The Word Of Peace
Homiletic Reflections On Peacemaking

Deacon Robert M. Pallotti, D. Min.

14th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

" Rabbi Joshua ben Levi, on a trip to Rome, after viewing exquisite statues and then having a beggar tug on his coat remarked: O Lord, here are statues of stone covered with expensive garments. Here is a man, created in their own image, covered with rags. A civilization that pays more attention to statues than to people shall surely perish."  These words may strike us with sledgehammer-like force. They are words that reveal an uncomfortable--a scandalous truth. That is the mission of the prophet ! The generate feelings of unease--and oftentimes sheer outrage or even hope ! For some the prophets may be labeled "negative" or as "doomsayers". Well, certainly their messages are often cast in a negative or critical terms--and that is exactly what they want to do. They will not be cowed into rephrasing things so that people, especially powerful people, do not feel threatened. They were consciously and willfully dedicated to NOT putting a positive spin of those things that were sickening and diabolical. They wanted to generate a crisis, to reveal to have all feel the pain and grief that arise from the unjust structure of the present. They were and are not like the prophets appointed by the state of the religious institutions. They don't tell what supports that way things are --what many want to hear; but rather, what we all need to know --that is, what God wants us to know!  Jesus sends the "12" out to proclaim the reign of God. He tells them to take only what they need--the reign of God is enough for you. If they did as Jesus stated others would recognize them as prophets and provide for them. Yet he also tells them to shake the dust from their feet of any town that did not accept them. Jesus, in typical prophetic style, tells them to symbolize that the town has rejected their own salvation ! Also, that if one accepts the prophetic role of proclaiming the reign of God to expect rejection, to move on and continue the mission.

Jesus knew that being faithful would not be easy--and so he sent them in pairs.  Whenever, in the face of accusations of being "false prophets", or "troublemakers" or "outside agitators" their mutual support acting in the power of Jesus' name, would help them to be faithful and effective ! His development of these small communities to go out and pose an alternative in the world remains the mission of the Church today.

Amos, in his day certainly had little desire to be a prophet. He had a pretty nice life, minded his business. Then he got the "call". At first he resisted--but Gods Word was combusting inside him--how could he not prophesy ! At first he was greeted with enthusiasm of all the people, especially the powerful when his message is directed to the oppression of the nations surrounding Israel. But when he directs his invective toward Israel, the powerful react by trying to discredit him. They cannot abide the truth that their exploitation of the poor spells Israel's doom. 

But why do the prophets come ? They come because God's plan is for the salvation of human beings ! A salvation that begins here, is tasted here in the concrete sorrows, suffering, hopes and joys of human beings. And this can only be, based on the bedrock of truth. For humanity to thrive it must be based on the truth of the reign of God. A reign of real justice that makes peace a more certain possibility. But for this to happen the sickness and diabolical forces of human hearts and structures. must be revealed, denounced and changed!

The prophets use grief as their vehicle of expression. The prophet speaks of death--the hoped for death of the old order of oppression. The prophet reveals the pain, the injury of the present way of things and want all, especially the powerful to feel it and say that it is so--then and only then can the healing begin--can the new order of the Lord break in among them ! If the message is rejected the consequences are dire. God does not desire such things, but neither can God prevent human beings from rejecting what they need to know and do. God can only weep in the prophet to help us change our hearts.

We have prophets in our own day. They warn us that statues, free enterprise, wealth and power, have become the new faith. They warn us that such is not what leads to human fulfillment or joy. Rather, these things may plunder our spirit--they lead to a construction of a world where the gap between rich and poor has grown in a wider and more dangerous configuration. They tell us that the rejection of life in abortion on demand, violation of human rights, the death penalty, the possession of weapons of mass destruction, the forgetfulness of a society for the elderly, the sacrifice of the future for our young and so many other things can only lead to a general calamity.

We hear in the words of Norman Mailer: "... at the end of the Cold War, a huge greed, a huge passion to destroy the safety net in America came into being. There's something terribly ugly in "rampant capitalism", and what's happened now in America is all our values are being leached out by the immense appetite for money."

Excessive ? Perhaps, but bound to force us to look at our surroundings and within. Jesus calls us to proclaim the reign of God--to announce the present is not  permanent--something better is still coming. All of the Church is called to be Christ's voice, Christ's body to the world that announces the new thing God is doing. For such a prophetic people the faithfulness of this people, the faithfulness of any nation will be based on how the least among us fare in life. In his second Inaugural address, FDR stated:"  I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad and ill-nourished. The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much : it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little."

Deacon Robert M. Pallotti, D. Min.
Uploaded December 10, 1999