Deception - beware

     I hope that your celebration of the New Year was a great one.  Mine was quiet, although in the afternoon yesterday a tradition was upheld that brought together a few of our priests for a New Year's Party.  We have been gathering since the mid eighties on New Year's Day to share a meal and some great fellowship.  Yesterday we gathered at Saint Anne's in Rostraver Township to join with our host and cook, Father Vince Gigliotti, for a wonderful meal and the Steeler game.  Joining with Vince was Fathers Tony Ditto, John Harrold, Rick Kosisko, Mike Matusak, Chet Raimer and myself.

     The Church celebrates today Basil the Great and Gregory of Nazianzen, Doctors of the Church and early bishops who sought truth and wisdom and battled the heresies and fads of the day.  Today's first reading from the 1st letter of John begins the year by warning us to be aware of the liar, to beware of those who deny the Christ, and to be firmly rooted in "what we have heard from the beginning" about him.  It is a good and necessary warning on the first days of the new year - for there are those that seek to bring us down with lies, but even more frightening are those that lead us astray by their novel teaching, their theories, their lack of depth in matters that are most important and life giving.

     Yesterday, leaving Church, I was asked by a parishioner if we studied in the seminary about these apocryphal gospels, these writings that continue to surface and are intriguing or entertaining?  He had watched something on the Discovery Channel or one of those channels.   I assured him that the four years of theological study were taken up with learning and understanding the truth of the Faith ... there was no time for serious study of that which is less than essential in regard to Christ.  Another parishioner shared a booklet entitled "American History you never learned" that puts forth the idea that Mary was behind everything in history, and in a particular way was instrumental in the founding of America and the establishment of the United States.  Weaving together dubious historical "facts" (which I have never encountered), provide a sometimes interesting story that faith filled people might want to cling to but which are not part of the fabric of our Faith or recognizable history. 

     The Church has always had to interpret and define fact from fiction, truth from the dubious.  Basil and Gregory did so, and today, more than ever, as people seek the novel and accept as Truth anything presented as truth, we need to be more vigilant.  We do have an adversary whose goal is lead us away from Christ Jesus.  Whether in blatant or in subtle ways, we must resist, and remain in Christ.