January 2, 2004 Homily by Fr. Robert Altier Friday Before Epiphany
Reading (1 John 2:29-3:6) Gospel (St. John 1:29-34)
In the first
reading today, Saint John tells us that we have received an anointing from Him
which remains in us, and because of this anointing we have the knowledge and we
have everything that we need. Now this is going to be very, very important to
us to know that God has not abandoned us as things grow more difficult in our
world. It is going to seem to many people that God has just forsaken us, but in
fact we have the knowledge that God has chosen us. We know that we are baptized
into Jesus Christ; we know that we are His children. But it is that spirit of
the antichrist that we need to be so careful of, that is, as Saint John tells
us, that the liar is the one who denies Christ and the antichrist is the one
who denies both the Father and the Son. And so when someone comes along saying
that there is no God or that this one is not God or that this one is equal with
others, that is, that there is no difference between Jesus and anyone else, it
is really the same person that all of these various religions are talking
about, therefore, Jesus is the same person that the Jews are looking for, Jesus
is the same one that the Buddhists are expecting, He is the same one that the
Hindus are expecting, the same one that all the others are looking for they
just call Him by different titles and there is no difference between all of
them. The fact is that the others do not believe in God and they are not
looking for Jesus. But this is the watering down of the truth and it is a
denial of the Father and the Son because they do not believe in God. What they
believe in is in themselves. They believe in some sort of higher power but they
do not believe in God. The spirit of the antichrist is alive and very well in
our world, and these are the lies that are being pushed.
But we have the
truth and we know that it is the truth. Now that might sound like an arrogant
statement, but it is just like if you were taught mathematics from someone that
you knew you could trust and you knew that 2 + 2 = 4 and everyone around you
started trying to tell you something different; you can put your feet firmly on
the ground and say, I know that
this is correct. I dont care what anybody else says, I know that this is right
and the rest of you are wrong. That is exactly what we are able to say. We
have the fullness of truth and it does not matter what anybody else has to say
we know what the truth is. Sometimes it is not always easy. Most of the time
it is not politically correct and it is going to get you shunned very quickly,
but it does not matter because the truth does not change.
We know the truth
and in that anointing which we have received, which is the anointing of the
Holy Spirit Himself given to us in a special way for those times when we need
it the most, we have the guarantee that the grace will be there to be able to
stand firm and make our noble act of faith. That is not a guarantee that we
will stand firm because we have to cooperate, but it is a guarantee that the
grace necessary to stand firm will be given and the grace necessary to be able
to acknowledge the truth will be given. We need simply to be very careful not
to be swept away by any of the lies that are going to be brought forth. As
things get worse and it seems that God just does not exist because we pray and
He does not show Himself and things keep getting worse and worse and worse, we
must be very careful at that point not to fall prey to the temptation to
somehow believe that God does not exist. Once again, the spirit of antichrist,
just in a different form.
So you have, Saint
John tells us, an anointing which provides not only the knowledge but provides
union with Jesus Christ. It does not matter how difficult things become, the
reality is that you are united with Christ if you are in the state of grace.
Again, if you think about it by another analogy, if a married couple is having
grave problems in their marriage they are fighting with one another, they
cannot stand one another for the time being, they do not even want to see one
another it feels like they are
not married. It feels like there
is a complete separation and maybe their souls were never joined together and
maybe everything is on the rocks. But the fact is they know that they are
married. It does not matter what it feels
like, the reality that their souls are united is still there even if things are
in serious trouble. So too with us, we know that we have the Holy Spirit, we
know that we have received that anointing from Christ, and it does not matter
how bad things get in the world and what it feels
like as if God has abandoned us we know that He has not because we know
that we have the truth and we have the Holy Spirit given to us to lead us into
all truth. We need not worry, but rather we need to pray and we need to remain
faithful. It is precisely what Jesus told the apostles: Pray that you will not
be put to the test. Or pray, at least, that when the time of difficulty
arrives that you will be able to cooperate with the grace of the Holy Spirit
and remain steadfast and faithful to Jesus Christ in all things.
* This text was
transcribed from the audio recording of a homily by Father Robert Altier with minimal editing.