Saturday in the Octave of Christmas, January 2, 2021

John 2:22-28

Beloved: Who is the liar? Whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Whoever denies the Father and the Son, this is the antichrist. Anyone who denies the Son does not have the Father, but whoever confesses the Son has the Father as well.  Let what you heard from the beginning remain in you. If what you heard from the beginning remains in you, then you will remain in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he made us: eternal life. I write you these things about those who would deceive you. As for you, the anointing that you received from him remains in you, so that you do not need anyone to teach you. But his anointing teaches you about everything and is true and not false; just as it taught you, remain in him. And now, children, remain in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not be put to shame by him at his coming.

In this part of his First Letter, the Apostle John gives more detail about the error concerning which he is warning his readers.  At the beginning of this reading, John calls the one who teaches this error a “liar”.  That is to say, this person is propagating his false teaching from within the church: he knows what John has taught the members and he deliberately, cleverly, perverts it.  This spreader of error “denies that Jesus is the Christ.”  This particularly means that he denied that Jesus is the anointed of God, and that he is, instead, an ordinary human.  Furthermore, he “denies the Father and the Son”, and so John declares, “this is the antichrist.”  The gnostic belief John is fighting held that Jesus was indeed an ordinary man who was seized or possessed by a gnostic spirit at the time of his baptism by John the Baptist, and who used him as a sort of puppet to teach gnostic doctrine.  On the cross, the gnostic spirit abandoned this human Jesus, who cried out, according to the Gnostics, “My power, my power, why have you abandoned me?”  The gnostic spirit was not the “son of God”, and so neither was Jesus, according to them.  We find their version of the Lord Jesus in their apocryphal gospels, which are travesties of the true Gospels.  

John emphasizes, in contrast to these false teachings, that “Anyone who denies the Son does not have the Father, but whoever confesses the Son has the Father as well.”  There can be no right belief in God without right belief in the Son.  This is because we cannot understand God as Father unless we understand that he has begotten the Son.  Right belief, then, leads us to the heart of the Holy Trinity, where we know the Father and the Son are in unity with the Holy Spirit, the nexus of the Father and Son, as St. Thomas Aquinas puts it.  “Let what you heard from the beginning remain in you.”  John urges his hearers to maintain their faith in what he, the Apostle, has told them, and not to be swayed by some person unauthorized to teach.  “If what you heard from the beginning remains in you, then you will remain in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he made us: eternal life.”  If they persevere in the Faith taught them by him, the Apostle, who told them of that “which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands” (1 John 1, 1), then they will have eternal life with God.  Gnostic belief was quite vague about whether there was an afterlife and what it might consist of.  Their emphasis was on gaining “enlightenment” in the present life.

“The anointing that you received from him remains in you, so that you do not need anyone to teach you.”  This “anointing” refers to the reception of Baptism, Confirmation and the Holy Eucharist, as well as the sanctifying and sacramental graces associated with these sacraments, and also the correct teaching of the Faith, which had to be thoroughly understood beforehand.  This anointing comes not from another human but “from him”, from the Lord himself.  “His anointing teaches you about everything and is true and not false; just as it taught you, remain in him.”  The anointing itself teaches, in that the grace we receive in Baptism radically transforms us, and that which we receive from the other sacraments causes us to grow spiritually.  We are made new persons through the sacraments, especially through Baptism.  As St. Paul tells us, “Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”  Through the grace of God we can see the world for what it is, and see and live the life of the Lord.  By these graces, we can know the will of God for us.  In this verse, St. Paul calls upon the Christians in Rome to follow the will of God through the grace they have received.

“And now, children, remain in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not be put to shame by him at his coming.”  Reman in the Lord Jesus as the most dear members of his Body — resolutely adhering to him through right Faith and holy lives.  We recall how the Lord prayed for this at the Last Supper: “Father, I will that where I am, they also whom you have given me may be with me: that they may see my glory which you have given me” (John 17, 24).  As for those “put to shame by him at his coming”: “If any one abide not in me, he shall be cast forth as a branch and shall wither, and they shall gather him up and cast him into the fire and he shall burn” (John 15, 6).

Many voices today attempt to tell us who our Savior is.  Some voices tell us that only material goods, or riches, or physical pleasure can give us happiness.  Others warp the message of Christ so that it fits their agenda, as the Gnostics did, and they tell us that their version of Christ is true.  It is so necessary that we learn about Christ and his teachings from the Church founded upon St. Peter, and to pray for that Church so that her message may not be distorted by anyone professing to be a member of hers who preaches a gospel other than hers.