The book that goes with our studies is cleverly titled The Prophets by Abraham Heschel and while I found the introduction a bit exhausting and wondered how I'd get through the text, I am now finding it to be a wealth of information and insight. From time to time, I will be quoting Mr. Heschel because he gives such wonderful nuggets, they are too good to keep to myself.
Today's nugget:
Above all, the prophets remind us of the moral state of a people. Few are guilty, but all are responsible. If we admit that the individual is in some measure conditioned or affected by the spirit of society, an individual's crime discloses society's corruption. In a community not indifferent to suffering, uncompromisingly impatient with cruelty and falsehood, continually concered for God and every man, crime would be infrequent rather than common.What incredible men of God (the ones I am reading about right now are men) and such spokesmen for the poor! They make Dorothy Day look like a lamb, really, and if anyone thinks I am "tough," they've apparently not met up with Amos or Jeremiah yet. These men met with scorn and ridicule, are considered "strange, one-sided, and (an) unbearable extremist." Heschel went on to state:
It is embarrassing to be a prophet. There are so many pretenders predicting peace and prosperity, offering cheerful words, adding strength to self-reliance, while the prophet predicts disaster, pestilence, agony, and destruction. People need exhortations to courage, endurance, confidence, fighting spirit, but Jeremiah proclaims: You are about to die if you do not have a change of heart and cease being callous to the word of God. He sends shudders over the whole city at a time when the will to fight is most important.They make you so uncomfortable, could you imagine sitting next to one at dinner? The question was asked if we knew of any modern-day prophets -- if anyone has any responses, I'll be glad to pass them along.
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