Christ, though rich, became poor for our sakes to enrich us (2 Corinthians 8:9). Jesus of Nazareth is God incarnated in the Man that God created before sin entered into the world. Jesus died for us in order to save us from eternal death, he lived for us and with us as the Way, the Truth and the Life, to be the model, the archetype and the paradigm of humanity for Man of all times.
Before returning to the Father, Christ shared with us all his power, talents and faculties, and even told us that if we have faith we could do greater works than his. As the fulfillment of all prophecies, Christ incarnated in himself the three figures or archetypes of the servant of God's people, being at the same time priest, prophet, and king.
As stated above in the prayer that the priest prays while anointing the newly baptized with the Oil of Chrism, every baptized person, by the fact that he is one, is united to Christ as a member of his Mystical Body which is the Church, so that he participates in the priesthood of Christ, assuming also the function of being a prophet and a king.
The concept of Priest in the early world
When the agricultural society, especially with the cultivation of cereals, allowed a certain social stratification, the figure of priest was one of the first to emerge, since religion in early societies encompassed culture in general, in other words, everything that was not agriculture.
The priest was the person who performed religious rituals to the divinity, read and interpreted the sacred texts, and maintained the place of worship. He was an intermediary between the divinity and the people. In all Jewish religions, from Sumeria, Egypt, Rome or other, in Buddhism, Hinduism, in traditional African or Latin American religions, this has always been the function of the priest.
Shamans and mediums would be other more sophisticated versions of seeking a relationship and communication between this world and the spiritual and divine world of spirits and people who have passed away. There is a resurgence of these practices with the New Age religion which is a syncretism of many religions, including the traditional American, Asian and African ones.
The concept of Prophet in the early world
It is difficult to find in the early world outside of Israel a figure that resembles closely or remotely with the figure of prophet, since a prophet in ancient Israel is not primarily a diviner, as many think. Prophet and prophecy have a very complex meaning in the Bible as we will see later. However, the meaning of soothsayer and divination are also somehow included, although they are not the main ones.
‘Prophesy to us, you Messiah! Who is it that struck you?’ (Matthew 26:68) This New Testament text distorts the function of a prophet in ancient Israel, resembling that of a diviner. The prophet prophesied, but not in the sense of the pythonism of the past and the fortunetellers of the present seen in all cultures.
The prophet was a skilled observer, and a reader and interpreter of the signs of the times; that is, he saw in the present signs of a future that is to come and often announced this future, so that the people could prepare themselves or even for the people to avoid it, as in the case of Jonah with Nineveh.
Diviners, sorcerers, wizards and witches, fortune tellers, there have always been them in our world. These figures would most likely be a secondary facet of being a prophet, but that also happened and made history with many of the prophets of Israel.
The concept of King in the early world
As with animals close to us in the evolution of species, leadership is a natural phenomenon. When forming a group of people where individuals start to act and interact with each other, inevitably one or more leaders will emerge from the group. Autocratic or democratic, who serves others or who serves themselves, leadership appears spontaneously. What is not natural in a group is anarchy, that is, the lack of a leader.
The ancient world has known various forms of government of a tribe, people, or nation. Before the Greek and Roman civilizations, power was concentrated in one person and passed from fathers to sons, as was the case with the kings of the Sumerians, Mesopotamia and Babylon, and the pharaohs of Egypt, until the Persian Empire. The Greeks invented democracy in which and by which the government belonged to the people who delegated their power to various leaders; the same was true of the Romans, with a more complex system than the Greek democracy which they called republic.
When the primitive peoples and barbarians without culture of northern Europe conquered the Roman Empire, Europe degressed for several centuries both culturally and politically, returning to absolute monarchy, to the government of one single person who passed his power to his son, from one generation to the next.
Priest - Prophet - King in the Old Testament
(…) but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the Israelites. Exodus 19:6
Not only the Church, but also Israel, were already in their time fated to be for God a priestly and prophetic Kingdom. The three offices of the Old Testament had to be the three facets of every Jew's vocation before God.
Priest – Long before Israel became a nation, already a mysterious figure named Melchizedek (Genesis 14:17-20) appeared in its prehistory. He is at the same time a priest and a king. Abraham pays him homage and tithes him. Although the priesthood instituted later in Israel was a priesthood practiced exclusively by members of the tribe of Levi, this first or early priesthood remained in a pure and idyllic state.
