Beloved, do not trust every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they belong to God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can know the Spirit of God: every spirit that acknowledges Jesus Christ come in the flesh belongs to God, and every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus does not belong to God.
The prophets and the apostles warn us about false spirits and false teachers and their warning is a universal call to be wary of those who come to us in the false disguise of God’s holy ones. The world is full of those who are adept at deceiving the faithful, and they are often most successful in their deception when we are celebrating.
God says: I do not mean to frighten you; I only encourage you to be cautious when your guard is down. Know that I am with you always and do not abandon you to the wolves. But also know how cleverly the false ones costume themselves in sheep’s clothing. They spend their time and energy looking for ways to gather in my sheep for themselves and yet they never win for I always save my sheep. So do not fear . . . but be prudent and circumspect . . . and call on me always to save you.
God loves our innocence and trusting spirit. We can rely on God to preserve us when we falter and to save us when we are beguiled by the false ones. This is why our daily contact with God is so important. We belong to God and God alone. Let us rejoice in our belonging.
Enter the word belongingin the blog search bar and examine how, and who, and what, and why you trust.
What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked upon and touched with our hands concerns the Word of Life – for the life was made visible; we have seen it and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was made visible to us – what we have seen and heard we proclaim now to you, so that you too many have fellowship with us; for our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We are writing this so that our joy may be complete.
We are a visual, tactile people. We look for data. We rely on evidence. We want facts. We seek reason over emotion and the Apostle John understands this – as does God.
God says: I know that you want cold, hard proof that I am with you and yet you have it each day at your rising to a new sun and a new beginning. Did I not awaken you this morning? I understand that you rest on science and law and that you measure your life with scientific and legal standards. Do I not show you my justice and mercy every minute of every hour each day as you go through your work and play? I comprehend that you have fears and anxieties that rattle you and shake your confidence. Will I abandon you when you lay your head to rest this night to gather strength for a new day? You can rely on the testimony of the Beloved Apostle who recounts his experiences to you. Learn to trust his word . . . for it is mine.
When doubt assails us we waver. When obstacles obstruct our path we stumble. When opposing arguments clatter around us we shrink and hesitate. John tells us today that these doubts, obstacles and arguments are as nothing before the profound truth that supports and protects us. John speaks to us with passion so that we too might believe. When we spend time with John 1:1-5, we explore our fears and joys about the message we hear.
From yesterday’s MAGNIFICAT mini-reflection: God takes an odd vengeance on Jesus’ human enemies: he offers them eternal life, if only they will hear and see the truth of the one they pursue with such anger.
With the election of Francis as Roman Catholic Pope, God invites us to explore the Easter message; with Jorge Bergoglio’s elevation to a major public stage we have the opportunity to react to our human dichotomous past and present. Traitor, saint, collaborator, kingdom-builder . . . we have no way of knowing what Bergoglio’s heart hides or holds. We have no way of hearing the man’s dialogs with God. We have no way of living the man’s hopes and fears. What we do have is the message of Christ brought to us in yesterday’s readings for Mass. We will want to spend time with them today.
Jeremiah 11:18-20 begins with: I knew their plot because the Lord informed me; at that time you, O Lord, showed me their doings. We must not allow our fears and anxieties to frighten us away from loving as God loves – with full and open heart – with full and open forgiveness – with full and open return for us, his prodigal daughters and sons.
Psalm 7: O Lord, my God, in you I take refuge; save me from all my pursuers and rescue me, lest I become like the lion’s prey, to be torn to pieces, with no one to rescue me. Our greatest dread is loss – of self, of reputation, of appearance, of control, of comfort, of relationships, of God. Yet the only loss that is serious is loss of our relationship with God . . . which we forfeit when we turn away. God never leaves us; God is always waiting for our return no matter the circumstances of our leaving.
John 7:40-53 begins: Some in the crowd who heard these words of Jesus said. “This is truly the Prophet”. Others said, “This is the Christ”. But others said, “The Christ will not come from Galilee, will he? . . . So a division occurred in the crowd because of him. Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.
