20150201 EXERCISING THE GIFT OF PROPHECY AUTHENTICALLY
Readings at Mass
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First reading
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Deuteronomy
18:15-20 ©
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Moses said to the
people: ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like myself, from
among yourselves, from your own brothers; to him you must listen. This is what
you yourselves asked of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the Assembly.
“Do not let me hear again” you said “the voice of the Lord my God, nor look any
longer on this great fire, or I shall die”; and the Lord said to me, “All they
have spoken is well said. I will raise up a prophet like yourself for them from
their own brothers; I will put my words into his mouth and he shall tell them
all I command him. The man who does not listen to my words that he speaks in my
name, shall be held answerable to me for it. But the prophet who presumes to
say in my name a thing I have not commanded him to say, or who speaks in the
name of other gods, that prophet shall die.”’
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Psalm
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Psalm 94:1-2,6-9
©
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O that today you
would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’
Come, ring out our
joy to the Lord;
hail the
rock who saves us.
Let us come before
him, giving thanks,
with
songs let us hail the Lord.
O that today you
would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’
Come in; let us bow
and bend low;
let us
kneel before the God who made us:
for he is our God and
we
the
people who belong to his pasture,
the flock
that is led by his hand.
O that today you
would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’
O that today you
would listen to his voice!
‘Harden
not your hearts as at Meribah,
as on
that day at Massah in the desert
when your fathers put
me to the test;
when they
tried me, though they saw my work.’
O that today you
would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’
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Second reading
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1 Corinthians
7:32-35 ©
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I would like to see
you free from all worry. An unmarried man can devote himself to the Lord’s
affairs, all he need worry about is pleasing the Lord; but a married man has to
bother about the world’s affairs and devote himself to pleasing his wife: he is
torn two ways. In the same way an unmarried woman, like a young girl, can
devote herself to the Lord’s affairs; all she need worry about is being holy in
body and spirit. The married woman, on the other hand, has to worry about the
world’s affairs and devote herself to pleasing her husband. I say this only to
help you, not to put a halter round your necks, but simply to make sure that
everything is as it should be, and that you give your undivided attention to
the Lord.
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Gospel
Acclamation
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Mt11:25
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Blessed are you,
Father,
Lord of heaven and
earth,
for revealing the
mysteries of the kingdom
to mere children.
Alleluia!
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Or
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Mt4:16
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Alleluia, alleluia!
The people that lived
in darkness
has seen a great
light;
on those who dwell in
the land and shadow of death
a light has dawned.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Mark 1:21-28 ©
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Jesus and his
followers went as far as Capernaum, and as soon as the sabbath came he went to
the synagogue and began to teach. And his teaching made a deep impression on
them because, unlike the scribes, he taught them with authority.
In
their synagogue just then there was a man possessed by an unclean spirit and it
shouted, ‘What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy
us? I know who you are: the Holy One of God.’ But Jesus said sharply, ‘Be
quiet! Come out of him!’ And the unclean spirit threw the man into convulsions
and with a loud cry went out of him. The people were so astonished that they
started asking each other what it all meant. ‘Here is a teaching that is new’
they said ‘and with authority behind it: he gives orders even to unclean
spirits and they obey him.’ And his reputation rapidly spread everywhere,
through all the surrounding Galilean countryside.
EXERCISING
THE GIFT OF PROPHECY AUTHENTICALLY
SCRIPTURE
READINGS: DT 18:15-20; 1 COR 7:32-35; MARK 1:21-28
One of the greatest
challenges in our times today is the lost of credibility of religious
leaders. People
in the world today are skeptical of religious leaders. They no longer
trust them. The loss of credibility is of course related to that of
authority. However, the authority of a leader today can no longer rest on
institutional authority, not even academic authority but personal
authority. Indeed, in the gospel, we have Jesus who taught with
authority. The evangelist noted that “his teaching made a deep impression
on them because, unlike the scribes, he taught with authority.”
As priests and leaders
today we are called to teach with authority. In the first reading, the Lord said to the people,
“I will raise up a prophet like yourself for them from their own brothers;
I will put my words into his mouth and he shall tell all I command him. The man
who does not listen to my words that he speaks in my name, shall be held
answerable to me for it.” Indeed, the Word of God often comes to us
through the prophets that He sends to us. It could be our siblings,
parents, friends or Church. God sends prophets to help and enlighten us.
The task of the prophet is to speak the Word of God. But how can we speak
the Word of God in such a way that even the demons fear us?
What is the basis of
Jesus’ authority? Jesus
must have taught with such personal conviction and authority that the people
came to believe Him for they knew that He spoke from the depths of His heart
and His relationship with the Father. The authority of Jesus did not come
from education but from His personal relationship with His Father. This
explains why He could preach with such authority since He spoke from His
personal experience and not from some books that He studied or traditions
passed down to Him as was the case of the scribes and the Pharisees.
Secondly, the basis of
His authority lies in the actions. Jesus did not only preach the Word of God but established
that He has the Word of God by the way He commanded the Demon to leave the
man. When the unclean spirit threw the man into convulsions and with a
loud cry went out of him, they said, “Here is a teaching that is new,” they
said, “and with authority behind it: he gives orders even to unclean spirits
and they obey him.” Being a true prophet is more than just proclaiming
the Word of God but living out the Word of God in one’s daily life.
Without living the Word of God, our preaching cannot inspire people for
long, for they know that we are not being sincere with what we say.
Hence, the prophet not only teaches and proclaims, but in the final analysis, a
true prophet can be distinguished from a false prophet by the way He conducts
his life, the way he relates with others and the way he shows his devotion to
God.
