Furthermore…

Yesterday’s meeting went very well, with a lot of animated participation. We were discussing the Sunday Readings for July 5th,the 14th Sunday of Ordinary Time, B Cycle, including a selecton from Ezekiel the Prophet.
One of the things which came up in several of my readings but did not get broached during the meeting was the idea that we are all called to be prophets. ‘Prophet’ probably isn’t list in the government’s list of occupational titles, and it doesn’t show up in the want ads. Generally, the Biblical prophets went looking for an audience, rather than being sought out, but it might be that the ancient kings kept royal prophets on call in their courts, out of a desire for completeness if nothing else.
My Catholic dictionary treats prophets as belonging to the past, and treats phophecy as something bestowed by God, so there’s no percentage in hanging out a shingle. The biblical prophets proclaimed the messages of God, and sometimes even predicted the future. I doubt that the call for us to be prophets today means that we ought to expect to be drawn into prediction of future events but, rather, that we should get about the business of proclaiming God’s message when the opportunity arises. Oh, by the way, prophets aren’t normally lionized (except in the nutritional sense) or celebrated, so it is easy to understand why there doesn’t seem to be much of it going on up and down main street.