Modern Age Prophets - An Insight

I think that the early Christian church was imbued with tremendous energy from the Holy Spirit to the People of God – through Jesus’ mission – message - his church.

Somewhere along the time line so much of that energy got trapped or dissipated with the institutionalization of Jesus – Christianity had to be dumbed down to fit into fascist leaders’ plans and ambitions as with what’s his name? – Constantine ( of the Constantine/Tridentine political party of PC thought ).

Just because the energy is missing of late does not mean that it is gone. Maybe it is there – but hidden – right in front of us. Like with the permafrost in the Arctic, the gas, the energy, is trapped right below the surface of things.

Is it possible in this age of mass information and limited real communication, the trapped energy of the Holy Spirit is making its way back into the hearts of the faithful, many of whom cannot or do not want to be trapped in institutions like the RC church or mainstream Protestantism? Maybe it is possible to witness the spirit of God all around us without wearing a full 20 yards of red silk (the perfect clown suit for a perfect clown).

I combine bits and pieces of two homilies from the Catholics in Exile in Brisbane.

First from the homily of Dermot Dorgan July 4-5 2009

A biblical prophet is one who conveys a message from God to a particular time and place. They’re not, contrary to popular belief, people who can foresee the future. They are rather people gifted with an ability to see deeply into the present, to look below the surface of society and see the undercurrents and hidden realities that determine what is happening or will happen. The word “Seer” is a good description. …

Next from the homily of Peter Kennedy July 19, 2009

…Most of all, I think that our seeking to find new ways of speaking about God is a prophetic act. We do this in baptism when we use the words creator, liberator and sustainer of life. It can be seen as a recognition that all the language we use about God has to be metaphorical language. The one thing we know for certain about God is that God is Other, God is different. God does not belong to this universe of which we are a part. And yet the only language we have is human language.

We know from ordinary conversation that we sometimes have to say things two or three times in different ways before we can adequately express a feeling or an experience. There must be a million ways to describe the experience of being in love, all of them inadequate. But if some authority were to come along and say, “Look, all this multiplicity of words is downright confusing. From now on, we’re going to have one formula for expressing this experience, and here it is – blah blah blah.

From now on this is the only orthodox way of expressing this experience. All other expressions are inaccurate and invalid. Well, we can see how ridiculous this is. But we’re tied to certain fixed expressions of the experience of God, and I believe it is a prophetic act – the act in fact of adult Christians - to look for other ways of expressing our experience…

Whatever any of you do – never go back to blah blah blah – it is so boring, obsolete and twentieth century. The new age and the new way to understand and communicate with the Spirit is upon us. Pentecost from now on can be every DAY!