Overview:

The Memorial of St. John Neumann, Bishop

A Reflection for the Memorial of St. John Neumann, bishop

“Beloved, do not trust every spirit . . .” (1 John 4:1)

Find today’s readings here.

The secular spirit of Christmas has already left the building, even though we still dwell within the traditional twelve days of Christmas. I believe today is supposed to be the day my true love gives me eleven pipers piping. While those pipers go about their festive business, I’m thinking of other tunes: the alluring songs of the false prophets we are warned about in today’s reading from the first letter of John.

Because as the false prophets among us have packed up their decorations and pocketed the profits of Christmas, they continue to disregard the actual message of Christmas. Conversely, for people of faith, the light of Christmas illuminates John’s reminder that God’s essential commandments are to “believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he commanded us.” (1 John 3:23)

False prophets are a feature of every age, and our present time is no different. Our false prophets prowl among us not only in the flesh but often virtually, luring us away from Jesus with 24-hour online access to our hearts. The false prophets appeal to our laziness, our vanity, our gullibility, our prejudices, our fears, promising fast, pretty, easy, gratifying, comfortable outcomes. But these false and sneaky prophets always lead us away from Jesus, not closer.  

So how do we distinguish a false prophet, someone full of “the spirit of the antichrist” as John calls it, from the Spirit of God? John tells us that false prophets belong to the world, whereas we believers belong to God. It strikes me that we can avoid the attractive pitfalls of false prophets with a simple evaluation: If we keep in mind that God asks us only to believe in Jesus and to love one another, we will see right through the machinations of false prophets, because a false prophet, belonging to this world, deals in idolatry and hate. Belonging to God may not always be easy, but our calling is clear.

For the faithful, these twelve days on the liturgical calendar signify Christmas joy, not Christmas hangovers. The pipers may not be literally piping in our homes today, but the birth of the baby Jesus into our lives is our cause to celebrate, our reason for the season. Faced with a weary world, may we believe. May we embody our belief. May we love one another. 

Valerie Schultz is a freelance writer, a columnist for The Bakersfield Californian and the author of Till the Moon Be No More: The Grit and Grace of Growing Older. She lives on the Oregon Coast.