The Prophetic Word (4th Sunday in Ordinary Time)

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A prophet is someone whom the Lord has anointed to speak His revelation. Prophecy is usually associated with predicting the future, although not all prophecy concerns the future. Prophecy is how we come to know God’s will, as Scripture tells us, “Surely the Lord God does nothing, without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets.” (Amos 3:7).

This OT passage from Deuteronomy concerns the sending of a prophet to the people of Israel. After this, God gives a criterion for how one can tell a true prophet from a false prophet. Such a criterion is necessary as many would falsely claim to be a prophet throughout history, as Jesus warns us in the Gospels (Mark 13:22), and as the passage of subsequent history shows us. The criterion is that whatever the prophet speaks will come to pass, and nothing that he says will fail to materialize:

You may say to yourself, “How can we recognize a word that the Lord has not spoken?” If a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord but the thing does not take place or prove true, it is a word that the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; do not be frightened by it. (Deuteronomy 18:21-22)

Although God has sent many prophets throughout history who can conceivably fit the description given here, one future prophet is envisioned who embodies the prophetic charism more greatly than all the rest. In the book of Acts, both St. Peter (Acts 3:22) and St. Stephen (Acts 7:37) apply this passage of Deuteronomy to Jesus Christ, and indeed, Jesus was recognized as a prophet during His lifetime (John 6:14). But his role is not reducible to that of a prophet only, as He is also a priest and a king. Nevertheless, His words and actions can be seen as prophetic revelation, in the sense that they fully reveal to us the will of God. As Hebrews tells us:

Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. (Hebrews 1:1-2)

Thus, if we want to know how we should live, and what God wants us to know, we can look to Jesus’ words and actions for guidance.

J. Luis Dizon