Jesus who was from the tribe of Judah, could not be a priest, but he will be an eternal priest according to the order of Melchizedek, King of Salem. His name and title broken down means good and righteous priest, king of peace.
The priest represents the people before God and his garments said exactly this: he wore a tiara with the inscription "holiness to the Lord", and on his chest he wore a plate with 12 precious stones, each of different color, representing the 12 tribes of Israel.
Prophet – If the priest represented the people before God, the prophet represented God before the people. His whole life, words, works and behaviors are facets of a message that is embodied in his life. All of it is an audiovisual aid of manifesting God's designs for his people. The first great prophet was Moses, who not only delivered the people from Egypt, but also guided them through the desert and at the end, gave them a law to observe.
The law and the prophets is another way of designating the Old Testament. In fact, outside the five books of the Pentateuch, that is, the Law and the books of the prophets, only the wisdom books are left out which came later, and not all of them were accepted into the Hebrew canon.
The priests had a routine, ordinary and regular office without great changes, which is why they did not make history. In contrast, prophets were appearing in every historical situation and context, always incarnating the will of God for his people in that precise historical cultural context.
Therefore, we have a book for each prophet, as they are God who walks with his people, revealing himself and acting in the history of his people, never abandoning them but always guiding them, as the first prophet Moses did in the desert in the past. The priest always represents the status quo, the prophet represents the criticism of this status quo and innovation.
King – The office of king did not arise primarily out of God's will. Israel was a theocracy and just as in every time and historical situation, just as a prophet was emerging to guide the people morally, a Judge was also emerging to defend them politically and deliver them from the surrounding hostile peoples. The sons of Samuel, prophet, judge, and priest, were to succeed him, but since they already did not follow in their father’s footsteps during his lifetime, the people asked for a king to be anointed to rule over them just like the other peoples.
God was displeased with this step from theocracy to monarchy, and in the beginning, he felt rejected (or better said, this is how Samuel interpreted it) but gives in. God writes straight in the crooked lines of men, and grants them a king, but the experience of monarchy was not very positive; only the first three kings, Saul, David and Solomon, were able to maintain the kingdom together.
In a simplified overview, the three offices of the Old Testament can be understood as follows: the priest represents the interests of the people before God, the prophet is the mouth of God, representing God before the people, and the king rules the people according to God's designs.
The Messiah that the people of Israel was waiting for was someone who ideally embodied these three offices. In this sense, Israel had to wait for a priest like Melchizedek, a prophet like Moses, and a king like David (2 Samuel 7:12-13, Isaiah 55:3). Jesus of Nazareth is the Lord, he is the Christ who in his life perfectly incarnates these three offices and after him, all his followers are called to do as He did.
PRIEST
(...) like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 2:5
The Priest in the Old Testament
Every high priest chosen from among mortals is put in charge of things pertaining to God on their behalf, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. Hebrews 5:1
The universal concept of being a priest is to be an intermediary between God and the people. The priest seeks, through rituals and sacrifices, to placate the divine wrath and gain for the people the benefits that God bestows upon all who observe his precepts and obey his will.
Intercedes for the people – The priest is the "Cohen" which is the Hebrew word for priest, to the extent that he is the intermediary between God and the people. We see Moses performing this function when the people of Israel, on their desert crossing, faced the Amalekites; while Moses remained with his arms raised in an attitude of prayer, interceding for the people, Israel prevailed, but whenever he lowered his arms out of weariness, the Amalekites prevailed (Exodus 17:11-12).
Mediators in conflicts – The priests had the function of educating the people in the Law (Leviticus 10:10, 11; Deuteronomy 33:10; 2 Kings 17:27, 28; 2 Chronicles 15:3; 17:7-9; Jeremiah 18:18; Ezekiel 7:26, 44:23; Malachi 2:6-7). They were also responsible for certain areas of jurisprudence, dealing with certain civil matters (cf. 2 Chronicles 19:8-11; Ezekiel 44:24). In complex criminal cases, it was up to the priests to indicate the correct sentence, according to the standard of the Law (cf. Deuteronomy 21:5).
It was the priest's job to diagnose certain types of leprosy. The priests examined the person in question and attested whether he was clean or unclean. When Jesus healed the lepers, he sent them to the priest to declare them healed (Luke 17:14).
