Memorial of Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, Virgin
(II John 4-9; Luke 17:26-37)
In today’s first reading John, the presbyter, writes not to
a person, but to a distant church. She
has many children, that is members. John
is warning the congregation about roving missionaries who do not hold to traditional
teachings about Jesus. He tells them not
to allow “the antichrist” preach in their midst.
We may think of the antichrist as the vilest criminal on
earth – a serial child abuser and murderer.
However, the presbyter has in mind a kind of person that we meet every day. For him the antichrist is anyone who distorts
the teaching of the Church about Jesus Christ.
He gives, as an example, “those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as
coming in the flesh.”
Today’s antichrists do not teach that Jesus was a pure
spirit. Rather, many contemporaries think
of him as a wise man without supernatural credentials. They see him as someone to be noted perhaps but
not necessarily followed. This idea contradicts Scripture as well as Church
teaching. If Jesus is not “the Son of
God,” then we may accept or reject him as we are inclined. But if he is the Son of God, as Scripture and
the Church has taught since the beginning, then we must heed what he has
said. If not, we will not experience the
eternal life that he promised.
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