This week we have spent time with the different people who were with Jesus in the last hours before his death and we have looked at the story of the Passion from various perspectives and angles. Today we reflect on these readings to see where we might be standing in the final crowd that follows and hounds Jesus. Are we for or against him? Do we reject or adore? Do we observe or act?
What circumstances chaff at us? What situations chill us? What surrounding conditions irritate us? What people annoy or terrify or inspire us? What motivates us to stand or hide, to collaborate or sacrifice? What fears and hopes drive us? What hates or loves move us?
God takes an odd vengeance on Jesus’ human enemies: he offers them eternal life, if only they will hear and see the truth of the one they pursue with such anger.
A new Holy Father steps forward to lead. What was his past? What is his present? What might be his future? Only God knows. And this God is such a generous God that any vengeance exacted will be the offer of eternal life. May Jorge Bergoglio, and may we in the crowd, go to God with all our questions. May the new Pope, and may we in the crowd, hear and act on The Word as Christ did as we move through each day. And may the Holy Father, and we in the crowd, all live in The Spirit of mercy, compassion, justice and forgiveness on this, our Lenten journey. May we love as God loves . . . for it is our only salvation.
You duped me, O Lord, and I let myself be duped; you were too strong for me and you triumphed.
Jeremiah is a frequent companion on our Noontimejourney and today’s theme is one we have visited often: Sometimes our great fall comes as a direct result of doing precisely what God has asked us to do. Sometimes we are duped by God.
The interior crisis – the situation in which he hope to never find ourselves – is something we all work diligently to avoid . . . and we ought not. It is, in fact, the very reason we are here on earth. It is our personal work. It is the way we arrive at our highest potential.
The places within – the ones we avoid – are the places we must approach with candor and even eagerness. They are our “working edge”. They are our labs, our quizzes, our tests. They are our final exam.
The interior self whom we avoid – the part of ourselves that we shun – is the very place where God dwells. He is there waiting for us with open joy, celebrating with us that we have had the courage to take the scales from our eyes, the mask from our face, the blinders from our perspective.
God is always anticipating our arrival; God is always on the other side of the door we refuse to approach. God is calling out to us to knock and enter. God is waiting there patiently, always abiding. God is our goal in all things and at all times. There is nothing else that matters. No other work. No other cause. No other person. This is what Jesus means when he says that the dead will bury the dead. (Matthew 8:22) There is no thingand no onewho ought to stand between us and God. And we will surely find God when we open the dark part of ourselves to allow God’s light into the dim corners.
Each of us has “a shadow self”, the person whom we fasten away, hoping to keep shut in from ourselves and from the world. Much like Mr. Rochester in Jane Eyre, each of us has a lunatic spouse we keep locked in the north tower . . . and if the metaphor holds we can see the destruction that will arrive if we try to keep that door bolted.
Suffering follows once we open the lock . . . but so does restoration. This is the message of the prophet Jeremiah. It is the message of St. Paul. If we avoid the work we are called to do with and for ourselves, we avoid our personal mission.
Does God dupe us? Yes, God does. Why? Because God loves us, wants us to face our fears while relying on Christ, and God wants us to trust the saving newness of the resurrection that Jesus brings to us without our even asking.
You duped me, O Lord, and I let myself be duped; you were too strong for me and you triumphed.
When we lock ourselves away with our fears, we have no other recourse but to listen. If we open ourselves to listening to God’s voice, we have the opportunity to respond. And once we respond, we take our first steps toward reconciliation, conversion, and salvation.
God is in charge. There is an Economy of Salvation. There are no mistakes in God’s plan . . . only opportunities for God’s love to triumph.
Tomorrow . . . a Prayer for those who are willing to be duped . . .