Offers sacrifices – The sacrificial system was a means to re-establish the relationship between God and the people, wherever they disobeyed God’s Law. Forgiveness was obtained by offering a sacrifice of atonement. In addition to these sacrifices that took place daily, one in the morning and the other in the afternoon, the people gave the first fruits of their harvest and 10% of their total harvest to maintain the priestly caste.
The rights of priests are well described in the book of Deuteronomy 18:1-8. The priests took care of the temple, the meeting place between God and men, and they were the custodians of the Ark of the Covenant which they carried during processions. They also had the task of teaching the Law to the people.
The ideal priest is to come – Psalm 110:4 again put Melchizedek as the ideal priest; his priesthood, unlike the priesthood of Aaron, will be eternal. The ideal priest of Israel is the Messiah and he will follow the order of Melchizedek and not the order of Aaron. He will be like Melchizedek: good, just and the Prince of peace. The entire chapter 7 of the letter to the Hebrews presents Christ as this priest who was to come.
Christ High Priest
(…) where Jesus, a forerunner on our behalf, has entered, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. Hebrews 6:20
Not being from the tribe of Levi, Jesus’ priestly predecessor is Melchizedek as we have already said. Christ exercises par excellence all priestly duties and lifts them all to an unparalleled and unrepeatable perfection, so that he becomes forever the model and paradigm for all ministerial and ordinary priests of the faithful.
Intercessor – (Christ) is able for all time to save those who approach God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them (Hebrews 7:25). What makes Christ the true intermediary between God and men, the true bridge between God and men, is the fact that divine nature and human nature are concentrated in him. The very person of Christ is already the harmonious encounter between God and men, in Christ human nature is already reconciled with divine nature.
Christ is not limited to being an intermediary, he is the savior, because by incarnating into human nature he brings God to humanity, and when he returns to the Father he brings humanity to God. Christ is the perfect bridge by which God comes to humanity and humanity goes to God.
This very thing is evident and symbolized by Jesus' visit to Jericho before going up to Jerusalem. Jericho, the city of darkness, the oldest and the lowest in the world, represents sin; in the parable of the Good Samaritan, the man who fell into the hands of robbers came down from Jerusalem, the city of peace and the symbol of grace, to Jericho the symbol of sin. So, he is falling from grace.
Jesus enters Jericho and stays at Zacchaeus’ house, then leaves Jericho followed by a large crowd, and even heals a blind man who joins this crowd. Jesus goes up with this crowd of redeemed people from Jericho, 400 meters below sea level, to the grace of Jerusalem, 800 meters above sea level.
Offers the perfect sacrifice unparalleled, insurmountable, unrepeatable – It was the priests’ main task to offer sacrifice for the people, but before offering any sacrifice, they had to first purify themselves by offering a sacrifice for themselves and only then offer another sacrifice for the people to purify them as well. Jesus does not need to offer this first sacrifice because he is already pure: He himself is God and man in a full and perfect way.
Christ's sacrifice is perfect because He himself is the priest, the lamb, the temple and the altar. The temple is the place where God dwells; Christ was man and God, so God dwelt in Him in his fullness. The altar was the place where the sacrifice was offered; Christ is this altar because he offers it in his life; Christ is the lamb without blemish because he was like us in everything, except sin.
A sacrifice this perfect cannot be made more perfect or surmountable, so the priest today acts according to this same sacrifice of Christ, he celebrates the memory of this sacrifice which, once and for all, redeemed humanity because of it being perfect and cannot be perfected further.
Called to be priests
All Christians, by the fact that they are baptized, are called to be prophets and kings. However, when it comes to being priests too, it is not without suspicion the fact that there are two types of priesthood: the lay priest or the lay person, also called common of the faithful, and the clerical ministerial priest opposed to the people and above the people.
Ministerial priesthood versus common priesthood of the faithful
Knowing that Jesus throughout his life was against the temple and its sacrifices, it is difficult to understand that his death was interpreted as a sacrifice required by God to atone for the sins of mankind.
Jesus identified himself historically with a movement that abandoned the temple as the center of Judaism, the Essenes. They acquired forgiveness of sins without offering any sacrifice, but by way of continuous ritual purifications of water. John the Baptist was an Essene who understood that this way of salvation should be offered to all. So he left the monastery and began to forgive sins by immersion in the waters of the Jordan River.
Jesus was a disciple of John the Baptist, he was baptized by him; in the beginning of Jesus’ ministry he baptized people in the same river, just like John, later taking the forgiveness of sins to the towns, villages, and cities where he walked and preached.
Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! John 1:29 – Only in the late Gospel of St. John is Jesus called by the Baptist as the Lamb of God. Even in this Gospel, Jesus does not refer to himself as the Lamb of God. In the synoptic gospels no one says that He is the Lamb of God nor does He sees himself as the Lamb of God. Only the letter to the Hebrews, a writing that no one signed and which revolves around the idea of Jesus being a priest, refers to the lamb, the altar and the lamb, the perfect adscription that once and for all takes away the sin of the world.
Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. (…) ‘And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself’. He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die. John 12:24-25, 32-33
Even in the Gospel of John when Jesus speaks of his own death, he interprets it as the death of another prophet, that is, of someone who dies for a cause, to bear witness to the truth, a death similar to the death of Socrates. Jesus gives his life for his project of humanizing man as an individual being and a social being: the Kingdom of God. It is in this sense that he saves us, that he gives his life for us.
In the synoptic gospels, Jesus announces his own death, but never interprets it. There were only two occasions where Jesus seems to interpret it. The first time was in the parable of the Wicked Tenants (Matthew 21:33-46). It is clear that the vineyard represents Israel, the wicked tenants represent the priests, scribes and Pharisees to whom the vineyard has been entrusted; they kill all the messengers, that is, the prophets that the owner of the vineyard, God, sends to them; at the end, He sends them his own Son, that is, Christ, who is also killed and thrown out of the vineyard.
(...) ‘The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. (…) Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the thing about himself in all the scriptures. Luke 24:19-20, 27
The other occasion when Jesus seems to interpret his death is on the road to Emmaus, when he explains to the two disciples why the Messiah had to die. We do not know textually what Jesus said to them, but apparently, as in the parable of the wicked tenants, Jesus interprets his death as the death of another prophet, for he comes following Moses and all the prophets before him who had the same end, as the text says.
The God of our Lord Jesus Christ is a God who forgives and forgets, and needs no satisfaction. He does not need us to pay the price of our redemption. This act of offering sacrifices of atonement for sins is an anthropomorphism, that is, it is how we understand God, and not how God really is according to the way Jesus reveals Him.
The same is said of purgatory which was not created by God because He requires us to expiate our sins before entering into Glory with Him. It is we who from our human nature need purgatory to regain our self-esteem and because even though God forgives us easily from the moment we recognize our sin, it is we who do not forgive ourselves easily and some never forgive themselves like the apostle Judas.
Therefore, to forgive humanity God did not need the sacrifice of his son. It was interpreted this way by men in the light of the sacrifices of the ancient law, but Jesus truly died as a prophet. He died for humanity, for all of us, not because God the Father required it to be so in order to forgive us, but because this humanity rejected his plan of salvation. Jesus not only died for us, he also lived for us: the cause of his death was the same as the cause of his life.
The life and death of Jesus alone would not have been redeeming if after his death he had not risen. It would have been a victory of evil over good, as so often happened in history. His Resurrection came to prove and validate his saving project, that He is the Truth and the Way, that is, the only way to live the temporal life that leads to eternal life.
Last Supper, the Institution of the Eucharist or of the ministerial priesthood?
The Eucharist is the celebration not only of the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus, but also of his life. The Eucharist is the celebration of the total memory of the person of Jesus by his disciples. Jesus says, "Do this in my memory", he does not add, "of my passion, death, and Resurrection", but of the memory of his person and of what his life means to all of us.
The Last Supper is the celebration of Jesus' farewell and the institution of the sacrament of the Eucharist, that is, a way for him to be with us until we are together again and can drink from the fruit of the vine in the Kingdom of God. The Eucharist is the concretization of what Jesus had said, "Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them." (Matthew 18:20)
Do this in memory of me – It is said to the community in its totality, to the disciples in their totality. No theologian still believes that at the Last Supper there were only the 12 disciples present. Present at the Last Supper were also his female disciples, his Mother, Mary Magdalene and the other women who supported them financially, certainly the mother of Zebedee's sons would be present, as well as other women.
If they followed him from Galilee and were at the foot of his cross, they would certainly have been present at his farewell gathering. The Passover Seder of the Jews was not a thing just for men, it did not exclude women, quite the contrary, the women even started the Supper with the ceremony of light, the lighting of candles, a ritual that was always performed by a woman, the mother of the house. In the case of Jesus, it is very likely that it was His mother, the Virgin Mary, who lit the candles.
