Anyone who is so “progressive”
as not to remain in the teaching of the Christ does not have God;
whoever remains in the teaching has the Father and the Son.
Saint John's warning certainly sounds familiar in a post-Hegelian world where the "Spirit" -- or geist as the philosopher called it -- would displace the physical presence of Jesus in our history, sacraments, and personal life. While we celebrate his birth as the Son of Mary, we should continue to celebrate his existence among us as a human being, a man and an asiatic Jew of the first century. His being resurrected only strengthens the truth of his manhood.
Without that doctrine, every human being is threatened with falling into the "Lethean" somnolence of Hades. Ancient Greeks believed the souls of former human beings must drink from the River Lethe after fording the River Styx into the afterlife. Although Hades is a hopelessly bleak place, its misery was eased by joyless lethargy.
That lethargy might be similar to the stupor of drug addicts, the distraction of alcohol, or the flat affect of antidepressants. It passes the time watching videos and television, or chatting with AI companions, rather than meeting with God, others, life, and the Earth.
Faith calls us to experience the agony and ecstacy of human life with Jesus. Although, like every human being, he was doomed to suffer and die, he enjoyed companionship and affection, sacrifice and satisfaction, and the freedom of serving Almighty God. Even his quarrels with the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians were conducted with a reckless, sometimes comical, spirit. His disciples obviously enjoyed his frequent humiliations of everyone who challenged him. Never a man without words, he invariably had the last word!
When the day came for his crucifixion, he pursued that task with the same eager, generous, enthusiastic spirit that brought him to Jerusalem. Because he knew it was good, despite the apparent victory of his enemies and the distress of his disciples, he carried his cross to Calvary and never looked back.
The "progressive" Spirit which Saint John denounced in his second letter despises pain. Nothing good can come of it! During the oughts -- 2000 to 2009 -- the Joint Commission began to assess pain among hospital patients. Unfortunately, many clinicians thought that meant no patient should ever experience the least discomfort. The misunderstanding led to widespread and severe addictions to pain medication.
We're born to die and dying is rarely pleasant for anyone. Many, as Woody Allen quipped, would prefer not to be there when it happens, nor to experience any discomfort. But in the following of Christ we find companionship in pain, misery, disappointment, grief, guilt, and shame. Because he did not fear the misery of human life, and took our suffering upon himself, his disciples know the full catastrophe in his companionship.
