Love, Life and the Lord
1 Jn 3:22 - 4:6; Mt 4: 12-17, 23-25
Testing the spirits, apostle John speaks of in the first reading today! Today this is so important a task for us to do, for so many of our own children of God are drawn away by spirits that are so selfish and ungodly. Just yesterday a youngster came to me vociferous telling me, 'I saw a video of a preacher of one of the denominations spreading calumny against the Holy Father and calling him names! How can he do that?' I only smiled at her and said, 'there were those who calumniated against Jesus himself, they killed John the Baptist and thwarted the first Christian community with the same calumny...so my dear, why worry?'
But however the Word today gives us a special task: to test the spirits...and not accepting everything that seems to be showy. How do we test? There are three criteria that can be culled out from today's readings: 1. Love: Is what is told and done, done out of true, genuine and authentic love, or for selfish motives? 2. Life: Is what is spoken and what is initiated, life promoting, life enhancing and life giving? 3. Lord: Is what is being aimed at truly Lord oriented, or is it self oriented, or purse oriented, or kith and kin oriented?
Don't be deceived by flowery words and fiery speeches; don't be carried away with the show of crowd and technological cloud... be guided by the One True Spirit of the Lord: be firmly founded on Love, Life and the Lord.