Homily 510 | 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time | Year B
We often think of a prophet as someone who predicts the future. The word “prophet” literally means “to speak on behalf of.” A biblical prophet speaks on behalf of God. Now, often times the message was something like, “You better change or bad things are going to happen,” so that’s where the predicting the future association probably comes in. But the main job of a prophet is to tell people what God wants them to hear.
Whether you realize it or not, if you’ve been baptized, then you’re a prophet. After being washed with water and the Holy Spirit rushing upon you in your baptism, you were then anointed with the oil of Sacred Chrism as a sign that you were given this spirit. It’s the same thing we see in our first reading. The spirit comes down on those chosen by God and they prophesy.
You’re a prophet, so you should be speaking about God. Do you? Well, if you never talk about God then that speaks your belief that God is not very important. Your actions and the way you treat people speak about your belief in God. For good or ill, your life is speaking about God.
Maybe you don’t want to be a prophet. You’ve got good company in the first reading with Eldad and Medad. They were on the list of 70 chosen by God, but they didn’t want to go. They stayed home from the prophet making ceremony and thought they could hide. God found them anyway and gave them the spirit. So if you’re like Eldad and Medad and don’t want to be a prophet… too bad. You’re on the list.