Truly there is no season when the bracing and challenging words of the prophets are not needed. This month, prophecy rules in the daily Mass readings, as we hear from Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, and Jeremiah in turns.

Prophets don’t have an easy job of it no matter where they’re trying to speak truth to power, but there’s no question that the homefront is their toughest audience, as Jesus found out when he returned to Nazareth.

"Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account,” Jesus famously taught in his Sermon on the Mount. And he should know, because Jesus faced precisely this kind of treatment at his debut in Nazareth.

“The magazine looks great,” said one editor to another editor. “But it’s probably time for a new look. Maybe we should hire a design consultant to help us.” Those offhand remarks made the design editor’s blood boil.

A friend of mine told me he wasn’t going to his high-school reunion. “Why not?” I asked. “Back then everybody thought I was a loser. I’ve put together a very happy and satisfying life where people respect me, and I don’t want to return to being the butt of their jokes.”

For the times we have not listened to and followed the Lord, we pray for forgiveness.

We must often draw the comparison between time and eternity. This is the remedy of all our troubles. How small will the present moment appear when we enter that great ocean.

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