REDUCING PROPHECY

Carlo Carretto (1910-1988) Italian Catholic priest, wrote in 1975 (almost 45 years ago) these words: “We have reason for weeping when the voice of prophecy is silent in the Christian community, or when prophecy itself is reduced to merely human dimensions.

It means that the poor one of Yahweh is betraying his God, placing his trust in man instead. But what will we say when the Gospel is reduced to sociology, and pastors become mere political agitators or organizers of ‘good works.’

Who will prophesy then? Who is going to say that bread is a gift from God when even the priests regard it as a gift from the Americans, and Christians think they can have it in greater quantities simply as a result of careful planning?

Never more, perhaps, than today have we run the risk of reducing the Bible, and the Gospel in particular, to a guide for good behavior, a belated support for democracy and the equality of all men.

If it follows this road, the poor one of Yahweh will be overwhelmed by the duplicity of men, and having strayed from the path that led him to the desert where his heart could be purified, he will die of hunger and thirst far from God. May God forbid!”

“Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.” Jesus