Where are the prophets today?

John the Baptist always seemed a bit extravagant to me. His way of life deviated from the everyday realities of Israeli society. He spoke by Jordan, where he lived. He gave up several civilizational achievements, for which the majority was not ready even then.

What is fascinating about him is his inner freedom, in which he was intimately connected with God. He probably wouldn’t attract much attention if he lived only on the desert’s edge and on cadmium. People with various mental defects have always lived. On the outside, he behaved in such a way that someone thought the same about him.

But when he opened his mouth, it was apparent to the listeners that they had a mature, sensible, and God-filled person before them. That is why crowds, even the Jewish intellectual and spiritual elite, came to him. They understood that John was not crazy but presented exciting ideas to the crowd through his extravagant and unpretentious lifestyle.

He was not a philosopher or a systematic theologian, but something supernatural, something divine, radiated from his words.

The voice of the caller in the desert.

John enjoyed this inner freedom. He spoke openly about inspiration from above. He was not afraid of any social consequences. Interestingly, the Jewish community accepted him, although his language was often offensive, and not all listeners liked him.

The Jews had an experience from the past that told them that God can give messages to his chosen people through various, sometimes even unusual, people. For these reasons, John was truly respected. And John would have lived longer if it weren’t for the vengeful Herodias, who couldn’t bear his public reproaches for being a great sinner.

He had one specific task. Announcing the coming of the Messiah, he called himself “the voice of one calling in the wilderness.” Behind this unusual designation, we can perceive a person who sees what others cannot. Who understands what others do not? A person who not only sees and understands but also talks about it. It convicts, awakens, rebukes, shakes.

The desert is barren without real life, where any voice can be heard far and wide in the silence. John was called to discern the coming of the Messiah and announce it. Others did not see it that way. John’s courage, combined with an authentic lifestyle, appealed to many and awakened in them the desire for purification and life with God.

Every person can be a prophet for someone.

We will find more similar prophetic figures if we look into the Holy Scriptures. As the sacred writings would indicate, God does not let the faithful wander in the dark but sends pardoned people on their way with a special mission to announce further tasks in God’s name and show the way.

After all, there has never been a lack of such people of God in the church community: from the church fathers in ancient times to Pope Francis in the present, through thousands of unknown people who, in their small microworld, passed on the faith and persistently searched for the truth.

It follows that in every age, there are people blessed and gifted by God who see life in more profound experiences and can speak about it publicly. They may be harder to find and believe because, in our media culture, public communication is often just a means of creating a good image of ourselves, not sharing what we believe to be true.

We can safely say that every society needs such prophets. Therefore, their spoken word can have weight for religious, educated, and blameless people.

Where are those today who would have the courage, maturity, and humility to show life in context? Where are the believers today who would point the finger at the current signs of the times?

In a sense, every person has the potential to be someone’s prophet. To the one who tells the truth: not to hurt us, but to move us towards humility, reality, and a fuller life. Some people are afraid to take on this role. Talking about life in the context of such inner freedom as John the Baptist also means risking not being understood and accepted.

Always somewhere in the background is whether I will lose relatives and friends because of honesty and trying to be truthful. Politicians wonder if they will lose voters. Since most (at least in Slovakia) do not have such courage, society is infested with superficial populism on various topics, which may respond to awakened emotions but cannot bring long-term solutions because it does not respect the truth.

With many topics in society and our own little lives, we ask: Where are the prophets today? Where are those today who would have the courage, maturity, and humility to show life in context? Where are the believers today, whether clerics or laymen, who would point the finger at the current signs of the times? Where are the citizens today who, in the flood of endless words in the public space, could distinguish truth from lies and point to the beauty of life and new paths?

John the Baptist was a prophet, a man of God who spoke about God and showed the way to him in great inner freedom, independent of the things of this world. We need such prophets in the church and society today. They are certainly among us because the Lord never leaves his people.