Some, still justifying Leonardo da Vinci's painting of the Last Supper, say that there were women there but they were serving. Certainly there would be the Marthas serving, but there would also have been the Marys in the attitude of disciples (Luke 10:38-42). There would have been women serving, but I doubt that the mother of the Lord and Mary Magdalene were serving: they would have been sitting at the table instead. In any case, serving as a service, Jesus also served at the Last Supper when he washed the feet of the apostles.
Symbolism of the number 12
The Church perverted the symbolism of the number 12 by giving sense and meaning to each one of the 12. The number 12 certainly comes from Jacob's 12 sons: each one is the father of a tribe. During later centuries, the number 12 meant the people of Israel. Jesus wants to create a new people, so he draws on the symbolism of the number 12 and randomly calls 12 people, not one from each tribe.
The gospel gives us the name of each of them, but with the exception of Peter, it confers no symbolism or meaning to any one of them as individuals. In fact, when Judas left, Peter's concern is to restore the symbolism of the number 12, nothing more.
This proves that there is no meaning inherent to each of the 12 on their own; the fact is that St. Paul is not one of the 12 and he calls himself an apostle, and none of the original 11 and Matthias deny him that title. On the other hand, Paul himself calls many of his female and male collaborators apostles (Romans 16:7).
To better understand the symbolism of the number 12, let us take as an example the Flag of the European Union with its 12 stars. They do not represent the member states because the member states are 27. One or each of the stars on this flag lacks meaning on its own; it only makes sense in the set it forms with the others. The same is true of the Christian community, "unus christianus nullus christianus", said St. Augustine.
St. Paul is therefore right to consider an apostle every member of the body of Christ, which originally counted 12. For this reason, it makes no sense for bishops to consider only themselves as successors of the apostles. All, not only bishops, are successors of the apostles, as all Jews are successors of Jacob's 12 sons.
Because Jesus addresses his disciples in their entirety, women as well as men, by saying "do this in memory of me", we easily deduce the common priesthood of the faithful from his mandate. Deducing from here too the ministerial priesthood, it seems to me to stretch the text too far, especially the way it is today, a counter-clerical priesthood, which in the Middle Ages came to constitute a social class alongside the nobility and the people.
Since it is the Eucharist that makes the priest and not the priest the Eucharist, whether the Eucharist is celebrated by a holy priest or by a depraved priest, it is still worthy. The Eucharist, not the ministerial priesthood, is the value to preserve. Judaism has survived without temples, priests and sacrifices for 2,000 years; these proved not to be essential to the life of the people and the survival of their faith. Christianity was to "resurrect" a type of priest, a caste that Jesus, as a layman, always rejected. He himself and all his apostles, especially Paul, never presented themselves as priests.
There are more and more Christian communities without the Eucharist because the ministerial priests are an endangered species. In Europe, priests are elderly and many have between 3 to 5 parishes; how long can we go on like this? Should we continue to ask God for vocations to this kind of priesthood? What if He in fact never really intended to have this type of priests?
Isn't this the time when the ministerial priesthood, the priest, should be born from the community, in the community, and for the community? This was the case with the first presbyters, elected among the elders, in the communities that Paul was founding.
Just like the presbyters of old days, who were the elders born and raised in the community and elected by the community to preside over the Eucharist, so the ministerial priesthood must arise from the common priesthood of the faithful. We are all called to intercede for one another, to celebrate the Eucharist and to mediate between people in conflict. One of the beatitudes is precisely that of being peacemakers.
PROPHET
Today, the term "prophecy" suggests a variety of meanings. We speak of "prophets of doom", who see the world and its future in a negative way. There were individuals with sometimes radical social visions who were called "prophets of our age" or "prophets of their own time."
There are also those "prophets" who really should be called "fortune-tellers", who claim to foresee the future. Even when there is some reference to "biblical prophecy", the popular understanding is often distorted by preachers who give the impression that biblical prophets looked at God's crystal ball and predicted what was to come.
The word prophet comes from the Greek word "profetas", which literally means the one who speaks for another, especially for the gods. And this Greek word, in turn, is a rather accurate way of mentioning the Hebrew Nabi, which refers to those who communicate the divine will.
The figure of the prophet in the Old Testament
The prophets understood themselves as being sent. They received their mandate from God, "Go and tell my people”. In fact, prophetic messages almost always begin with the formula "Thus says the Lord" and concludes with "the oracle of the Lord" or "says the Lord" (Amos 1:3-5; Jeremiah 2:1-3).
