Homily: July 14, 2024 Fifteenth sunday in Ordinary time (prophetic).

 He chose us in Him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before Him.

In the second reading, St. Paul wrote to the Ephesians telling them their glorious destiny, to be holy and without blemish. This destiny had been set even before the foundation of the world.

Do you believe that God has already planned your destiny ahead of you? And that it will be holy and glorious?

In the big cities of India, as you walk along the streets, you would see many fortune tellers doing palm reading. As you walk nearer to them, they will shout out something that had happened in your life. Very often they would coincidentally make a good guess and the passersby would be amazed enough to want to know more.

To know more, you would have to pay a fee. Since they know they have gotten your interest, their earlier guess must have been somewhat correct, with clever questioning, they then weave an almost accurate account of something that had happened in your past. That’s not the end, if you pay a bit more, they would also try to read your palm lines in more detail and tell you about your future. 

By then, most people would be convinced that these palm readers have great skill and prophetic abilities. And if they do pay the extra fees, these palm readers will always say positive predictions to make their customers happy.

I have never let any of these people read my palm lines except my cousin who lived next door to my family. He had a book which showed various samples of palm line patterns and clear explanations of what they mean. But my palm lines are very unique. There are only three clear visible lines, with a prominent line that runs across my palm. This is apparently very unusual. According to standard palm reading, it seems that my palms do not have the lines that represent education and life expectancy. Maybe that is why I had such a hard time in school. 

Anyway, I do not believe at all in such palm reading. But I do believe God has everyone of us in the palm of His hand and He has a glorious destiny for all of us.

In the ancient kingdoms, kings too had soothsayers, prophets, poets, and so on. The jobs of these palace servants were to please their king with nice poetry, praising his successes, and foretelling his future glory. They did that to ensure they kept their jobs, get paid handsomely and continued to enjoy good life in the palace.

But God’s prophets were very different. They always told the truth about God’s messages. They did not earn anything from their prophetic vocation, instead were treated poorly and faced death threats. Especially when the messages were revelations of the sins of the people and warnings of their downfall. 

For telling the truth, they endured persecutions. These prophets had nothing worldly to gain, in fact they often had to leave everything they had, they obeyed God’s call and remained faithful to His will.

Thus, prophet Amos said of himself, “I was no prophet, nor have I belonged to a company of prophets; I was a shepherd and a dresser of sycamores. The Lord took me from following the flock, and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’”

It doesn’t sound like a fun job, does it?

But these prophets of God were so dedicated, and we are the beneficiaries. Without them, God’s messages would be lost. However, we are more than just beneficiaries, we too are called to be prophets.

At our baptism, and the same will also be repeated at Augusto Sutton/ baptism later, we were all anointed with sacred chrism to be ‘priest, prophet and king unto eternal life’. Through baptism, we share in the common priesthood, the kingship, and the prophetic role of Christ. A prophet speaks for God.

As Jesus sent His disciples out ‘two by two, and gave them authority over unclean spirits’, we too are sent into the various areas of our life, with an authority to lead others to salvation, to bring others to Christ with the words and deeds that God has gifted us, and Jesus has taught.

We are called, like the prophet Amos, to remind people to walk in the ways of the Lord and to tell the truth of Christ. We cannot remain in the comfort zone of our life, even if we try, our soul will be restless, our heart will yearn for more of God. We will discover that worldly gains will never satisfy us, it is only when we unite with Christ and embark on His call for us that we will begin to experience deep satisfaction. This is why the prophets were dedicated to their prophetic roles.

This is our call and vocation. He has already chosen us before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish, to be His prophet, to speak His word, share His message and save His people. Through this, we will find fulfilment. Truly, believe it. This is our purpose in life. Amen.