by Richard Rohr with commentary by Eileen Norman

Prophets by Richard Rohr
Like most of us, the prophets started not only with judgmentalism and anger but also with a superiority complex of placing themselves above others. Then, they move from that anger and judgmentalism to a reordered awareness in which they become more like God: more patient like God, more forgiving like God, more loving like God.  
There was a deep need, then and now, for someone who would call the people to return to God and to justice. Someone who would warn them, critique them, and reveal God’s heart to them. We call them prophets, and every religion needs them.  

There are plenty of prophets among us now in every church and society, and it is vitally important that we listen to them, support them, and protect them. Often, they are not formally aligned with religion, yet they are deeply influenced by its deepest values. 

Eileen

I like this, but I think the prophets become more loving by understanding why people struggle with their message, that it is from fear.  I think the prophets knew the love of God, because they often had a firsthand experience of it. And only then were they freed to be humble, to recognize and admit that they too had limited understanding. Some people value the past, others live in the present moment, some are focused on the visible concrete world, others on people around them, and a few focus on possibilities both positive and negative in the future.  All of these ways of being in the world are gifts from God and we didn’t get a vote.

We need ALL those gifts. The problem is twofold: we don’t understand that, and we react in fear of the differences. And fear leads to a struggle for power over the other ways of seeing and being in the world. 

The gifts were made for balance, for learning from the past, for celebrating the present, for making the physical world work for all of us, for valuing all God’s human children, and for recognizing new possibilities both positive and negative of the future.

Somehow, soon, we must begin to value all the gifts of God and find a way to make them work together for the good of ALL. To stop pushing each other to extremes and taking turns using our power in ways that unbalance life on earth. It’s fast becoming a matter of survival of our planet and all that is on it, including ALL of us.