Years ago, I heard a presentation on the role of the prophet.  It described being prophetic as:

Imaging the original intent of God;

Mourning that this is not our present reality;

Providing an alternative future.

What impressed me most was the necessity of mourning.  Why was it so important?  What did it mean? 

We must participate in another’s’ pain if we are to be prophetic. When we watch the news about the war between Russia and Ukraine, Israel and Palestine, the plight of the immigrant, the death by a drug overdose, the degradation of the earth, the plight of the immigrant, the inequality of the human person, do we personally do anything about it or do we just say “this is awful” and go on with our lives?

Recognizing that we are experiencing a dynamic process of emerging awareness and are called to be in communion with one another, with our mother earth, and with our world, I believe that we are to respond with a deliberate and courageous heart by our presence.

We can be present even if we cannot write, speak, or march.  How?  There is the need for a compassionate response to recreate a world that is neither male nor female, Gentile nor Jew, slave or free.  Growing in the awareness of presence, we can respond to the original intent of God and provide an alternative future in which each and every life has dignity, and each and every life is gift, and each and every life is invaluable to God and to our world.

We need to enter into the reality of our world right now and mourn, really mourn, about what is going on, personally and communally and do something together to provide an alternative future, returning to the original intent of our God.

Margaret Mary Kimmis, OSF
Franciscan Sisters of Allegany, New York