For the Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Cycle B, 2021)
All were amazed and asked one another, “What is this? A new teaching with authority. He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him.” His fame spread everywhere throughout the whole region of Galilee. —Mark 1:27-28 When many people hear the word “prophet,” they imagine someone who is essentially a divinely sanctioned fortune-teller. But, if we look at the full story of salvation as it is presented in the Bible, we recognize that prophets were just as concerned with the here and now as they were with the world to come. In fact, it was the prophets’ special mission to help the people recognize the truth about themselves and the world around them, especially calling them to the see how their words and actions impacted their relationships with God and others what the consequences of those words and actions might be. Prophets told the truth. Because of this, prophets were often hated, especially by people in power. "Moses" by Michelangelo Buanarroti in the Church of San