CT - Catholic Telegraph

True prophet or 'professional' prophet?

Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), Amos 7:12-15.

Amos was the earliest of the prophets to have his words and works preserved in writing. He was born in the southern kingdom of Judah. He made his living tending sheep and caring for sycamore trees. About 750 B.C. Amos was sent by God into the northern kingdom to speak the Lord's word to the people during the prosperous reign of King Jeroboam II.

In the reading from Amos provided for this Sunday, we see Amos in controversy. Bethel was one of the major shrines in the Northern Kingdom. It had special connections with the king. The priest in charge of this important shrine was one Amaziah. Amos had come up from the south and had been preaching against the king and the practices of the kingdom right there in the precincts of the king's shrine. It was clear to Amaziah that this could not be allowed to continue. After all, the king would expect the high priest of his very own shrine to see to it that nobody insulted the king there.

As our reading opens we hear Amaziah trying to get rid of Amos. Amaziah does not make any judgment about the truthfulness of the prophet or about the validity of his message. He just wants him to be gone, to go back home and stop embarrassing the king and the people in Bethel. "Go earn your living somewhere else," he says.

Amos replies that he is not there to earn a living. He is not one of religious "professionals" who were seemingly paid by the king or perhaps by temple authorities to make pious pronouncements on public occasions. These religious types may have been on the ecclesiastical payroll, but Amos makes it clear that he was not. In fact, he was a country boy, "a shepherd and a dresser of sycamores." He had taken up prophecy at the command of God. He was not in Bethel to make a living. He was there because God had sent him there.

Apparently in certain Old Testament times the exercise of prophecy was not limited to people who had been called by God. Some people set themselves up as spokesmen for God because they discovered they could earn a livelihood that way. They were not necessarily false prophets, but they were not necessarily true and valid prophets, either. They were simply ready to take advantage of the pious generosity of the people of their time, people who were anxious to get reassurance from someone claiming to speak for God. Just as one could hire a poet or a musician to bring a little extra sophistication to a family event, so one could hire a prophet or two to provide a religious dimension. Being a professional prophet may have been a reasonably harmless way to earn one's livelihood, but it wasn't the same thing as being a real, true prophet, a speaker whose word came with a guarantee from God.

There are two tie-ins between the reading from Amos and this Sunday's Gospel (Mark 6:7-13). The first is that both Amos and the Twelve were sent out at the behest of the Lord. It wasn't their idea to go around speaking God's message. The second tie-in is what one might call pastoral economics. Just as Amos contends that he is not in the prophecy business for what he can get out of it, so also Jesus warns His advance agents not to be worried about their personal comfort as they went forth to preach repentance.

There is always some degree of tension between the fundamental prophetic vocation, being called by God to proclaim God's word, and the human needs of the prophet. A prophet needs food, clothing, and shelter just as other people do. But a prophet also needs to be faithful to his calling. Speaking out God's message fully and faithfully is more important than having a decent place to stay and good food to eat. If a prophet shows too much interest in the fringe benefits of his vocation, he runs the risk of seeming to make the fringes into the center. He begins to look like other professionals for whom payment is primary and truth a by-product. At the same time, the prophet cannot deliver God's message if his basic human needs are not met.

It is in this context that Christians need to be attentive to the virtue of poverty. Poverty doesn't mean just being without things. Poverty means using the goods of the world only to the extent that we need them in order to carry out the central demands of our calling as Christian believers. We can't carry out our call to give witness to Christ if our main interest is getting as much as we can of the world's goods.

The trouble is that we live in a culture that stresses the importance of possessions. Getting by with a little for the sake of God's kingdom doesn't make much sense for most people.

For reflection and discussion

Who has been sent to proclaim God's word in our world?

How could one be a "professional" prophet today?