Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the words of our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ:
‘Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in Heaven, for so they persecuted the Prophets who were before you’ (Beatitudes).
And, again, in the words of our Lord:
‘Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, . . . O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the Prophets and stones those who are sent to her!’ (Mt. 23:34-35).
And now in the words of our Lord’s brother, James, martyred for his prophetic life: “My brethren, take the Prophets, who spoke in the Name of the Lord, as an example of suffering and patience. Indeed, we count them blessed who endure.”
The Church, beloved, is built upon the words and the blood of her Prophets. The Church is the beneficiary of the lives of all those who have faithfully and obediently spoken the Word of God to her and who have, for the sake of this same Word of God, persevered – endured – all things so that some might be saved from the multitude of their sins. These are blessed – or as some translations have it, happy – indeed!
Realistically, the Prophets have not lived the most graced of lives, that is, from the perspective of ready acceptance by those who have heard them speak, “’Thus saith the Lord,’” of ease and comfort, nor of success as defined by the standards of the world. Throughout Sacred Scripture, we hear that the life of a Prophet, though blessed, was not one of convenience for the Truth is a most inconvenient thing at times. The Truth, Who is, in fact, a Person – the Person – Jesus Christ and Son of God saves and heals without doubt, while simultaneously causing discomfort in those who fail to hear and to heed the prophetic Word made more sure (2 Pe. 1:19-21). We see this, in part, in today’s Holy Gospel (Lk. 4:22-30). It is these Prophets of God who set the tone for us and to whom we are to look for wisdom and spiritual guidance, who are faithful role models for “suffering affliction and of patience.” The apostolic Word says, these ones – and all who follow in their footsteps – are blessed by God, which, no doubt, confounds our thinking as perhaps it is intended by God to do. “[W]hen I am weak, then I am strong,” declares the persecuted, deprived, and distressed Apostle (2 Cr. 12:10). When I am persecuted, reviled, falsely accused on account of the Son of God, then I am most blessed . . . . . . and happy. “For though [Jesus Christ] was crucified in weakness, yet He lives by the power of God. [W]e also are weak in Him, but we shall [nevertheless] live with Him by the [same] power of God [Who raised Him up]” (Rm. 8:11; 1 Cr. 6:14; 2 Cr. 13:4).
We are to seek answers from these holy and glorious Prophets – men and women – who adorn the pages of the Sacred Word of God and who are affixed to the walls of this holy House – this veritable cloud of witnesses (Hb. 12:1) and ancients (Sr. 2:10) – whose witness is full of Jesus Christ crucified and risen! I think of Isaiah, that “prince of Prophets,” whose Old Testament book that bears his name has been deemed the Gospel of the Old Testament for its rich Messianic prophecies and the hope of salvation for the People of God. Yet, for all of this he was nonetheless sawn in two during the evil reign of King Manasseh. That was his reward for a life of faithful and obedient service to God. Nevertheless, he was blessed precisely because he was faithful and obedient, persevering in the face of all who militated against his message to Israel.
Then there is Jeremiah, christened with the title of “the weeping Prophet” whose tears were shed for the plight of his faithless people and their sins of which they refused to repent. For 40 years he preached faithfully and obediently against the grain of the culture, eventually dying in exile along with his people. At one point, he seriously contemplated abandoning the whole prophetic enterprise, but he couldn’t escape the God Who had called him from his mother’s womb to speak boldly the Word of God (Jr. 1:1-11). Daily, he laments, the threats, defamation, deprivation foisted upon him, and constant rejection by a people who should have been eager to hear the Word of God, took its spiritual toll on him, going as far as to decry the day of his birth! “Then, I said, ‘I will not make mention of [the Lord], nor speak anymore in His Name.’ But His Word was in mine heart,” he reports, “as a burning fire shut up in my bones; and I was weary of forbearing, and I could not hold back’” (Jr. 20:7-18). Or, in the more succinctly put words of the Apostle, St. Paul, who had a similar Jeremiah-like experience, “For if I preach the Gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for necessity is laid upon me; yes, woe is me if I do not preach the Gospel!” (1 Cr. 9:16).
The Word of God compels and drives the Prophet who can do no other. The Prophet Elijah found this to be the case, at one point believing himself to be the sole survivor of the Faith of Israel in light of the heresy of Baal that had overtaken the hearts and minds of the people. Little did he know, God reveals, that there were at least 7,000 others like him who had not succumbed to this false and pretentious god that so appealed to Israel’s fancy and perverted the Faith of Israel (3 Kg. [1 Kg.] 19:18).
It is a hard but necessary thing to stand steadfast when you’re being told you’re the problem and the perversion when souls want nothing to do with God. Yet, these Prophets are blessed for they have endured sufferings with the patience of Job. Job, you recall, was quite wealthy, but was suddenly and inexplicably stripped of possessions, children, and health. A devout and faithful man before these tragedies, he remained such even throughout his days of trial and testing. He had questions for God, but he refused to “’curse God and die,’” as his wife suggested he do (Jb. 2:9). He remained true to his faith in God despite the so-called “comfort” of his alleged friends. “’Though He slay me,’” Job prophetically quips, “’yet will I trust in Him’” (Jb. 13:15). At the end of his great temptation, Job comes forth as one from the furnace renewed, blazing with glory, for having kept the Faith in God Who blessed him more richly than before. For “the Lord is verry compassionate and merciful,” and loves mankind!
Of course, like St. Paul in Hebrews, we could go on about the likes of David and Daniel; of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego – the Three Holy Children – in the furnace; of the holy and glorious Prophet and Forerunner, John, and of Moses; and of so many others who all deliberately chose God and His Word over that of those militating against God, proving to us through their stout and robust witness, that in this world “the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men” (1 Cr. 1:25).
They all were prophets – “forth-tellers” – of the Word of God, and of His persevering and sustaining grace that preserves those who are patient and endure this world for the world to come. As our Lord rightly teaches us, salvation and healing ultimately belong to those who persevere and endure to the end (Mt. 10:22; 24:13; Lk. 21:19; 1 Cr. 9:24; Hb. 12:1; Rv. 13:10; 14:12). The Prophets reveal the power of God’s Word to create and re-create faith and hope in God in all circumstances and situations of this world if we have the patience of a farmer who, having planted the seed, now waits until it is ready. “You also be patient,” St. James instructs us in light of this great Truth of God (Jm. 5:7-8). If so, along with all the Prophets here so honored by the Church, we, too, will find ourselves blessed if we but trust in Him (Ps. 2:12; 33 [34]:8). For this patience, perseverance, forbearance, longsuffering is the fruit of the grace of the Holy Spirit working in us (Ga. 5:22-23). St. James, the brother of our Lord, speaks from experience. “For when [we] have been approved [through perseverance and endurance],” he says, “[we] will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him” (Jm. 1:12).
Through the prayers of our holy Fathers, especially the holy and glorious Prophet, Elijah, O Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us. Amen.
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
VIGIL PROPERS: PROPERS:
3 Kg. [1 Kg.] 17:1-24 Jm. 5:10-20
3 Kg. [1 Kg.] 18:1, 17-40, 42, 44-19:16 Lk. 4:22-30
3 Kg. [1 Kg.] 19:19-21; 4 Kg. [2 Kg.] 2:1, 6-14