In the Old Testament tradition, the prophet is the right man for the right time; he is the one who knows how to interpret the present moment of the people’s life in the light of God’s will, the one who feels he is a messenger, sometimes also intermediary between God and men. He is always a natural leader and a charismatic person; he criticizes behaviours that are not pleasing to God's eyes, as well as comforts and infuses hope during bitter hours, like the exile in Babylon. He sees the extraordinary in the ordinary, he knows how to see the signs of the times and sees in them a future that is to come, and then communicates his vision to the people so that they can prepare themselves.
I am no prophet, nor a prophet’s son; but I am a herdsman, and a dresser of sycamore trees… (Amos 7:14). In contrast to priests of Jerusalem and doctors of the law, prophets did not come from an establishment, they had no pedigree. It was the Spirit who, here and there, at times when it was needed, was raising guides for his people.
In our day we have no ruler, or prophet, or leader, no burnt-offering, or sacrifice, or oblation, or incense, no place to make an offering before you and to find mercy (Daniel 3:38). As noted in the text, the prophet was an important figure for the people. Without him, the people felt disoriented, confused, abandoned, alone, insecure...
Symbolic acts of the prophets of Israel
The behaviors of the Old Testament prophets were so bizarre that compared to current secular measures of sanity, they would end up institutionalized or at least in some form of intensive therapy.
These prophets were not only spokespersons of the word, they incarnated it in their lives, in their talents, in their behavior and deeds; everything in them was part of the message; their choice of clothing and even their bodies and body language. Therefore in their own flesh, they witnessed how transformative and disconcerting the Word of God can be. "Words carried by the wind," the symbolic and dramatic acts of the prophets spoke much louder and were harder to forget or ignore.
• Isaiah, took off all his clothes and wandered around naked (Isaiah 20).
• Jeremiah hid his underwear under a rock, and after a long time came looking for it (Jeremiah 13).
• Hosea deliberately married a prostitute and named their daughter Lo-ruhamah or the unloved one (Hosea 1).
The function of prophecy
So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days’ walk across. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s walk. And he cried out, ‘Forty days more and Nineveh shall be overthrown!’ Jonas 3:3-4
In the Bible, a prophecy was never intended to be a prediction, but rather an admonition or a warning: "if you continue to live in this way, this or that catastrophe will happen." The inhabitants of Nineveh, as we know, were converted and what the prophet Jonah announced was to come did not happen.
Many of the prophets of our time embodied a movement, a tendency, a change: Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, and Oscar Romero to name some. They all had words of admonition against an unfair situation, they all embodied and led a movement, and they all suffered or were murdered for their daring to shake the status quo.
Isaiah is, from the point of view of Christianity, the most significant prophet of the Old Testament. Unlike Elijah, the greatest prophet from the Jewish perspective, Isaiah was not a nationalist, but a universalist. He dreamed of a banquet for all peoples in Israel’s capital, Jerusalem; of reconciliation between visceral enemies, the wolf and the lamb; of the conversion of weapons of war into instruments of peace; of the coming of the Messiah and of his passion and death and the meaning of these.
The ideal prophet is to come
I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their own people; I will put my words in the mouth of the prophet, who shall speak to them everything that I command. Deuteronomy 18:18
Christ incarnated the word, the message, much more than any other prophets, in such a way that he never said that God commanded him to say this or that, he spoke in his own name, and even contradicted what has been said until then by modifying the form repeatedly used in the Sermon on the Mount, "You have heard that it was said... But I say to you..."
Jesus, prophet mighty in words and deeds
With the coming of Christ we can look back and see these prophets as harbingers, not only through their prophecies, which spoke of his coming, but also through their prophetic actions. Christ is, after all, the word made flesh, in the richest and most complete way possible. And just like that of the prophets, Christ's behavior was utterly bizarre, disconcerting, and confusing when compared to the social and conventional standards at the time.
He was, after all, someone who guaranteed that he would rebuild the temple in three days, ate with prostitutes and tax collectors, cast demons into a herd of pigs, healed a blind man by rubbing his eyes with mud mixed with his spittle, and he walked on water.
