Today Fr Prodencio Bognay reads from the Gospel of Matthew (7: 15-20) in which Jesus says, ‘beware of false prophets who come to you disguised as sheep, but underneath are ravenous wolves. You will be able to tell them by their fruit.’

Fr Prodencio says that during the time of Jesus, part of their dilemma was that many of their religious leaders were detached from what they preached. They preached about being religious and spiritual, but many were just not spiritual themselves.

As far as their knowledge were concerned, they knew the topic but as far as their lifestyle were concerned, they were far from being enlightened.

In our own time, we have come to this age where anybody can have easy access to study and know our religion and spirituality.

The only common problem between the time of Jesus and our own time is the issue about the difference between practicing religion and spirituality for the sake of becoming expert and that of becoming enlightened.

Nowadays, a lot of us have gained certain amount of expertise in religion and spirituality. Unfortunately, this is usually limited to being knowledgeable only instead of being enlightened.

Just like during the time of Jesus, we can spot the difference by their fruits.
Somebody who works to become expert knows what he believes. He understands the logical inferences of his beliefs and so he knows why he should believe.

A person who works for enlightenment, on the other hand, believes what he knows. His concrete experiences or encounters of the divine brings him what he knows. He is guided not only by logical inferences, but more importantly, by his personal encounters with the divine.

While we might have become wiser in detecting false prophets, there is a need for us to check the direction of our journey.

As we reflect on the words of Jesus today, Fr Prodencio invites us to take time to ponder where our journey is bringing us.