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. All of us as Christians have this same call to listen to the word of God and to put our heart, imagination, and intelligence into understanding what that word means for us in our time. John is admirable not just because God called him to a special vocation but because he walked faithfully 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
Do you see any persons like John 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
But what for me is the test that a prophet undergoes when he tells the truth strongly? It’s when this prophet is capable of not only speaking, but crying for the people who have abandoned the truth. Jesus gave strong rebukes, but he also wept. This is the test. A true prophet is the one who is capable of crying for his people and also saying things strongly when he has to. A prophet is not timid, he is always like this: direct but full of hope.
Pope Francis
When the words of prophets seem repetitive, that should rivet our attention.
Henry B. Eyring
The task of prophetic ministry is to nurture, nourish, and evoke a consciousness and perception alternative to the consciousness and perception of the dominant culture around us.
Walter Brueggemann
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
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
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 Alle
The ultimate function of prophecy is not to tell the future, but to make it.
Joel A. Barker
The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls and tenements halls and whispered in the sounds of silence.
Paul Simon