Wednesday of the Twelfth Week of Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 373

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing,

but underneath are ravenous wolves.

By their fruits you will know them.

The student of Saint Luke's Acts of the Apostles must be deeply impressed by our reliance on the Holy Spirit. Where Jesus taught and led his disciples through Luke's Gospel, the Holy Spirit leads the Church day by day, from city to city in The Acts.

This reliance is a trusting, confident, daily decision which remembers first of all that God is leading us, and then what has happened. The disciples will not say to someone's suggestion, "We've tried that already;" but rather, "Where is the Holy Spirit leading us now?" We learn from experience but are not confined by it. In this way our message and our methods are always "ever ancient, ever new."

In today's first reading we hear the story of King Josiah. The ancient temple was apparently like the Parisian opera house, the setting of the Phantom of the Opera. It had been built, rebuilt, redesigned, repurposed and overhauled so many times that entire rooms had  been closed off and forgotten. In one of those mysterious rooms was found the long-forgotten Law of Moses. The young Josiah was horrified to realize that God's very specific instructions about life and worship had been so long neglected. He immediately called for a restoration of the original religious practices, and a closer observance of its ethical code.

Of course it was impossible to duplicate exactly that old way of life. Even if there were no overwhelming technological changes since the former time, there were irrevocable political, social and economic changes. If they would be true to the Spirit of the Law, they would need God's Spirit to show them what reforms to make.

The newly-formed Church of the first century also needed God's spirit to help them bring the Gospel to the innumerable peoples and languages of the ancient world. They needed prophets, those men and women who have the charism to discern God's will. Those prophets must be talented and trained, and should have a deep, humble integrity.

But the Church has always been plagued with false prophets. They're not just well intentioned people with wrong opinions; they have a hidden agenda behind their apparent piety. Very often they cannot recognize that agenda due to their overtly good intentions. Agenda items may include the superiority of their culture, nationality, race, class, language or gender. They see themselves as innately better than they people they address.

Or, they may believe the Gospel of Prosperity, that "Doing good means doing well." Hopefully their ministry will be no worse than barren; but they will probably bear rotten fruit.

Many self-described Christians today divorce themselves from any congregation, despising the very humanness of the Church. They think they can be faithful Christians by not meeting any. Go figure that one out!

I know little of warfare or combat but I suppose a soldier who moves ahead of his unit into hostile territory will soon lose any sense of where his people are going and how they plan to get there. If he were sent ahead he might have a better sense of his mission for a short while; but if he ventured out on his own he would be suspected of treason. Likewise the solitary Christian, moving "ahead" of the Church, might think he is prophetically challenging the World and the Church by his ethical standards, but he represents only himself. When people learn that this opinionated, self-righteous person is a "Christian" they will suppose all Christians are similarly hypocritical.

Sinful creatures that we are, the disciple of Jesus must continually turn back to the Lord for guidance and to the community for discipline. Our fans may love us but our fellowship will know the whole truth about us. I joined the Church to be saved, not to tell them how to be saved.

At every step of the way the Spirit of the Church infallibly guides us. We have that assurance as we live the Gospel in hostile territory.