10 June 2022
Friday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time
The Lord revealed to the prophet Elijah that he must anoint Hazael as king of Aram, and Jehu as king of Israel, and Elisha as prophet to succeed him. This revelation was the product of Elijah’s zeal and of God’s free choice. Prophets like Elijah enjoyed a special intimacy with God that gave them enough clarity to speak on God’s behalf. “Thus says the Lord” is a typical way for a true prophecy to begin. It so happens that false prophecies often start the same way: “Thus says the Lord,” but those prophecies are false because the Lord does not, in fact, speak “thus.”
In 2022, if we wish to know what God is really saying, we should not do what Elijah did. We should not go off alone to some mountain and wait for God to speak directly to us with a new revelation. All true prophecies point to the messiah, Jesus Christ, and to his revelation, which is, in fact, now contained in scripture and in tradition. No new revelation is expected until the glorious return of Jesus Christ. If we wish to know what God is saying to us today, we must prayerfully study the definitive revelation of Christ, which is found both in scripture and in tradition. Having grasped that revelation, we must not modify it or adulterate it to suit contemporary preferences, but, instead, we must guard it faithfully as a precious deposit of faith and allow it to shape us.
True Ignatian spirituality is a tool that deepens the impression that divine revelation makes on us. It is not a tool for adding to or subtracting from the deposit of faith.