Memorial of Saint Pius of Pietrelcina, Priest
Today’s first reading is a very good example of Israel’s prophetic tradition. This tradition is made up of individuals who have been chosen by God for a rather unenviable task: to correct the community in all of the ways they aren’t doing what God has asked of them. Therefore, we can see in the prophets what God wants from them but also what they’ve been doing and saying wrong. For example, the author of Proverbs says that, “To do what is right and just is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice.” We can assume that there were people around who thought that their rituals and sacrifices were enough to please God. Instead, Proverbs reminds us that what God really demands is righteousness and justice (which often can include the demand for ritual and practices).
One of the features of being a prophet is that the community often does not respond well to your words. To be a prophet is to be chosen by God to bring people a message that they probably don’t want to hear. Prophets are often abused and killed for their challenges to the society in which they live. We know this in our own time, as someone like Martin Luther King, Jr. had much to say to our society. In many ways, he had a prophetic voice, and he was assassinated for speaking for justice. For Christians, we can understand Jesus himself as part of this prophetic tradition. Indeed, for Christians, Jesus is the ultimate prophet. And like other prophets, Jesus is put to death for the radical ways in which he challenges the world. In many ways, Jesus extends the message of the prophets from the Old Testament and embodies the justice and righteousness to which God has called Israel and then all of humanity.
In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus says that ““My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and act on it.” Proverbs helps us to see what that looks like. One line from Proverbs struck me today: “Whoever makes a fortune by a lying tongue is chasing a bubble over deadly snares.” Despite being centuries removed from its original context, we are subject to the prophetic voice in this text. So much of our economic relationships are built upon a “lying tongue.” And this has affected the way we treat creation, each other and ourselves.
The image that Proverbs gives us is so vivid. Anyone who has watched a little kid around bubbles knows how it goes: the bubbles are so captivating that soon she is running into people and things in an effort to catch them. Proverbs says that when act with economic injustice, it’s like chasing bubbles over traps; we are almost sure to fall in. While Proverbs is an ancient text written to ancient people with their own economic practices, the spirit of God moves in the text to prophetically speak to our own age. May God give us the grace to listen.
- Katherine Schmidt