Wednesday in the Twelfth Week of Ordinary Time, June 22, 2022

Matthew 7, 15-20

Jesus said to his disciples: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but underneath are ravenous wolves. By their fruits you will know them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? Just so, every good tree bears good fruit, and a rotten tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a rotten tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. So by their fruits you will know them.”

Sprinkled throughout the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount are sayings that would make better sense if the Lord had spoken them after his Resurrection rather than before.  St. Matthew may have presented many of the Lord’s words here as he remembered them, not concerning himself with chronology so much as with topic.  This was a common method of writing which we find in, say, the Book of Proverbs and the Book of Isaiah.  When the Lord warns his disciples about false prophets, he is speaking of situations which will arise as the Church grows.  

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but underneath are ravenous wolves.”  The quintessential false prophet in “sheep’s clothing” is the beast in the Book of Revelation, the Anti-Christ, who is described by the number 666.  The number itself was considered a perfect number among ancient people, especially among the Israelites, because the number 6 is the sum of its parts: 1+2+3+6.  It also signified goodness in that God created the universe in six days, and considered all that he had made “good”.  For this reason, we must be careful of those whose words are honeyed but whose actions reek with sin: “By their fruits you will know them.”