Word of the day

A reading from the Book of the prophet Isaiah
IS 48:17-19

Thus says the LORD, your redeemer,
the Holy One of Israel:
I, the LORD, your God,
teach you what is for your good,
and lead you on the way you should go.
If you would hearken to my commandments,
your prosperity would be like a river,
and your vindication like the waves of the sea;
Your descendants would be like the sand,
and those born of your stock like its grains,
Their name never cut off
or blotted out from my presence.

From the Gospel according to Matthew
MT 11:16-19

Jesus said to the crowds:
“To what shall I compare this generation?
It is like children who sit in marketplaces and call to one another,
‘We played the flute for you, but you did not dance,
we sang a dirge but you did not mourn.’
For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they said,
‘He is possessed by a demon.’
The Son of Man came eating and drinking and they said,
‘Look, he is a glutton and a drunkard,
a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’
But wisdom is vindicated by her works.”

The Church needs prophets. I will say more: it needs all of us to be prophets. Not critics, that's another thing. It is one thing to always be the critical judge who doesn't like anything, nothing pleases him. [He says,] “No, this is no good, this is no good, this is no good, this isn’t working; it has to be this way...” That is not a prophet. The prophet is the one who prays, looks at God, looks at his people, feels sorrow when the people go astray, he weeps. [...] But what, for me, is the test that a prophet, when he speaks out strongly, is speaking the truth? It is when this prophet is able not only to speak, but to weep over the people who have forsaken the truth. And Jesus, on the one hand, criticizes with those harsh words; “[this is a] perverse and adulterous generation” He says, for example. On the other hand, He wept over Jerusalem. This is the test. A true prophet is one who is able to weep for his people and also to say the strong things when he has to say them. He is not lukewarm, he is always like that: direct. (Santa Marta, 17 April 2018)