Jesus gives us the true
model of a prophet.
He never acted out of selfish motivation. He did not use His Divine Power
for His own benefit but always for the good of His people. He worked
miracles only to express His compassion and love for them. He never
worked miracles for Himself. In the gospel, Jesus demonstrated His
compassion for the man who was possessed by the demon. He was in deep
sorrow that the man was suffering and afflicted by the demon. Hence, in a
stern command, He ordered the demon to “Be quiet! Come out of him!”
Jesus’ only concern was to do His Father’s will, and be at the service of His
people. We too must exercise the gift of prophecy in this manner, never
for ourselves or to use the Word of God to get people to do the things we want
them to do, but rather solely for their good and their good alone.
How can we teach with
the same authority of Jesus? We need to give undivided attention to the
Lord. This is what St Paul is urging us. St Paul’s letter must be read within
context. He was not condemning marriage life or disdaining the
beauty of marriage. The bible sanctifies marriage and Christ even raised
it to a sacrament, the sign of God’s love. But it was said in context in
view of the nearness of the Second Coming of Christ. Surely, one can
devote oneself to God whether we are married or single. It is a question
of focus in what we do. Are we doing everything for the Lord or for
ourself? What is our motivation? Even choosing the single state of
life can be for selfish reasons because we only want to love ourselves and not
be responsible to others. We want to have our freedom and enjoyment.
Marriage also can be entered into for selfish reasons too, not so much to love
our spouse or even to have children but purely for security.
So St Paul is not
advocating marriage singlehood, but that we do everything for the Lord and
His people. If we devote what we do regardless of whether we are
doing work within the or outside the Church, so long as we are doing for the
glory of God and for His service, we are certainly focused. The only
problem is when we forget that we are serving the Lord and this can well happen
even whilst serving in Church ministry. This is why St Paul urges us to
have singularity of purpose in life. If we are divided within ourselves,
we cannot hope to find peace and joy. So long as there is division within
us, so long as we are being torn by two desires, it would be impossible to find
peace and integrity.
Undivided attention to
the Lord means first and foremost giving time to Him in prayer and intimacy.
We must cultivate a
personal relationship with the Father through Jesus in the Spirit. We
cannot rely on institutional authority or on our office or even our theological
knowledge. Unless we know the Father intimately, we can speak with authority.
Only when we speak with a personal knowledge of the Father, can we also act
with authority like Jesus, such that not only were people impressed by Him but
even the devil obeyed Him. Otherwise, not even our listeners will listen
to us, much less the demons!
Undivided attention also
means that we must be imbued with the Word of God. Precisely
because we are torn between worldly affairs and selfish needs, we need to
hear the Word of God so that we do not lose focus in what we do in life.
To find direction and purpose in life, we must first be enlightened by the Word
of God as to how we should direct our lives and live it in accordance with the
gospel. This was what the Lord told the people of Israel when they were
unfaithful to the Covenant. The psalmist says, “Oh, that today you would
hear his voice: Harden not your hearts as at Meribah, as in the day of Massah
in the desert, where your fathers tempted me; they tested me though they had
seen my works.”
Unless we know the Lord
personally, we cannot hear His words clearly for us and for His people. Otherwise, we can even become
false prophets and the Lord warns us, “But the prophet who presumes to say in
my name a thing I have not commanded him to say, or who speaks in the name of
other gods, that prophet shall die.” We must be careful that whilst exercising
the gift of prophecy, we must also be clear of our motives, otherwise not only
will we harm others but we will also cause harm to ourselves. True
prophets therefore must seek to live holy lives and be attentive to His word at
prayer so that they can truly speak the Word of God and not their own ideas or
worse still, use and manipulate the Word of God for their personal benefits and
interests. It is a great sin to use the Word of God especially to attack
people for personal reasons. At any rate, our listeners will know that we
speak from our own agenda rather than the voice of God. As sheep, they
know the voice of a true shepherd that cares for them and not for himself.
If we are attentive to the
Word of God, it will help us to discern and diagnose the cause of our
unhappiness and misery. Listening to the Word enables us to enter into
the depths of our souls, unmask the true motives of what we do and the
fears that prompt us to take certain actions or follow certain directions in
life. Many of our sins and illnesses spring from unconscious motives.
A true prophet is not only responsible for helping people to discern
right from wrong but to urge the good to be better and even to challenge those
who are good for the wrong reasons. It is not enough to come to
consciousness of our flagrant sins but to discern whether we are doing the
right thing for the right reasons. Do we use God and religion for our
benefit or really for the glory of God and for the service of His people?
Is our work really a service to our country and our family or merely for our
selfish interests and aspirations? Those of us who serve in the Church or
in public service and voluntary organizations must enter deeper into the motives
of what they do. The necessity of living an authentic life is paramount
in preventing us from hurting ourselves through repeated and reactive sins.
Finally, true prophets
are not only of words but of deeds. In our very life, let us seek to
do His Will, to strive to live out what we preach so that our very lives become
a demonstration of the power of God at work in us. Let our very lives
glorify God and be prophetic in itself. When others see how we live out
what we preach, they will then listen to what we say; and through listening,
they can be enlightened and begin the process of their own healing through our
words and testimony of the power of God at work in us and the liberating truth
of the Word of God. We need to have prophets today who are courageous in
proclaiming the Word of God. However, it is not enough to proclaim the
Word of God, it must be done with authority, personal, institutional and
academic authority.
WRITTEN BY THE MOST REV
WILLIAM GOH
ARCHBISHOP
OF SINGAPORE
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
