Archbishop Chaput recently referred to the commentary following Benedict XVI’s resignation as a “lava flow.” I have other, less kind, ways to describe most of what has been written about the Church and Holy Father since February 11, 2013.
One fact that has become evident in the last few weeks is that now, more than ever, Catholics in the pews need to be able to discern false prophets when we see them.
False prophets always masquerade as true and caring people so we think they are good and many, many people have been led astray. It is evident that we are living in a time in the Church when there are numerous false prophets who have caused much damage and confusion. They are aided and abetted by Catholics who do not know their faith and are not living their faith and so are therefore ill-equipped to be able to tell a true prophet from a false prophet.
Here are four ways to do discern a false prophet:
Obedience to Rome
A true prophet is obedient in faith the Holy Father, the Bishop of Rome. The primary problem of the Western Church in recent decades has been rejection of God’s fatherhood and, therefore, His authority.
Obedience (based on the Latin word for listening) is now perceived as a demeaning activity so that anyone who is charged with administering God’s authority on earth is subject to ridicule. This attitude of “I will not serve” has also resulted in the demise of marriage and the fatherhood which takes its name from our Father in heaven (Ephesians 3:15).
Devotion to Our Lady
A true prophet has a devotion and respect for Our Lady who is, in herself, an authentic prophet because she carries within herself the beatitudes which are essential to Catholic life. Indeed, she so completely obeyed and submitted to God’s fatherhood that she brought forth Life itself in Jesus.
How could there be a more authentic sign of good fruit, a more authentic prophetess? Forever after her Divine Maternity, Mary has been ridiculed by false prophets because she roots the Word of God into our human race, just as the Pope roots the will of God into the here and now. Both are Signs of Contradiction, just as Jesus was, to a fallen age.
Delight in the Eucharist
A True Prophet delights in the real presence of Christ among us in the Holy Eucharist. Heresies and false prophets seek to deny Christ’s Presence because Satan has a vicious hatred for humanity and Christ coming to us in the flesh.
If the spokespersons for evil can diminish in any way the reality of the Real Presence by saying it is only a symbol or whatever any individual decides to believe, then they have detached God from the human race and torn asunder the Incarnation. In John’s first letter, chapter 4, he says that the sign of a false prophet is that they deny that Jesus has come in the flesh. The evil one always tries to deny the Incarnation because that fact roots God in our lives today.
Love of neighbor
A true prophet loves his neighbor. Always. His unkind neighbor, his condescending relative, his voiceless neighbor, his poor or undeserving neighbor. His enemy. True love, based on truth not feelings, cannot be counterfeited.
In this Year of Faith, turns out we need more faith than we thought we might. So let us listen and apply these four rules of discernment not only to those “out there” but to ourselves!
(Based on
Copyright © 2013, Glenna Bradshaw
Glenna Bradshaw
Glenna Bradshaw is a happy Catholic who lives in Tennessee with her family and two spoiled greyhounds. She blogs at Celebrating the Year of Faith.
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