We hear wonderful advice from the first letter of John today in the midst of our journey of faith in the season of Christmas: to follow Christ’s commandments, to do what pleases him, to love one another, and to remain in him. The author also goes on to say that we should not trust every spirit, but rather, we are called to test the spirit to see whether it belongs to God, because of the existence of many false prophets. It is good advice, but advice that is perhaps not so straight-forward and not so easy to follow in real life. I remember that when I was a missionary in Ecuador, there was a very strong belief in the spirit world: good spirits and bad spirits, good witch doctors who good lift a curse and who could heal a person, bad witch doctors who could put on a curse and do harm. How do we distinguish that sometimes? How do we know what person to trust? How do we know what spirit to trust? Having a vibrant prayer life, having a spiritual director, reading Sacred Scripture regularly, going to Mass regularly, being part of a faith community, studying the faith: those are all suggestions of how we can know what spirit to trust, to know if that spirit is from God or if that spirit is a false prophet. Jesus knew that the faithful could easily go astray. The apostles and early Church fathers and mothers knew that we could easily go astray as well, because they saw that happen time and time again. Like anything in life, practicing our faith is hard work. It is sometimes very grueling and repetitious. It often is not exciting or glamorous. But that is what God calls us to do.
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