Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time – Wednesday

– June 26

2 Kings 22:8-13, 23:1-3. Matthew 7:15-20

Reality Vs Falsehood: Living Authentically without pretence

A prophet is a spokesperson of God, he/she communicates God’s message to people. A prophet is a forth-teller and not necessarily a foreteller. Hence, a prophet is a person of God, servant of God and bears witness to God. True prophets and false prophets have existed from the beginning, and they are known by their words and actions. The false prophets prophesy for money, fame and socio-political favor (Mic 3: 5, 11) whereas the true prophets speak for God, fight for social justice and are overwhelmed with zeal and fearlessness.

We are called to be true prophets of Jesus by the fact of our baptism. Every one of us is a prophet. Our fruits testify to our prophetic authenticity and integrity.

In the gospel Jesus cautions us to be aware of the false prophets and invites us to be true prophets.  We live in a world where fake news and fake people seem to dominate. Therefore, it is important to evaluate our fruits on a regular basis for authenticity and relevance.  In doing so, we remind ourselves about the call of our baptism and live authentically without any pretence. What kind of prophets am I tuning myself to? What sort of prophetic witness am I striving bear?

Our Take Away: Challenges to be a prophet of Jesus

1. Integrity between our words and actions.

2. Wilfully Choosing values over fame, money and favouritism.

3. Consciously promoting social justice

Wilson SVD

Divine Word Missionary