14th Sunday in Ordinary Time – B

The Church teaches us that each one of us is called to be a priest, a prophet, and a king. A priest is one who offers sacrifice – and this we all do in many ways, but especially when we gather together as we do today to offer the sacrifice of the Mass. If we would be kings, or aspire to greatness, Jesus teaches us that we should become the least and the servants of others. And a prophet is one who, quite simply, is a person who speaks God's Word to others.

In the history of salvation, there are countless examples of those who have fulfilled the ministry of prophet. In the scriptures of the Old Testament, beginning with Moses and continuing with Elijah, and then in the era of the great prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel (whose words we have heard today), God sent prophets to speak His Word to the people of Israel in a way that was meant to instruct, encourage, correct, and console.

In the fullness of time, God sent His own Son, Jesus, whom we call the Word of God, to be the greatest of all prophets as one whose every word and deed was a revelation of God to humanity.

Among those who have become followers of Christ Jesus in the last two thousand years, all have been called to share in Jesus' work of speaking God's Word to others in our words and our deeds as witnesses to the faith that we share.

One of the greatest prophets of the Christian era in the history of our salvation is the apostle Paul. After Jesus himself, we may know more about St. Paul than about any other person in the entire Bible.

St. Paul was a devout Jew, a very zealous Pharisee and observer of the Law of Moses, and a persecutor of the Church in its earliest days. St. Paul was a great convert and as devout a follower of Jesus as he was a persecutor of the Church before his conversion.

Paul was also a prophet who was able to reveal God's Word to us most effectively perhaps because he was also able to reveal something about human nature to us as well.

In today's reading from the second letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul makes reference to the “thorn” in his side that prevented him from becoming too conceited. Scholars debate whether this “thorn” was a physical weakness or illness, a spiritual or moral struggle or temptation, or an actual person who was an obstacle to Paul's ministry of preaching the gospel. Whatever this “thorn” was meant to symbolize, we hear in Paul's words an admission of his own weakness and his struggle with a personal demon in his effort to do the work he believed God had given him to do.

We also hear in Paul's words today a cry for help and a desire for change. Three times, he claims, he begged our Lord to remove this “thorn” from his side, but God's response was not exactly what he expected.

What St. Paul learned was that God's grace would be sufficient for him. In Paul's weakness, God would reveal his glory. In acknowledging his powerless, Paul would recognize the strength of God's love which would save him.

Paul's words are prophetic words because they reveal who we are to ourselves and they reveal God's Word to us as well.

Like Paul, each one of us must acknowledge our weakness – whether that weakness be a physical illness or pain, a spiritual or moral struggle or temptation, or an actual person in our lives who makes it difficult for us to be the people we believe God wants us to be.

Like Paul, we are called to express daily a desire for change in our lives; we are invited, as Paul was, to beg God to remove whatever we identify as a “thorn” in our sides; we are invited by God to turn to Him in order to be saved.

And like Paul, we are called to have faith that God's grace is enough for us. We are called to recognize that when we acknowledge our weakness, then God's glory can be revealed. It is only when we admit we are powerless, that we can experience the strength of God's love as a source of our salvation.

There are prophets all around us each day, revealing God's Word to us in what they say and do. Today God's Word is revealed to us through the prophetic voice of the apostle Paul who teaches us by his word, and especially by his own example, that we are called to admit our imperfections, ask God for help, and witness the power of God in the midst of our own human weakness.

May we always be grateful for the voice of prophets and the power of God's love in our lives each day.

Thomas P. Ferguson
July 9, 2006