Seven hundred and fifty years before the birth of Christ, the prophet Amos declared to the Jewish people in the name of the Lord, their God:
“Away with your noisy songs!
I will not listen to the melodies of your harps.
But if you would offer me holocausts, then
Let justice roll down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream!”
On August 28, 1963, these same words were heard on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. in a speech now called: “I Have a Dream…” This time the prophet was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, whose legacy we celebrate this year on January 19th.
Five hundred years before the birth of Christ, during the Babylonian exile, followers of the Prophet Isaiah declared:
“The rugged land shall be made a plain,
the rough country, a broad valley.
Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
and all humankind shall see it together!”
In his “I Have a Dream…” speech, a similar sentiment is echoed:
“I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted,
and every hill and mountain shall be made low,
the rough places will be made plain
and the crooked places will be made straight;
and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together!”
Also found in this speech are allusions to Psalm 30:6: “Weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning!” and to Galatians 3:28: “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is their male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
We see, then, the modern-day prophet calling upon the words of the ancient prophets to enlighten his teaching for our time. The Oxford dictionary defines the word “prophet” as: “a person regarded as an inspired teacher or proclaimer of the will of God.” The Letter to the Hebrews speaks of the fate of the ancient prophets saying: “they endured mockery, scourging, even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, sawed in two, put to death at sword’s point…The world was not worthy of them…” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. died by an assassin’s bullet on April 4, 1968 at the age of 39 years.
In his first letter, Saint Peter reminds us all of our prophetic calling when he says: “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people he claims for his own to proclaim the glorious works of the One who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”
By Sister Eileen M. Gallagher, OSB
