J&P 1,d: Prophets

ANSWERS TO THE QUESTIONNAIRE: "WHO ARE THE PROPHETS?"

1. A prophet is someone who predicts the future.
False. The prophet is one who in fact, speaks mostly about the past and the present. If the prophet speaks about the future it is to show that it is in the hands of God. The prophet's accuracy was only found out many years later and was certainly not always clear to the people of the prophet's time.
2. A true prophet is one who insists in getting across his/her own ideas.
False. The true prophet is usually counter-cultural. He proclaims doom when the people are living in a false bliss, forgetting God and counting only on themselves or political arrangements. On the other hand when life its difficult because of wrong options and the people repent, then the prophet presents things in a positive light and proclaims hope to the people.
3. Prophets are called by God.
True. Because only God chooses the one who will speak in God's name.
4. All prophets are revolutionaries.
False. If the prophets criticized the leaders and the princes of their time it is because they were not following the Law of God, and were bad 'shepherds'. They attack the persons but do not challenge the system itself (monarchy or the temple). They are defenders of the poor and downtrodden but never organize them politically. Rather they remind the powerful of their responsibility toward the little ones.
5. There are no women prophets.
False. See the example of Hulda (II Kgs 22:14).
6. Prophets are always well received by the people.
False. On the contrary the prophet is threatened, challenged and even killed because he disturbs the status quo.
7. There do exist prophets outside of Israel.
True. The prophetic phenomenon is not unique to Israel and appears among other people. But is has distinct qualities in Israel because of the history of the Covenant.
8. The prophet is a saint.
False. The prophet often speaks of his unworthiness, his impurity, his sinfulness.
9. Elijah was the first prophet.
False. Moses was considered as the first prophet for he was a 'visionary' and the 'spokesperson' for God.
10. Prophets are systematically against worship.
False. They actually do not denounce worship, they denounce empty worship or false worship, superficial worship. People had made worship some form of magic and had shamelessly, incorporated pagan rituals in the worship. The prophets are in fact quite traditional wanting integrity of worship.
11. The prophets were accountable for the way they lived their call from God
True. Some of them actually tell how God chose them as spokespersons although we do not know all of their stories or how they were chosen.
12. The prophets knew they were inspired by God when they spoke.
True. Their proclamations/writings always start or end with: "Thus speaks Yahweh, your God..."
13. Amos really wanted to be a prophet.
False. He did not want to be a prophet. He would have preferred being a shepherd and take care of his sycamore trees. But God did not leave him alone.
14. Prophets are always poor.
False. One of the greatest prophets, Isaiah, was probably an aristocrat. The early prophets (Nathan, Elijah) seemed to have direct access to the king.
15. Every prophet left a written account of his/her actions.
False. We do not have any writings of Elijah, Nathan, Elisha. Rather we simply have the writings of their disciples about them. The words of the masters have often been amended and changed to adapt to new circumstances.

A FEW COMPLEMENTARY NOTES
ON THE PROPHETS OF THE 8th CENTURY
by M. Côte
The problem facing the prophets of the time was: false adoration of the true God vs. true adoration of a false God.
The radical new message of the 8th century prophets is that divine election does not exclude divine rejection. Priests and people thought that God's power was on "their side" and that God supported "their" values, interests and life-styles. To live with God means to search one's heart and to live God's righteousness in relationships with others (humans, earth). Thus the invisible God becomes visible through creation and creatures.
The times are serious. God's judgment is impending. In politics, finances nor religion it can no more be business as usual."
People may feel that they have a certain control over God (i.e. "God is with us" Am 5:14/Mi 3:11/Is 7:14). But God's way of seeing the future is not our way of seeing the future. God calls into question our present, and there is no hiding from God. The shock of a possible catastrophe is God's way of administering some form of divine therapy for humans. The problem is presented as humans suffering some form of "amnesia" (forgetting God or turning away from God) and "schizophrenia'' (dividing one's life apart from one's form of religion). The only way of curing the these illnesses is radical surgery, i.e.. "threatening people with the verdict of death".
As messengers of God, the prophet's task was to make the eschatological shock of God's future effective in the present, so that Israel may recover her identity and vocation, and thus pass from death back to life again.
For the prophet, the prevailing poverty and injustice that existed in their time was not normal: it was seen as the result of the hoarding and selfishness of some at the expense (and misery) of a vast majority of others. But God had created the world for all and had wanted all to share. Something had to be said and done. There had to be conversion, a turning away from the prosperous life-styles of the urban dwellers to that of the precarious living of the nomad in the desert, the place where God had first established the Covenant.
The prophets message is that there has to be a "seeking of God" (to counteract the 'amnesia') and a "doing justice" (to counteract "schizophrenia") as well as greater "spiritual perception" (awareness, discernment and responsiveness to God) and moral sensitivity (sensitivity to injustice and iniquity contradicting God's will; solidarity with the total people of God, not just the elite).
The "turning to God" which may almost seem impossible (how does one break away from a comfortable life-style?) requires openness to the gifts of God, for God is a God who cares, a God of pathos (compassion). This is why the prophets are not doomsday persons but people of hope.
Justice to the poor (the whole people) is the condition to receive (secure) justice from God. The prophets were social revolutionaries because they were foremost and essentially religious conservatives.

A TEXT FROM FR. CHRYS McVEY, MULTAN (PAKISTAN)
We want to be prophets in this largely Muslim country: to be a community of brothers and sisters whose different way of thinking disturbs and questions our society, our culture and our Church. We believe that being a minority is the gift we bring to Pakistan and the universal Church. If the future of the universal Church is that of being a minority, then being a minority and the living out as a minority can be useful. Our "being" and our work are our gift to the Church We want to be powerless, vulnerable and compassionate: a community that incarnates the wounds of those who have suffered because they are poor, the wounds of the sweepers, of women, of exploited workers. We want to be there where we are useful in the "desert" where no one wants to go, on the "periphery" with the marginalized and the powerless, on the "borders" welcoming that which is new, different, other." (IDI, June, 1993)

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