Daily Gospel Reflection

Are You a Prophet?

Welcome back to Radical & Relevant. Today's reading is from the Gospel of Luke 1:67-79. And his father, Zechariah, was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying, "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited and redeemed His people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David. As he spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from of old, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us. To perform the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember His holy covenant, the oath which was sworn to our Father Abraham to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our lives. And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High. For you will go before the Lord to prepare His ways, to give knowledge or salvation to His people in the forgiveness of His sins. Though the tender mercy of our God, when the day shall dawn upon us from on high, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death to guide our feet into the way of peace."

What jumps out at you today? What word, phrase, or idea did the Holy Spirit use to stir your heart, to stir your soul? Sometimes we read parts of the scriptures and we don't think of ourselves in relation to those parts. Maybe we're reading about the scriptures or-- Sorry, maybe we're reading about the Pharisees, or maybe we're reading about the people crucifying Jesus, and we tend, human nature, we tend not to think of ourselves in those roles as those people. And so part of maturing in the spiritual life is becoming aware. And part of awareness in reading the scriptures is realizing that-- Learning to see ourselves in every single person in the scriptures. There is real wisdom in that. There's real awareness in that. There are things to learn from that. And when we think about that idea, we think to ourselves, maybe, "Well, I really have trouble seeing myself in the bad people," what we would call the bad people in the scriptures. But what I would present to you today is that you have just as much of a hard time, maybe even more of a hard time, seeing yourself in the good people. And not only the good people, but the great people, the people carrying out great mission for God. And we see that here today in Zechariah's prophecy. Zechariah in this beautiful prophecy, one of the things that he says about the child, John the Baptist, he says, "And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High." [music] you child will be called the Prophet of the Most High. Now you probably don't read that line and think, "Wow, he's talking to me." Most people just read through that line. They're like, "Yeah, okay, that's John the Baptist. He's probably the most lie. That makes sense." But no. And you shall be called prophet of the Most High. What would have to be true for that to be true about you? What would have to change for that to be true about you? What is a prophet? A prophet is a person who announces God's message, God's will, to the world. Sometimes a prophet announces God's message, God's will to one person. Sometimes God's prophet announces his message to the whole city of Nineveh, sometimes to the whole world. But a prophet is somebody who delivers God's message to the world in some way, some form.

And so we are all called to be prophets. We're all called to be prophets. We don't wake up in the morning and think, "Oh, I'm a prophet of God," okay? And if we did say that or think that, we'd probably think to ourselves, "Oh, that's egotistical." Or if we said it, other people would definitely say, "Well, that is egotistical." But it is a fundamental misunderstanding of the idea of a prophet of which we are all called to be and become. Prophets of the Most High, to go out into the world, to prepare the way for God to come into people's hearts by announcing His message and His will to the people in the places at the times that God has chosen to place us.

Have a great day and remember, Be Bold, be Catholic.