For the love of God is this, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, for whoever is begotten by God conquers the world. And the victory that conquers the world is our faith. Who [indeed] is the victor over the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
We are so often told – and we so often forget – that once we place ourselves in God’s hands we need not struggle. From the first books of the Torah to the final words of Revelation we hear this message and yet we fight with and against the world.
Sometimes we fear one another. We hoard money, goods, guns, plots and any object or idea we believe keeps us special . . . and this is sad because we are already special.
Sometimes we fear the past or the future. We look over our shoulders constantly or peer into the coming days looking for clues about how we should act and decide . . . and this is so senseless because these preoccupations takes us away from the holy present.
Sometimes we fear God. We look for full comprehension or we want total control; we deny, cajole, and make bargains . . . and this is so little of us because as John tells us today: The surest victory over the world comes not from our actions or thoughts but through our faith in God.
I write these things to you so that you may know you have eternal life, you who believe in the name of the Son of God. And we have this confidence in him, that if we ask anything in accordance with his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in regard to whatever we ask, we know that what we have asked of him is ours.
John cannot speak more plainly to us. In his Gospel he tells us quite clearly that Jesus is the unique Son of God. He reminds us that salvation comes through our belief in the Son. He explains that “Jesus is not the victim of human injustice even though those who killed him were evil people. Jesus chose to offer his life for others so that they could see God’s love revealed on the cross. When we see God’s love on the cross, we are reminded that God identifies with the lowly, suffering people of the world by joining with them”. And finally, John’s Gospel describes for us how mutual love and unity express God’s love. (Senior RG 450-451) All of this is explained to us and yet our fears overcome our faith; we allow the turmoil of the world to overcome us; we forget that victory comes through our faith in the story that we witness through John and the other apostles.
John tells in his writings that he has witnessed all that he recounts – we are not reading a second, third or fourth-hand accounting. In his first letter, John intertwines the very real with the ideal and we may become confused with this fusion of two perspectives; yet in is this dance between two opposites and the synthesis they present, John describes a world of universal acceptance and love that we seek.
Jesus tells us endlessly that God’s simple commandment to us is his call to love. We struggle with this for we do not see it in the world we occupy.
John tells us endlessly that Jesus’ simple commandment to love comes directly from God the creator. We struggle with this and we let doubt and fear and a desire to control our world to take us over.
As we begin a new year in our western calendar, let us decide to put aside our anxieties about the world. Let us spend time reflecting with John, a man who accompanied Christ – God Among Us. And let us place all our fears and hopes in the hands of a God who loves us deeply and always . . . for it is in that place alone that we experience victory that conquers the world.
A re-post from December 31, 2012.
Senior, Donald, ed. THE CATHOLIC STUDY BIBLE. New York, Oxford University Press, 1990.RG 450-451. Print.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011 – Jonah 2 – A Prayer from the Belly of the Whale
JonahYesterday we reflected on this short but crucial portion of Jonah’s story; why does he offer a prayer of thanksgiving when he finds himself devoured by a whale? Read the December 20 Noontime and then join Jonah in his prayer . . .
Out of our distress we cry to you . . . the waters swirl about us, threatening our lives . . . the abyss envelops us . . . the soul faints within and we remember the Lord.
As we near the coming holiday we have much to accomplish. Some of our chores we do gladly; others weigh heavily on us. Good and wise God, help us to sort out the trivial from the real as we struggle to balance work and play.
As we approach the festival of joy we continue to be haunted by old angers and anxieties; we might relish this turmoil or we may want to cast it off. Good and patient God, lead us to the understanding that what looks like death is life, what seems to be the end is a new beginning.
Carlo Antonio Tavella: Jonah and the WhaleAs we move toward the celebration of hope we have sorrows and fears; we may be managing to stay afloat in this sea of turmoil or we may be sinking into its cold depths. Good and compassionate God, remind us that living for a time in the belly of the whale means that in the end . . . we have the opportunity to draw ever closer to you.
Our prayer reaches God . . . we give God resounding praise . . . we are delivered by the hands of the Lord.
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