GOD REVEALS HIMSELF TO MAKE US PROPHETS


SATURDAY, FOURTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP 

Isa 6:1-8; Ps 93:1-2,5; Mt 10:24-33

Here I am, send me

The vocation of Isaiah the prophet comes as a fitting closure for our reflection on the prophet this week. The foundational vision of Isaiah defined his whole mission. He saw the divine majesty of God and the holy angels attending to him, which filled him with awe and knowledge of his sinfulness. “In the year of King Uzziah’s death, I saw the Lord of Hosts seated on a high throne; his train filled the sanctuary; above him stood seraphs, each one with six wings: two to cover its face, two to cover its feet, and two for flying. And they cried to one another in this way, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts. His glory fills the whole earth.’” Everyone called to be a prophet has a vision of God who calls him. This vision comes in various ways God determines. The vision is to fix a firm knowledge of God’s majesty in the one he called. The vision propels the prophet's mission and gives him a lively faith in God. With the deep and mystical awareness of God’s awesome majesty, the one called also sees his sinfulness and inadequacies clearer than ever. Hence, the Church teaches that God’s self-revelation reveals man to himself. This also happened to Isaiah for he cried: “What a wretched state I am in! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips and l live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have looked at the King, the Lord of Hosts.”

When God reveals himself to us, we see how sinful and blind we are; we understand our life pursuits as chasing after the wind and illusions. These realisations coming from the vision of God prepare the prophet to answer the call of God. As we have mentioned above, the vision comes in various forms: it may be sensible, imaginative, intellective, and purely spiritual vision. Whatever form it takes as decided by God, who knows each person’s makeup, its effect is deep and lasting. Realisation of our sinfulness makes us humble and open to God’s communion with us. The work of purification that God does in us begins with this realisation. This is the application of the merit of the blood of Jesus Christ to wash away our sins and gradual immersion into the mystery of Jesus Christ. Baptism gives this in sacramental form. It is a lifelong process of the death of the sinful self and the rising of the new self in Christ. Isaiah had a purification experience. “Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding in his hand a live coal which he had taken from the alter with a pair of tongs. With this he touched my mouth and said: See now, this has touched your lips, your sin is taken away, your iniquity is purged.’”

The mission follows this preparatory exercise, which is necessary for every prophet. As we mentioned yesterday, the Lord calls back his people and gives them the words to ask for forgiveness of their sins, and he promises to forgive and heal them. The incarnation of the Eternal Word is the greatest manifestation of God to man when God gave man a vision of himself in sensible form. The vision, which lasted for thirty-three years, occasioned the greatest vocation of man to be a prophet. He revealed man to himself, made him understand his sinful condition, cleansed him of his sin with his precious blood on the occasion of his confession of faith, and gave him a prophetic mission. We are his disciples sent to proclaim his Gospel. “The disciple is not superior to his teacher, nor the slave to his master. It is enough for the disciple that he should grow to be like his teacher, and the slave like his master.” The prophet is called to become like the one who sends him. God called us to be like him, just as the Trinity desired in the beginning, to make man in the likeness of God. Growing in the mindset of Jesus Christ takes a great deal of struggle and training; it will take us years of listening, meditating, contemplating, and doing the word of God. “So if anyone declares himself for me in the presence of men, I will declare myself for him in the presence of my Father in heaven.” This involves allowing the old self to die and Jesus living through his word in us.

Let us pray: Grant us, Lord, the grace to relive our vision of your glory and our encounter with your Spirit daily, that your holiness and loving mercy may shape all our thoughts, words, and actions, so that we may fulfil the prophetic mission you have entrusted to us here on earth. 


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