Some Challenging, End-of-the-year Questions

In today’s first reading from 1 John 2: 18-21, we are told that “it is the last hour; and just as [we] hear that the antichrist was coming, so now many antichrists have appeared” (1 John 2: 18). In 1951, Fulton J. Sheen, a Roman Catholic bishop, wrote ^[51][52]  that “the Antichrist will not be so called; otherwise he would have no followers...he will come disguised as the Great Humanitarian; he will talk peace, prosperity and plenty not as means to lead us to God, but as ends in themselves...He will tempt Christians with the same three temptations with which he tempted Christ... (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia).

Are we being tempted?

St. John says to us in 1 John 2: 20-21: …[Y]ou have the anointing that comes from the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. I write to you not because you do not know the truth but because you do, and because every lie is alien to the truth.”

Are we being lied to?

If we are going to discern wisely and skillfully, we need to ask ourselves those questions always and do so in prayer.