The most shocking dramatic action was undoubtedly washing the feet to his disciples. He wanted to perform the most servile act so that they would never forget what he had already said in words: For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many. Mark 10:45
Jesus was, in the words of the disciples of Emmaus, a prophet mighty in words and deeds. They even hoped that he would be something more, they had faith that he was something more: the Messiah himself. The people of his time saw in him a prophet, just like how the apostles answered the question about his identity.
Jesus, who was never taken for a priest nor was he one, seems to have accepted that they saw him as a prophet (Matthew 21:11; Luke 7:16; John 4:19). He called himself a prophet when he said, "no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s home town" (Luke 4:24–27). He interpreted his death as the death of a prophet when he programmed his agenda to die in Jerusalem where all prophets before him had died (Luke 13:33).
Muhammad, the last prophet, Jesus, the Son of God
Islam accepts as valid the Jewish religious tradition described in the Old Testament which they also consider their own. Muhammad is therefore the last of the prophets that God sent into the world, Jesus being the second last.
If humanity lives another 10,000 or 20,000 years, what is the meaning of the last one that came in the year 524? The world and humanity have undergone more changes since the year 524 than in all the millions of years earlier; why did the prophets succeed each other so frequently, and after the year 524 suddenly they were no longer needed?
Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. Hebrews 1:1-2
In the case of Christianity, even if humanity lives to the year 20 000, it makes sense that the revelation took place in year zero. As the author of the letter to the Hebrews explains, the one sent is no longer a prophet, but rather God himself who comes to live among us.
There is a qualitative leap here; prophets bring messages for a time, the word of God is eternal for all times and all places, because God does not need to speak twice. On the other hand, Christ is not only the spoken word, he is the lived word and one who lives only once.
What is the meaning of the last prophet? Is it because Islam has a more refined doctrine and, on an ascending path, it has already reached the top? But the top would seem to resemble Christianity with a much more humane and humanizing narrative, such as love of enemies; Islam in its practice and doctrine would seem to resemble the Old Testament more than the New, when we think that even today in Islamic countries, women are stoned to death and Christ was already against this in his day.
Islam is in itself violent by nature, for it is not about loving God who loved us first, it is not about love is paid with love; God in Islam is the Lord of the Old Testament who commands submission; in fact, Islam means submission, the person submits to God, he does not love the God who no longer calls us servants, but friends. In addition, the historical way Islam expanded was not through mission or catechesis, but through force and armed submission or commerce.
Called to be prophets
Where are the prophets, who in other times gave us hope and strength to move on? In the cities, in the fields, among us they are. Ricardo Cantalapiedra
The disciples of Emmaus are the perfect image of today’s man who is searching for meaning; a man who lacks a reason, an idea or ideal that explains everything, and who lacks a worldview that gives meaning to everything. Also lacking in a fundamental option that organizes his disorganized life made up of shreds that do not harmonize with each other; a fragmented life that leaves him confused and lost.
Man wants to discover the meaning of this seemingly meaningless life; the prophet of the modern world is the one who imitates Jesus and explains the meaning of things by reorganizing the pebbles of each one's experience, in a way that they form a harmonious mosaic where every act, every thought, makes sense in a harmonious whole.
The prophet is the one who gives reasons for his faith and hope (1 Peter 3:15). He is the one who has an X-ray vision that sees the essence of things, beyond appearances, who knows how to interpret the signs of the times, who sees the world pregnant with something that is about to be born and warns the people to prepare themselves. He is a leader, a guide to get out of a situation that seems to have no solution, but which the prophet is able to see the solution hidden inside the problem.
The prophet is an antenna that catches the will of God and broadcasts it to men, he is the catalyst of God's will, at every moment in the life of the people. He is the one who is not afraid to face the status quo even with his life on the line, when the status quo does not follow God's plan.
When Jesus told his followers "you are the salt of the earth, you are the light of the world", he was calling us to be prophets. Salt prevents corruption, melts ice, that is, the schemes of evildoers to make others trip, gives meaning to life and fixes water the source of life in our body which is made up of 75% water. The prophet is the light of the world that exposes the lie and reveals the truth.
KING
In a democracy according to Greek tradition, or republic according to Roman tradition, the monarchy is in itself an unfair system from the start, because as the word itself implies, it is the government of one person over the people. "I am the law," said the Sun King of France – this premise establishes arbitrariness as a system of government.
The king belongs to a social class, the nobility, which is said to have a blood different from the blood of the commoners. This system which establishes that at birth one’s life is already determined, as one is born either within the commoner or within the nobility class, is an archaic and barbaric system in the light of Greek democracy and the Roman republic. In the time of the Greeks and the Romans, only the barbarians were singly ruled by a king, in other words, by a dictator.
