Today is the 7th Sunday after Pentecost. I moved to St. Thomas Cathedral on July 1st. This is my first week to assume my new assignment and to continue my ministerial work here at Holy Spirit Mission celebrating the Extraordinary Form Mass. Fr. Paul McCollum, the Vicar for the Clergy, puts it, “Fr. Arlon, that is a life of a missionary.” Indeed, this is the way a missionary lives and operates.
Today’s epistle and gospel present to us many things to ponder in order to experience the divine encounter and to reap spiritual benefits that lead us to holiness.
The epistle, taken from the letter of St. Paul to the Romans, reminds us of our slavery to impurity and sins from our constant alliance with the wicked one, the devil, who led us to death. St. Paul stressed offering ourselves to righteousness, leading to holiness and salvation. So, in Christ Jesus, we have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God. St. Paul is not condoning slavery per se, but rather Paul encourages us to “remain to God by offering ourselves up to Him.” Either we must serve sin, or we must serve God, for there is no neutrality. This has been St. Paul’s conviction and advice for us. We pray. “Lord, I offer up my life to You to do as You desire.” We sustain our relationships with God through faith and our enduring love.
We must choose to live in holiness. Holiness is an inner state characterized by conformity to the will and character of God. St. Augustine teaches that the practice of outward godliness is the product of inward godliness; that is, our interior life filled with goodness and the right things which bring a person along the pathway of spiritual growth. St. Paul again says, “you have fruit unto sanctification, and the end life everlasting.” Thus, “eternal life” refers to the fruit of a holy and godly life from which we derive our fellowship with God and others. Our faith expression is not only personal, but communal, for we are brothers and sisters in God’s family we all profess.
The gospel today speaks about false prophets. Jesus cautioned us about the existence of so many people claiming to be prophets in our midst. Our good Lord admonishes His disciples to avoid these “ravenous wolves” who “come in sheep’s clothing.” Let us again focus on how we would understand this gospel passage.
First, in Jesus’ days on earth, there were false prophets who existed across the land leading confused souls astray. Their existence persists even in this modern time. I do understand the danger because no one knows the heart of another. They believed to be shepherds, but on whose authority had they received it? Some groups printed their version of the bible, maybe giving them the authority to interpret it. Clearly, we must be vigilant and use all our given faculties to identify them by their frauds, fakes, and make-believe prosperity gospel, claiming a religion through their promise of giving the “best life now.”
They fascinate their victims with soothing assurances that God wants them to glow as a rosy type of person, encouraging them to put their monies into their congregation and smiling all the way to the bank on a daily basis. All they do is encourage them to believe that they have a divine spark within them. Pledges and gifts are also accepted, whether by cash or check or, for the convenience of those huge numbers watching on television, taking advantage of the use of their credit cards. Millions of dollars are collected by their preaching perverted scriptures which their congregation fails to see because most of these people are busy trying to manage their daily existence. There is no preaching about equality and proportion.
Second, Jesus says, “You will know them by their fruits.” People simply get caught up with therapy and psychoanalysis preaching but having nothing to do with Jesus as a savior. Their mission is to repair damaged self-esteem. They appear fanatical in their preaching with the guise of “relevance” in the need of the people to feel better for the moment, but not making people connect to Jesus to be reconciled and to seek salvation from Him. This is the so called “Christless Christianity.” Where there is no Christ crucified on the cross, there is no true Church.
Third, these false prophets offer an express lane to heaven that mentions no sin, no guilt, and no encounter with Christ at His cross. Imagine how many people are persuaded by appealing to their weakest point and attacking on the emotional baggage of these unchurched people. I pity them because they have a confused concept of the Bible, taken out of context and taken piece by piece to make them feel good, but unfortunately taken from the Sunday sermon they go back to being the same old person. Their doctrine of deceit becomes an avenue of this convenient salvation that demands no embracing of the Savior, no confession, no repentance, but merely blind obedience.
Brothers and sisters, we have been transformed and become fruitful in our lives through our Lord Jesus Christ as evidence of His presence in the Words and the Sacraments, specifically in the celebration of the Eucharist. This is the fact that we are truly blessed by His grace and gift of salvation in the truest sense of spiritual realm. We are genuinely identified with hearts that have been redeemed by the love and sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ.
When we feel that salvation arrives when we are filled with encouraging words, spiritual guidance, and an assurance that God has provided a route to eternal bliss, then we proclaim His death on the cross and profess His resurrection until He comes again. No cross, no salvation. No salvation, no discipleship. Where there is no discipleship, the Bible is not being preached. Those deceived souls would not encounter Jesus, the source of Salvation. God intends that you and I are sinners in desperate need of salvation thru the grace and mercy that is in Jesus and not from those false prophets of our times.
God bless you.
Fr. Arlon, osa
