’s servants are
very much alive, very much present. We find that those desolate places are not
so desolate after all.[ii]
There
is no other phenomenon so stagnant and stinky than a life deprived of
imagination. The moment we start passively accepting anything without leaving a
wiggle room for questions and change, we begin to reek of death. We need to
comprehend that resistance, non-conformity and transformation are not sins but
prominent spiritual practices. Graham Hill writes;
Our
churches and secular and religious leaders give us the impression that we
should submit and conform, and that this is our spiritual duty. Mutual
submission and caring for the good of the whole community is, indeed, a
spiritual act of service. But it must never be demanded of us through coercion
and manipulation. It’s a choice we must be able to freely make; in a community
that values mutual submission, genuine integrity, and respect for everyone’s
dignity and freedom. Jesus Christ does not call us to be passive, conformist,
and docile.[iii]
In
a world impregnated with dead people, prophets are the divine beings who spread
the fragrance of life. They constantly prick our consciousness making us
realize the burden of our guilt. That could be the reason Walter Brueggemann
articulated; “The task of the
prophetic ministry is to nurture, nourish and evoke a consciousness and
perception alternative to the consciousness and perception of the dominant
culture around us.”[iv]
The
world in which we reside is highly deceptive. Relationships are sustained on
the basis of lucrativeness; morality is sacrificed on the pyre of enticements;
freedom adorns the garb of fascism, religions trade God for luxury, nations
exploit patriotism to legitimize the perpetuation of nationalism, commons are
lynched and their blood is offered to political bigots, constitution is mocked
by the bureaucrats and hence the world becomes precariously fragile day by day.
In a world where dissenters disappear it is highly dangerous to become a
prophet. Eric D. Barreto further remarks;
The
prophet’s road is lonely because she is called to the most troubled corners of
the world, places which existence we would rather deny or ignore. The prophet’s
road is lonely because she must speak boldly to an upside-down world that
doesn’t realize it is upside-down. The prophet sees the world as it really is
while we see the prophet and marvel that she is walking on the ceiling… No one really wants to be a
prophet. Their road is hard, and no one really listens to them. Their
declamations make us profoundly uncomfortable. True prophets are dismissed as
lunatics even as they point out the insanity of a broken world.[v]
We
must also bring to our minds what Philip Berrigan reckoned; “The poor tell us
who we are. The prophets tell us who we can be. So we hide the poor and kill
the prophets.”[vi]
Lent
is a time to rekindle our intrinsic prophetic vocation. This demands that we
sacrifice the comfort and security offered by the wider way of the world and
willingly choose the discomfort and insecurity offered by the narrow way of Heaven.
I am reminded of a Desert Mother St. Amma Theodora. Saint Theodora fled to the desert after she
committed a damaging sin. Like many desert mothers, she went to a monastery and
had to pretend that she is a man to become a monk and reclaim her freedom in
Christ from the bonds of sin. She
remarked;
Let’s strive to enter by the
narrow gate. Just as the trees, if they haven’t stood before the winter’s
storms can’t bear fruit. So it is with us; this present age is a storm and it’s
only through many trials and temptations that we can obtain an inheritance in
the kingdom of heaven.[vii]
To
conclude, Lent is more about engagement. The veil of spirituality would not
help if there does not occur a true metanoia. St. John Chrysostom makes it
plain;
Do not say to me that “I fasted
for so many days,” that “I did not eat this or that,” that “I did not drink
wine,” that “I endured want”; but show me if you — from an angry man — have
become gentle, if you — from a cruel man — have become benevolent. If you are
filled with anger, why oppress your flesh? If hatred and avarice are within
you, of what benefit is it that you drink [only] water? Do not show forth a
useless fast: for fasting alone does not ascend to heaven.[viii] Amen
Prayers
Dn.
Basil Paul
[ii] Eric Baretto, “You Don’t want to
be a Prophet”, https://sojo.net/articles/you-don-t-want-be-prophet.
[iii] Graham Hill, “Recovering the
Spiritual Practices of Resistance, Nonconformity and Transformation” https://theglobalchurchproject.com/transformed-nonconformists/?fbclid=IwAR3yJfU1tCRUvanDCpnnEAIuPXto-EstjqSW0QcB6an-CfsZnIrB3ih3oMo.
[iv] Walter Brueggemann, The
Prophetic Imagination (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1978), 11.
[v] Eric Baretto, “You Don’t want to
be a Prophet”, https://sojo.net/articles/you-don-t-want-be-prophet.
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