Praying to be prophetic

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
First Friday in the Thirteenth Week of Ordinary Time, Year II, 05 July 2024
Amos 8:4-6, 9-12     <*((((><<  +  >><))))*>     Matthew 9:9-13

Help us,
loving Father 
to be prophetic
in our lives, to speak
and live according to your
words and precepts,
witnessing your truth
and justice, boldly speaking
against the evil pervading among us.

How easy,
O God, 
for almost everybody today
to speak strongly about truth
without being prophetic at all
like the Pharisees who saw Jesus
dining with sinners and asked his
disciples: "Why does your teacher
eat with tax collectors and sinners?"
(Matthew 9:11); many of them are
still among us these days
who avail of every modern
communication platform aided
by the age-old tradition of corruption,
championing the truth everywhere
when in fact are subverting
decency, honesty and sincerity
because they are actually
a manipulator or what a song
labeled as "smooth operator"
"whose eyes are like angels 
but his heart is cold." 

Forgive us, Father,
for the many times we have
joined these smooth operators
among us because we have
benefitted from their excesses,
trampling further the dignity of many
especially the poor and voiceless;
forgive us, Father,
for those times we pretended
to be prophetic, 
acting and speaking 
to be the virtuous ones 
as we project others as sinners
especially those not on our side.

Teach us to be like Amos,
Father, a prophet who spoke
and lived out your words 
like Jesus who confronted the
powerful and abusive among us,
insisting that being prophetic
is not what humans want
but what God desires always
which is mercy.
Amen.

*Can't resist sharing Sade's 1984 hit "Smooth Operator" that inspired us too in our prayer-reflection today.