Word to the Wise
Friday, November 13, 2020 - Friday in the 32th Week in Ordinary Time
[2 John 4-9 and Luke 17:26-37]Look to yourselves that you do not lose what we worked for but may receive a full recompense. Anyone who is so "progressive" as not to remain in the teaching of the Christ does not have God; whoever remains in the teaching has the Father and the Son. [2 John]
NOVEMBER 13 ST. FRANCES XAVIER CABRINI
As Christianity spread around the Meditierranean world of the Roman empire, it was almost inevitable that different "versions" of the message about Jesus and his teachings would develop. Sometimes these "versions" would reflect the speculations of a particular teacher, sometimes of a particular culture. The influence of Greek philosophical thought was considerable, especially since the Roman empire often mimicked the practices of Greek culture. The Johannine letters reflect efforts to "stay on message" and not to invent a Christianity that met cultural or theological trendiness. Those who were teaching in that vein were considered "anti-Christs."
Examples of the kinds of teaching that began to develop ran from denying that Christ was truly divine (Arianism) to deny that he was truly human (Docetism). It took several hundred years for some of these disputes to be settled, which is as much a reflection of the communications of the time as to the very slow development of a centralized authority for Christinaity in Rome. There was no one catechism to go by!
In all of this history, the golden thread of faith, expressed in the written tradition of the scriptures and in the steadfast sound traditions based on those scriptures, has lasted. Christianity is still divided in many ways in its ecclesial expressions, but the person of Jesus Christ as the one whom God has sent remains as the center of faith. The Letters of John are an encouragement to "stay on message." AMEN