Karl Marx once said that religion is the opiate of the people. There is quite some truth in that statement. Despite some of the great achievements of religion in the fields of theology, philosophy, morality, art, music and literature religion has also been used as a bulwark in maintaining structures that have caused great social harm.

The Church, for instance, supported slavery, class stratification in religious and secular society, and treated women as second-class citizens for centuries. Transformation of these unjust social structures is always brought about by those we call prophets. In today's gospel (Jn 9:1-41) Jesus is one such prophet.

Prophets are always liberators. They free people from certain ways of thinking. Bob Marley, one of our Caribbean prophets, in his Redemption Song , wrote: “ Emancipate yourself from mental slavery .” So too in today's gospel Jesus emancipates the man born blind from certain religious taboos that saw his affliction as due to the sin of his parents.

When the disciples asked, “ Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, for him to have been born blind? ” Jesus replied, “ Neither he nor his parents sinned. ” Jesus lifted the cultural taboos placed on the blind man, the very ones reaffirmed by the Scribes and Pharisees: “ Are you trying to teach us and you a sinner through and through, since you were born! ” (v 34)

One of the problems that prophets encounter is lack of faith. This makes people doubt that things can really change, that the world can look better: “ No, he only looks like him. ” (v 9).

Sometimes those who think things cannot change are religious leaders themselves and they repeatedly question those who think they can: “ What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes? ” (v 27). In spite of this opposition the prophet must remain firm in his conviction. Like Jesus he/she must lead people into declaring, “ I believe. ”

MOVING BEYOND DESPAIR

In our country today many people live with resignation, even despair. They need prophets to help them “see” that new beginnings are always possible. Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, prophetess among the poor of India, enabled many Hindus and Christians alike to look beyond the law of karma and see a brother and sister in need.

Wangari Maathai of Kenya was able to empower the powerless – especially thousands of women – into planting trees as a sign of hope for Kenya and a way of challenging the business elite who wanted to use rich soil for planting malls. Both women received the Noble Peace Prize and both are prophets.

We too in the Church have had our prophets, especially during the 1970s era when discourse about local culture, religion and politics reached its peak. Some of them are still with us today.

We yearn for prophets who will emphasise the need for regional integration, not only from an economic perspective but also from the perspective of cultural identity and regional pride. And we are in dire need of prophets in education who will challenge teachers to become more effective and empower students to believe they can do better at school.