Thursday of the Twenty Eighth Week of Ordinary Time
Eph 1: 1-10; Luke 11: 47-54
Dc. Larry Brockman
Some say it is human nature. Others say it is hindsight. But how often do we castigate the prophets and visionaries of our recent times only to have them venerated for their great insight in the very near future. Dr. Martin Luther King is a great example. He was controversial in his own day, as was the civil disobedience he practiced. But those same folks who fought him years ago help build monuments to him today.
Yes indeed, things have not changed in thousands of years. The world is full of people who don’t want to hear the truth because they don’t want to change. They are comfortable with the status quo; and uncomfortable with sobering words on evils that need to be set right. So, they suppress and even persecute the prophet in his own time but then join the crowd later in praising them!
Of course, not all soothsayers are on the up and up. But there is a singular quality of the real message- the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. God’s truth!
Today, we are deluged with modern day prophets. Some warn of stock market crashes; global warming; threats to the environment; and major natural disasters like volcanos, tsunamis, epidemics, and earthquakes. Others warn us of moral decay; degradation of the family as a social unit; and an assault on the sanctity of human life. These latter prophets point to God’s teaching and call us to return to the basics. It is them in particular we need to listen to.
Will we be like the generations upon generations of the past who turned a blind eye and deaf ear to the prophets of their own time? Or will we listen to God’s prophets, repent, and heed God’s word?
Perhaps the problem is how we see the whole thing. Truly, Jesus tells his own generation of collective Jewish leaders that the blood of the prophets is on their hands. It’s not on the individual’s hands; but rather on their collective hands. And that’s because they are collectively the product of generations of individual behavior that ignored the Lord’s prophets and lived selfish lives. But make no mistake about it, Jesus generation was responsible for their own society.
So, there is cause for optimism for us. All of us here are among the believers. We wouldn’t be here at daily Mass if we were not. I am sure most of you can identify with my words. We can still do something about our sins being on the blood of our children by listening to the prophets of today, and doing something now- in the way we vote; in how we instill values in our children and grandchildren; in how we stand firm for the Lord in this politically correct, yet morally askew society that is slowly walking away from our Judeo Christian values.
There is a reason the Ten Commandments are posted on the walls of so many court houses in this country. It isn’t because the folks that put them there were trying to establish a state religion; rather, it is because those ten commandments are the basis for all of our Western Law. If we walk away from the posted ten commandments, then we are walking away from the basis for our system of laws. I
It’s time for us to live and practice our faith regardless of what the Government says. It’s time for us to project our values in the way we live whether it is politically correct or not. Not just some of us, but all of us. Otherwise, the mess that this country will experience will be on the blood of us and our own children.
