4 August 2018
Memorial of Saint John Vianney, Priest
What advice would you give to a doctor? Wouldn’t it be to take precautions to prevent becoming sick while treating patients, but meanwhile to employ medicines and therapies as appropriate, using cures that are light and minimally invasive, if possible, but, when necessary, to use cures that are burdensome, painful and even dangerous?
What advice would you give to a prophet? Wouldn’t it be to take precautions to prevent acquiring the vices common to his time, but meanwhile to help people by sharing God’s word with them, lightly and pleasantly when possible, but, when necessary, in a way that is burdensome, painful and even dangerous?
In Jeremiah’s twenty-sixth chapter we read of three such prophets: Jeremiah, son of Hilkiah, one of the priests from Anathoth, Micah of Moresheth, and Uriah, son of Shemaiah, from Kiriath-jearim. These men are distinguished for sharing God’s word in ways that were necessarily, because of the circumstances, burdensome, painful and dangerous.
Few of us are as dedicated to the proclamation of God’s word as they were, and few of us live in such hostile surroundings, at least for now. Still, we can all expect our adherence to and proclamation of God’s word to cost us this much: every apparently pleasurable vice, some morally neutral conveniences, and, yes, even a few good things, like relationships. We cannot always join in with every group. We must sometimes speak out.