The theme on knowledge, wisdom and faith continues through the readings for mass today. The first reading from the book of Colossians gives us a stern warning “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ.” The New Age, Wicca, Scientology, Transcendental Meditation and many other “new” cults that have nothing to do with our Catholic faith are springing up all over our country and maybe other countries in the world as well. Don’t be mislead by New Age or Wicca spirituality. The New Age spirituality has even infiltrated the Catholic church itself and leads many of the faithful astray. It seems harmless enough. What could be wrong with yoga and emptying one’s mind to get in touch with the oneness and energy of the universe? Well, anytime you empty your mind, it will be filled with something and that something is not Jesus Christ. It also seems harmless for teenage girls to become involved in “white magic” or Wicca because it is directed toward something good, like love spells on a boy they like, but it can be a stepping stone into the occult as well. Wiccans worship the created world and earthly spirits, but not God. Scientology is totally self involved and has nothing to do with God because this belief system focuses on developing your mind to become more like a god yourself.
It’s easy to get drawn into these new spiritual belief systems because they promise a quick solution to your personal happiness. Jesus never promised quick and easy, personal happiness on earth, but he loves us, and died for the forgiveness of our sins. Our hope lies in eternal life. There is no other cult or religious belief system that has ever had someone return from the dead and that alone is something to think about.
All religions in the world contain a ray of the light of faith in God, but only the Catholic church contains the fullness of the whole truth. Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life and there is no other. He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow and that may seem boring to some people because our faith in Jesus Christ does not change with the times, but our faith in him is like the bedrock that we build our lives upon. Two thousand years of storms have buffeted the Catholic Church but it survived and is flourishing today. This would not be so if God was not truly the One guiding and protecting our church.
It is difficult sometimes for lay people to articulate our love for Jesus. It’s hard to put our feelings into words. Our love for the Lord is shown by the way we live our lives, but explaining it to others is not very easy for some of us to do. Our interior lives are a private thing that is difficult to share with others sometimes.
The Gospel today says that Jesus went out to a mountain to pray and that he spent the entire night praying to God. Jesus needed some privacy to pray to his Father and he did not share what he prayed about with anyone else, so privacy can be a good thing in our own spiritual lives too. At daybreak though, when Jesus finished praying, he called his disciples and chose twelve of them to be his apostles. There is no doubt that God guided him in which disciples to choose for his twelve apostles through his prayers during the night. Jesus prayed, but then he put the results of his prayers into actions in real life.
That might be what we could remember from the scriptures for mass today. Before we make any major decisions in our own lives, we should take the time to seriously pray about it and listen for God’s guidance. Too often we seem to charge off and say and do whatever we please and forget to even ask God about it in our prayers. Jesus shows us to do otherwise in today’s gospel. He made the right decision in who he chose for his apostles with His Father’s guidance. Our decisions will turn out to be the right thing too, if we remember to seek God’s guidance when we need to make major decisions in our own lives as well.
