23. The Prophet’s Mind Is Moved Not Only to Apprehend Something, but Also to Speak or to Do Something.
23. The prophet’s mind is moved not only to apprehend something, but also to speak or to do something.23
Speaking of justice, compassion and conscience is to speak of the work of the prophet. Aquinas has a deeply developed theology of the prophet. As Rabbi Abraham Heschel teaches, the prophet commits to interfering with injustice. Aquinas talks about how the prophet Jeremiah “first promises deliverance from evil” and then “freedom from servitude.” “‘And it will be on that day … I will break the yoke,’ which is Nebuchadnezzar himself. ‘And they will not be dominated.’” And Isaiah says, “‘For you have broken the yoke of his burden, and the bar upon his shoulders, and the rod of his oppressor’” (454).
In his Commentary on Jeremiah, he writes: “A prophet has been consecrated to overturn, root up, destroy, and again to build and renew.” He attributes the work of prophecy to the Holy Spirit when he say “The Holy Spirit is the spirit of prophecy, as Joel says (2:28): ‘I shall pour out my spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.’” But the Holy Spirit is omnipresent, and so too is the vocation to be prophets. All are called to do what prophets do, which is to stand up to injustice and struggle for healing and justice.
The prophet needs to develop one’s strength in order to overcome “fear of the world.” This strength comes from love for “fear makes peoples slaves, loves sets them free” notes Aquinas. (453) It is saintly and part of holiness to work for justice and peace. “Take note of the saying in Isaiah, ‘the work of justice will be peace. …’ The saints reckon three things in regard to the peace that they desire. First, the strength of divine power. Psalm 125 says: ‘Those who believe in the Lord are like Mount Sion which will never be shaken. …’ Second, the purity of one’s own conscience, as in Proverbs 3: ‘You will walk confidently along your way, and your foot will not stumble.’ Third, the removal of hostile evil, as in John 16: ‘Be confident, I have overcome the world’” (454–55).
Aquinas counsels us to be like the prophets who face fear and become strong, first, by submitting to divine power in sacred experiences of creation (such as mountaintops); second, by following one’s conscience and developing trust in that way; and, third, by daring to remove hostile evil, again by way of trust and confidence. It is significant how he invokes trust or confidence twice in this passage. When I asked a prophet within the civil rights movement, Fred Shuttlesworth—a minister whose home was bombed by the Ku Klux Klan and was beaten with chains multiple times—where he got his courage he said to me: “You can call it courage; but I call it trust.”
Trust is, of course, the real meaning of faith as invoked by Jesus in the gospels. It is the primary meaning of the word faith—which is not about believing in a series of dogmas but about believing in the presence of the Spirit when one stands up for justice and pays the consequences. Shuttlesworth knew this, and Aquinas knew this.
What is the primary work of the prophet? “The prophet’s mind is moved not only to apprehend something, but also to speak or to do something; sometimes indeed to all these three together, sometimes to two, sometimes to one only.” The prophet sees injustice and stands up to be counted; the prophet speaks out; the prophet does the work necessary to make transformation happen. The prophet, moved by the Holy Spirit, often does not even know what is at stake. “Since the prophet’s mind is a defective instrument, even authentic prophets do not know all that the Holy Spirit means by the things they see, or speak or even do.”
Aquinas anticipates Rabbi Heschel’s classic study, The Prophets, as well as Walter Brueggemann’s The Prophetic Imagination, when he insists that creativity and imagination play a prime role in the work of the prophet. “A way of speech is opened up that proceeds by way of metaphors and figures, which is the proper mode of prophets. Numbers 12 says: ‘If someone shall have been a prophet of the Lord among you, I will appear to them in a vision, and through dreams I will speak to them’” (462). The prophet listens to his or her dreams.
Says Aquinas: “It is characteristic of prophets to reveal what is not present but hidden. … The act of prophecy is to know hidden things and to announce them.” The prophet looks ahead and speaks out before others for “the prophet is said to be not only one who speaks from afar, that is, one who announces, but also one who sees from afar, for the Greek phanos, which is an appearing.”
Aquinas recognizes two acts in the prophetic vocation: “one is primary, namely, sight; and the other is secondary, namely, announcing. The prophet does the announcing either by words or even by deeds, as is clear in Jeremiah (13:5). … But in whichever of the two ways the prophetic announcing is made … [it] takes place through certain outward signs.” Those signs come from the imagination and from art. Such lively images awaken others. Announce what is hidden or forgotten or lying in denial.
