The Church, as the embodiment of Christ, seeks to speak God’s word, embody God’s word, enact God’s word, and bear persecution for God’s word. That is exactly the role of the prophet and the role we are also called to embrace as best we can: to speak God’s word in our everyday lives, to embody God’s word in the way we live, to enact God’s word in our daily actions, and to bear whatever hardships come our way in our following of Christ.
That’s why the Church encourages us to take the time to let the Spirit of God grow in us, nurturing the good fruit in our life, and to see the person of Christ in everyone; to engage in a mental fasting from our fears and quick judgment, from our reticence to say the right thing, to do the right thing; to open our hearts more and more to the message of Christ and the prophets that our God, a God of love, invites all of us on earth into God’s Kingdom, where all creation will be one—that peaceable Kingdom of which the prophet Isaiah speaks:
“The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them.” (Isaiah 11:6)
The road to that peaceable kingdom is a long one and a difficult one, but we walk it with each other and with the Spirit of the resurrected Christ giving us hope and showing us the way. It’s up to us to follow.
“Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all my being, bless his holy name.” (Psalm 103:1)
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