Word to the Wise
Friday, November 11, 2022 - Friday in the 32th Week in Ordinary Time
[2 John 4-9 and Luke 17:26-37]I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth just as we were commanded by the Father. But now, Lady, I ask you, not as though I were writing a new commandment but the one we have had from the beginning; let us love one another. For this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, as you heard from the beginning, in which you should walk.
NOVEMBER 11 ST. MARTIN OF TOURS
The three Letters of John all have similar concerns: doctrinal purity and the commandment to love one another. With regard to the first of those concerns, there appears to have been preachers who denied the full humanity of Christ "in the flesh." And the figure of an "anti-christ" is used to describe anyone denying that Jesus is the messiah.
The second seems to address internal disputes that are not specifically named. One can make a good guess if one reads some of the issues addressed by St. Paul in his letters.
These two concerns have, historically, remained concerns right up to our own times. Concern for doctrinal purity can sometimes lead to less than "loving" disputes, with parties denying or asserting the doctrinal authority of the Second Vatican Council! Or there are those who use the Catechism of the Council of Trent as a kind of weapon against the Catechism published after the Second Vatican Council. Liturgical squabbles over "traditional" forms of piety and their use, including the Roman rite adopted by the Council of Trent, have led to open divisions.
Perhaps the Letters of John are not so ancient after all and the reminder of the commandment to love one another is ever necessary. AMEN