Feast of John the Baptist
Reflection
John the Baptist opened the way to Jesus. He spoke to the desire for human transformation, to the idea that a relationship with God had to be based in more than membership in a specific tribe, race or nation. It had to be lived. His rite of baptism symbolized this rebirth. John stood between the old dispensation and the new reign of God and pointed to Jesus. “He disturbed the comfortable and comforted the disturbed”. We may not be prophets, but we are still called to testify to the Christ. As Christians, all of us have the prophetic call to listen to the word of God and to put all of our heart, soul, imagination, and intelligence into understanding what that word means for our time. To be faithful to the call of God, we need courage and discipline. John is great today not just because God called him to a special vocation but because he walked courageously in the path that led to his goal.
Prayer
I will listen to what God is saying, who is speaking peace to us who turn our hearts to God
Psalm 85
Action
Who do you see as prophets in our time? What inspiration can you draw from their lives?
Suggested Reading
Among those born of women no one is greater than John.
Luke 7:28
Where there is no vision, the people perish.
Proverbs 29:18
We do not see our signs; there is no longer any prophet, nor is there any among us who knows how long.
Psalm 74:9
It is usually easy to recognize the prophetic voice when it is authentic. It has the freshness and freedom of the Gospel: open, and favoring the disenfranchised. The prophetic voice dares the truth. We can often hear in it a questioning of established power, and an uncovering of human pain and unmet need. It challenges structures that exclude some and benefit others. The prophetic voice urges action and a choice for change.
Sister Pat Farrell
When we ponder whether a thought, word, or action is of God and for God, we can be confident of its origin and outcome when it reflects the Spirit’s gifts and bears the Spirit’s fruits…. May we lean, together, into God’s Abundant Love as we remain faithful to the Gospel call of Jesus for the life of the world.
Sister Carol Zinn, SSJ
A true prophet has to learn humility, realize it is God’s message, God’s glory to be served. He is merely an instrument…. The prophet is the inspired outsider, not part of the power structure, defies stereotypes, not who you think it should be, not what you were expecting.
Thomas Michael, SJ
Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so you shall become. Your vision is the promise of what you shall one day be; your ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil.
James Allen
The ultimate function of prophecy is not to tell the future, but to make it.
Joel A. Barker