HOMILY FOR WEDNESDAY OF THE 12TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME CYCLE II
THEME: THE TRAGEDY OF WRONG TEACHERS!
BY: Ben Agbo (Rev Fr)
HOMILY FOR WEDNESDAY JUNE 22 2022
*2 Kg 22 : 8 – 23 : 3, Matt 7 : 15 – 20.
The beginning of the Sermon on the Mountain emphasized the knowledge of right things; perfection in human behaviour, in prayer, in judgment, etc. But towards the end, Christ talks about the tragedy of wrong teachers. ‘The corruption of the best’, they say, ‘is the worst evil’. That’s why Jesus warns us to BEWARE OF FALSE PROPHETS. According to William Barclay, a true prophet is supposed to be ‘a man with the wisdom of God in his mind, the truth of God in his lips and the courage of God in his heart’. A false prophet is therefore the man who pretends to have the wisdom of God but is actually being used by the devil to deceive people. Bad prophets are not easy to detect. In discernment Christ insists that we must look out for the fruits of the Holy Spirit (Love, joy, peace, patience, self control, etc, Gal 5 : 22) rather than the signs of the Holy Spirit (Healing, miracles, tongues, preaching, etc, 1 Cor 12 : 28). We must go beyond facial appearances, beautiful dresses, elegant / cosmetic preaching, sanctimonious rituals/ liturgy, etc and look at the fruits of the ministry. The immediate fruits might be glamorous; emergence of new parishes, nice structures, elegant Churches and parish houses but if the faith and spiritual life of the people is not growing; if a lot of scandals are being committed in secret, it will only take 50 to 100 years and you will see nobody in our big Churches anymore. Perhaps that is what has happened in Europe and some other places where Christianity seems to be gradually dwindling.
Wrong teachers must automatically produce wrong students. Just look at our prestigious Universities today and watch how they are gradually going down in standard because of employment of wrong teachers. In the priesthood, wrong bishops produce wrong priests. Wrong formators produce bad seminarians. In the family, bad parents must likely produce bad children. We need to look at the far reaching effects of many pastoral decisions we take today. Christ says ‘we shall judge them ultimately, by their fruits’. Only the right teachings ( based on the Word of God) will produce the right fruits and the right living at the right time. May God bless you today!