We have to be wary of these characters because the world is
now awash with false prophets and demagogues. It even looks like we
have an infestation. Whether we look at the fields of politics,
business, the sciences, sports and entertainment, and yes, even in
religion, we can readily find dishonest and corrupt leaders, false
prophets and lying teachers.
It actually should be no surprise. Since time immemorial,
and even during the time of Christ, demagogues proliferated. Our human
condition, if not grounded on God, is vulnerable to it. We can´t help
it. Our world can easily produce the pertinent elements and factors
that give rise to them. And we can never run out of potential
materials.
In this, we have received enough warnings from Sacred
Scripture. “Beloved,” St. John, for example, in his first letter tells
us, “do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether
they are of God; for many false prophets have gone out into the
world.” (4,1)
There are many kinds of spirits roaming around the world,
and we have to learn how to discern them. There is the spirit of God,
the spirit of Christ as opposed to the antichrist. There is also the
evil spirit, and the spirit of the world that is dominated by the evil
one. There is also the spirit of the flesh.
St. John was explicit as to which spirit is proper to us.
“By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit which confesses that
Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit which
does not confess Jesus is not of God. This is the spirit of
antichrist, of which you heard that it was coming, and now it is in
the world already.” (1 Jn 4,2-3)
And among the most dangerous false prophets we can have
today are those clerics who get into partisan politics. They clearly
would not be following the teaching and example of Christ who, even if
he knew the shenanigans in the political world of his time, did not
make any definitive stand on a specific political issue.
That’s because, I suppose, Christ knew he would be adding
unnecessary division among the people if he would get into partisan
politics. Politics is such a complicated area where things can never
be black and white, totally right or totally wrong. It’s always grey,
since the issues involved are matters of opinion and preferences that
can give rise to a variety of different and even conflicting positions
of the people.
The mixture of good and evil in politics, benefits and
dangers are so intertwined that to separate one from the other would
practically be impossible and most likely be more harmful than
helpful.
Perhaps that’s one of the reasons why Christ talked about
the parable of the wheat and the weeds. (cfr. Mt 13,24-30) It would
not be wise and prudent, according to the lesson of that parable, to
uproot the weeds at the moment since the wheat may also be uprooted.
We just have to wait for the harvest, the final reckoning, when the
due separation can be made.
In the meantime, we just have to be patient, even as we also
should try to purify and clarify things, but done always in a
Christian spirit, that is, with charity and cordiality, with
willingness to suffer the consequences of evil, without bitterness,
anger and the impulse for revenge.
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