Just the Chauffer

Appreciating the unknown prophets in our midst

03/21/2022

Lk 4:24-30 Jesus said to the people in the synagogue at Nazareth: “Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place. Indeed, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the sky was closed for three and a half years and a severe famine spread over the entire land. It was to none of these that Elijah was sent, but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon. Again, there were many lepers in Israel during the time of Elisha the prophet; yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all filled with fury. They rose up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong. But he passed through the midst of them and went away.

People do not always recognize the prophets in their midst. It is like the professor who traveled around the country giving lectures with the same chauffer. The chauffer always sat in the audience during the lecture. One day the chauffer said to him: “I think I have heard that lecture of yours a thousand time. And I could give it just as well as you do.” The professor said, “All right, you give the lecture tonight and I will sit in the audience in your chauffer’s uniform.” The chauffer gave a perfect lecture.

But at the end, a hand went up in the back. Someone asked: “There is a question that I should like to ask you. When you mix that H2SO4 with that NCL02, and compare it to the photographic plates of the sun, how do you get the equation e equals m over c squared?” The chauffer answered: “That is the most stupid question I have ever heard in my life. And to show you how stupid it is, I am going to let my chauffer answer it.” So, too, there are prophets sitting in our midst whom we dismiss as just the chauffer, but they are much wiser than we suppose. Indeed, they are the ones who can really answer our hardest questions.

This is the same oversight that Jesus is complaining about in the gospel today. He refers to two of the greatest prophets in the Old Testament, Elijah and Elisha, and argues that they were essentially like that chauffer in the audience. That is, the people ignored him. That is why the prophets ended up helping foreign people, like the widow of Zeraphath and Naaman the Syrian. Jesus sums up his teaching saying: “No prophet is accepted in his own native place.” Jesus real point is that this is how the people would treat him, as “just the chauffer.” But sometimes it is the chauffer – the unknown prophet – who alone has the answers to our hardest questions.

By the way, this is the main reason that priests are almost never assigned to the parish they grew up in as a child. Why not? Well, the people have known him as a boy and a teenager, and maybe even seen the trouble he caused in his youth. It is hard for them to “switch gears” and now see him as a prophet. For example, I have never been assigned to St. Theresa’s Church or Good Counsel parish in Little Rock, where I grew up. If I were to go there, they would scoff: “Ah, he’s just the chauffer.” Interestingly, I was the chauffer for the pastor, Fr. Warren Harvey. But sometimes the chauffer turns out to be the unknown prophet in our midst.

My friends, we all have hard questions to ask, and often we turn to professors instead of turning to prophets. It is not always people with Ph.D.’s who know best, but rather people illuminated by the Holy Spirit. And that is one of the critical roles of the pope and bishops. They are anointed at their episcopal ordination with the triple munera, the three-fold office, of priest, prophet and king.

But I am convinced that it is their prophetic role that causes us the greatest heartburn, but can also be the cause of the greatest holiness. Why? Because the job of a prophet is to call us out when we go astray, and we don’t like that. Both Pope Francis and Bishop Taylor have been excellent prophets. How do I know that? Because I don’t always like what they have to say. And what I do not like to hear is exactly what I most need to hear.

And just like Elijah and Elisha, and Jesus, so too, Pope Francis and Bishop Taylor are sometimes dismissed as “just the chauffer.” But often it is the chauffer, the unknown prophet, who alone has the answers to life’s hardest questions.

Praised be Jesus Christ!