23rd Sunday in Ordinary time- Ezekial: becoming a prophet

Book of the Prophet Ezekiel 33:7-9.   Follow up reading* "The Time Is Now", by  Joan D. Chittister

“Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the people of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. 8 When I say to the wicked, ‘You wicked person, you will surely die,’ and you do not speak out to dissuade them from their ways, that wicked person will die for[a] their sin, and I will hold you accountable for their blood. 9 But if you do warn the wicked person to turn from their ways and they do not do so, they will die for their sin, though you yourself will be saved."

The vocation of a prophet, as envisioned in terms of Ezekiel's oracles, is to judge the evil and the wicked and to dissuade them from their ways. The prophet has the responsibility of announcing the judgment of God, not his own judgment, and non-fulfillment of preaching the message of God involves death for the prophet, whereas he will save his life if he is faithful to the message given to him to preach. -

Excerpted from A Celebrants Guide to the New Sacramentary - A Cycle by Kevin W. Irwin

*Beloved nun and social activist