A Hiatus

It is coming to July and the long awaited annual priests’ retreat will be conducted.  I have not posted anything of late because I have not been able to make good enough reflections on the Sunday readings.  I must admit and confess that I have been affected very much by many of the things in the the last few weeks.  Both overseas and locally, there have been several incidents that affected me.  As a catholic priest, I have subscribed to the principle of judging the act and not the person.  As I was preparing the scripts for my blog posts, I discovered that there were points I had written that was contrary to the principle above.  I realised that I had to take a little break to settle what was in me before posting.  Thus, I am taking a hiatus, at least until after the priests’ annual retreat.

10th Sunday in Ordinary Time: What makes a prophet?

Hans von Aachen [Public domain], Raising of the son of the widow of Nain, via Wikimedia Commons

When Jesus brought the widow’s son back to life, I am sure that the people were reminded of Elijah pleading for another widow’s son and how the Lord saved him from death’s door.  It is thus not surprising that the people considered Jesus a prophet. This distinction is important because of what a prophet is.  In the first reading, from the First Book of Kings, we hear the widow saying that she finally considered Elijah a man of God and “the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth itself.” (1 Kgs 17:24, Jerusalem Bible) 

We are often pressured by worldly standards of beauty and perfection, and other worldly values.  In this pressure, we often end up wearing masks, pretending to be perfect when we know we are not.  We fail to see the real beauty that God sees in us and pursue an external beauty that has no value in the eyes of God. We fear to let people see who we are for fear of not being accepted. Then we live lives where God’s truth is not valued.  Our use of words, our actions and our attitudes start to align themselves with what is worldly, straying away from the Lord. Our lives become burdened and shackled.  That is why Jesus would teach, “and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:32)

When I consider that at my baptism, I was made priest, prophet and king, participating in the priestly, prophetic and kingly offices of Jesus: Son of God and Son of Man. I am baptised to utter the word of the Lord as a Christian.  This word has to be truth itself. In my sinfulness I have not been exemplary in being a prophet. The questions I must keep asking myself is: Is the word of the Lord an intrinsic part of my life? Is truth a part of my life as well? Do I utter the word of the Lord? Am I living in the truth because I am a prophet? Am I truly a prophet of the Lord?