SHEEP'S CLOTHING

A MESSAGE FOR THE 7th SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

We are warned in today’s Gospel to beware of false prophets, “which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.”  It’s basically the same caution we receive when we are told not to judge a book by its cover.  Things are not always what they appear to be, and the moral of the story is not to jump to conclusions.

There is a reason for such caution.  Simply said, we often make mistakes when we try to judge our neighbor. We tend to regard as enemies those who don’t agree with our own faith, or political positions, or opinions.  And yet, so many of them are not enemies at all, simply mistaken individuals who are sincerely trying to understand the truth but who have taken a wrong path on the way.  They are not wolves in sheep’s clothing, but simply sheep who have lost their way.

Sometimes, they may even be right.  Sometimes it is weourselves who have come to the wrong conclusion, and we should be considering the words of St. Matthew’s Gospel (7:3), “Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?”  A good deal of humility is required when attempting to judge our neighbor, and quite honestly it should rarely be done!

In order to know for certain that we are dealing with a wolf in sheep’s clothing, and absolutely, before publicly acknowledging someone as such, we must first of all limit our judgments to the external forum.  This means, simply, that we must confine ourselves to judging a person’s words and actions, and never his thoughts or his perceived motivation, which we can never know.  Only God sees the heart of man.

Secondly, we must go beyond just words and actions.  They are often spoken or performed by people who don’t know better, for example, by the sincere Protestant who has been brought up to believe certain falsehoods, and so, with a genuine love for his neighbor attempts to convert someone to his own way of thinking.  This is not a wolf, someone who must be hunted down and silenced forever.  It is merely a lost soul, a sheep who is not of Christ’s pasture, but who needs to be gently drawn back by the power of the truth and our own charity, which is supernatural and therefore greater than his.

So how can we base our judgments on more than words and actions?  By obeying Christ’s advice, and looking at their fruits.  Anyone can make a mistake, but when they persistunder the guise of sincerity in producing fruit that are obviously rotten, here you have a ravening wolf.  The popes and prelates of Vatican II are a prime example, and so are the growing number of socialists who want to repeat the mistakes of Marx in spite of their infallible record of disaster.  Beware these men, for they have evolved from lost sheep to being predators whose mission is to destroy us all.