Word to the Wise
Tuesday, January 4, 2011 - Christmas Weekday
[1 John 3:22 - 4:6 and Matthew 4:12-17, 23-25]Beloved, do not trust every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they belong to God., because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can know the Spirit of God: every spirit that acknowledges Jesus Christ come in the flesh belongs to God, and every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus does not belong to God.
The "infancy narratives" of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, and the "Prologue" to the Gospel of John, serve the function of "overtures" to their respective accounts of the life of Jesus. They give us the major "themes" or "leitmotifs" of their particular preaching. But there is a considerable "jump" from the 12 year old Jesus in the temple to the 30 year old preacher! Jesus has to "prove" himself in the public arena. Indeed, John the Baptist, whose arrest seems to have triggered the public ministry of Jesus, sends representatives to Jesus to ask about his identity and ministry! Jesus simply points to what he has been doing and sends them back to John. It is a matter of "credentials" and authenticity. How could one determine if Jesus is "the one who is to come?"
The same thing would be true after Jesus' death. How could any given community believe, or not, that a particular preacher represented the authentic teaching about Jesus? St. Paul would face this same challenge from the Jerusalem community! The entire New Testament represents the efforts of the early Christian community to establish an authentic teaching about Jesus. Not everyone had the benefit of the Jewish heritage of the Old Testament! The Letter of John, in the first scripture for today, is an example of a "test" to determine authenticity.
In our own Catholic tradition, we are often challenged by voices that seem to conflict. We do have a "deposit" of faith for which the pope and bishops have responsibility. But there is considerable room for interpretation! The "testing of spirits" is a process that takes into account all that is revealed in the scriptures about Jesus and in the experience and reflection of the community which we call "tradition." As the "infancy" overtures end and the curtain rises on an adult preacher, we are invited to enter into the story of Jesus to hear his words and the words of those who have followed him down through the centuries. AMEN
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