The prophet Jeremiah, Aquinas points out, refused “to be silent.” The prophet speaks out. Compassion is integral to the prophet, “Jeremiah expresses the compassion of the prophet, saying, ‘since if you have not heard, your soul will lament in secret.” Prophets feel deeply the suffering of the people. “Isaiah 22 says: ‘Withdraw from me, I will weep bitterly. Don’t come to console me about the destruction of the daughter of my people.”
The gift of prophecy is not a private gift and certainly not a gift for one’s ego. Rather, “prophecy is given not for the prophet’s sake but for the building up of the church.” (At one place Aquinas defines the church as “a garden.”) On the other hand, this same gift can benefit oneself and others at the same time, for “sometimes the gift of prophecy is given to people both for the good of others and in order to enlighten their own mind.” The prophetic grace permeates all of society for “the prophetic light extends even to the direction of human acts; and in this way prophecy is requisite for the government of a people, especially in relation to divine worship, since for this nature is not sufficient and grace is necessary” (454).
Saints are prophets, Aquinas declares, for three reasons. First, “they were inspired by God. Joel 2 says: ‘I will pour out my spirit over all flesh and your sons and daughters shall prophesy.’” “Second, because they were sent by God, Matthew 23 says: ‘Behold, I send to you prophets, and wise peoples, and scribes.’ Isaiah 29 says: ‘And now the Lord and his spirit, have sent me.’” “Third, since they witnessed to God (Acts 10): ‘All the prophets give witness to God.’ Isaiah 44 says: ‘You are my witnesses.’” There is also a “fervent feeling shown by their communal charity, of which he says: ‘Here is one who loves the brotherhood’” (465).
Prophetic revelation does not happen all the time for a prophet; it comes and goes and depends on the disposition of a person to receive it. “‘We prophesy in part,’ that is, imperfectly.” No one prophet has all the answers—“The Lord reveals to the prophets all things that are necessary for the instruction of the faithful; yet not all to every one. But some to one, and some to another.” Furthermore, “prophetic light is not something abiding in the prophet, but a kind of transient impression.” Prophets are not prophets twenty four hours a day. “Just as the air is ever in need of a fresh enlightening, so too the prophet’s mind is always in need of a fresh revelation.”
Aquinas honors women who were prophets. He calls Mary, the mother of Jesus, a “prophetess who prophesized saying, ‘My soul magnifies the Lord’ (Luke 1). God approached her through prophetic intelligence and through faith.” Of course he is alluding to the deeply prophetic poem ascribed to Mary known as the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55), which sings of how God “has routed the proud of heart, pulled princes down from their thrones and exalted the lowly” (Luke 1:51-52).
Aquinas says: “The Holy Spirit is called a prophetess, who is the beginning of all prophecy, 2 Peter 1 says; ‘For it is not by human will that prophecy is brought forth, but inspired by the Holy Spirit the saints, men and women of God, have spoken.’” Aquinas reminds us of a point that contemporary feminists have been making—namely, that spirit is feminine. “For among the Hebrews ‘spirit’ is in the feminine gender, namely ‘Ruah’ and respecting this, ‘Mary conceived,’ that is, the Spirit made her to conceive. For that which ‘has been born in her is from the Holy Spirit’” (465).
Aquinas also celebrates Mary Magdalene as a prophet. “A triple privilege was placed upon Mary Magdalene. First, prophecy, because she deserved to see the angels, for prophecy is between the angels and the people.” And “the apostolic office to be sure. She became the Apostle of the apostles, because the announcement of the Lord’s resurrection to the disciples was entrusted to her.” Aquinas praises her boldness: “Mary says to the gardener: ‘Tell me where you have laid the body of Jesus and I will take him away.’ The boldness of the woman is amazing! It removes the fear of the sight of a dead person and impels her to try to do more than she is able, that is, to carry away the corpse. This is what Paul means in 1 Corinthians 13.7: ‘Love hopes all things.’”
Courage and boldness are integral to the work of the Holy Spirit that anoints the prophet. This applies to all of us coming to all of us as we come to our maturity as spiritual adults.
In speaking of the prophets Aquinas leaves us with a startling observation when he says: “The doctrine of both apostles and prophets is necessary for salvation” (472). First, he insists that those who interfere with injustice are leaving us “doctrines”—that is, teachings of orthopraxis, or how to live the gospel teachings properly. Second, he tells us that prophets are equal in importance to bishops. We should, therefore, listen to the prophets—and not just the ecclesial poobahs. Might that make for a whole new version of “church”?
A trustworthy person
is angry
at the right people,
for the right reasons,
expresses it in the appropriate manner
and for an appropriate length of time.