If it were today, the title of president or prime minister would be applied to Jesus and not that of king. However, Jesus is a different kind of king, a king who lives to serve and not to be served, a king without privileges who is the shepherd of his people, for whom he lays down his life. We too are by baptism called to be this type of king at all times when life places some power into our hands.
The King in the Old Testament
From Moses to Samuel there were 14 judges. In a theocratic system such as Israel's, God raised judges to defend the people from the surrounding enemies. In the same way that he raised up prophets to guide the people morally and religiously, he raised up political leaders, the judges, to defend and guide his people socially and politically. Samuel is the last of these Judges, since neither the sons of the priest Eli nor the children of Samuel himself were worthy to replace their fathers in their offices.
The people asked for a king like that of other nations, and God granted it to them, first in Saul, then in David and Solomon. Each of them ruled for 40 years, and after them the kingdom was divided into North and South. In the minds of the people, David was the ideal king, so the messiah who was to come would be his descendant.
When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 2 Samuel 7:12-13
It is the prophet Samuel who addresses King David in these terms. Although as a king he was just, magnanimous, God-fearing and a lover and shepherd of his people, he also had his flaws. After him would come the idyllic king, the messiah, the one who would rule his people, all peoples by way of truth and justice forever and ever.
Christ and the Kingdom of God
From the beginning to the end of his preaching, Jesus spoke of the coming of the Kingdom of God and he clearly said that it had begun with his coming into the world (Matthew 12:27). Therefore, implicitly, Jesus was saying that he was a King, although he used this title little for its more political than social significance. He certainly presented himself as a leader, and for this he preferred to use the metaphorical title of Shepherd, to avoid misunderstandings.
Jesus is not the kind of leader who sends his troops to the frontline, while He stays at the rear. On the contrary, Jesus goes to the frontline, he commands and demands nothing from others that He himself has not done. It was said of Mussolini who told his henchmen, "Let us arm ourselves but only you go", Jesus leaves with his own and goes to the front. In fact, he was the first to fall at the frontline of the battle against evil and injustice.
Jesus is the King, but he does not have the privileges of such a position; he is not a king with blue blood, but is the servant of Yahweh who came to serve and not to be served (Matthew 20:28). He is among us as one who serves and not as one who is served (Luke 22:27).
You call me Teacher and Lord – and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. John 13:13-14
Here is another title that Jesus did not accept in life because it was in direct contradiction to his idea of the messiah. The people of Israel expected a warrior Messiah, another David; in fact, some of those who were healed by Jesus addressed Him by saying, "Jesus son of David, have mercy on me.” After the multiplication of loaves, the people wanted to make Him a King, but Jesus fled from them. At the end of his life when he was about to up to the gallows, which would be his throne, he recognized that he was a king when Pilate asked him directly if he was King, but added that his kingdom was not like those of this world.
To his disciples who dreamed of sitting on his right and on his left of his reign, he said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant…” Matthew 20:25-26
Called to be kings
(…) whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave … Matthew 20:27
The great ones in our lives are the ones who have served us, while the insignificant and offensive ones in our lives are the ones who have made use of us. Among the former are our parents who gave their lives for us in dedication and service, always seeking our good, sometimes sacrificing themselves so that we would be well and lacking in nothing; after them, our older siblings, our teachers, catechists, etc.
The same happens in the history of humanity which is composed of heroes, those who served a human cause, and villains, those who made use of their fellow men. In human relationships there is no middle ground: either you serve others or you make use of others. Authority that is not service is manipulation and authoritative submission of others.
We all want to be great, to be popular, to have fame, and that everyone likes us. The way to these goals is by way of service. The only thing that dictators get is the hatred of the people and, as such, they are always afraid that the people will take revenge, they always live insecure and paranoid. They are great only in their own eyes, for in the eyes of the people they are a disgrace, a shame, an ignominy.
During our lives, we all have some power, as parents, priests, leaders in this or that organization; let us exercise our power as a service to the institution, to others, and we will be great not only according to the gospel, but according to the history of men.
Conclusion – Every baptized person is a priest to mediate in conflicts, prophet to read the signs of the times, denouncing corruption and injustices, and king to lead by way of service.
Fr. Jorge Amaro IMC
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