How Do We Know?
Jan. 6: Monday after Epiphany
Today is the traditional date for Epiphany. As
points out in :In the 1955, the privileged Octave was removed from the calendar, and later Epiphanytide, which extended the Christmas season to February 2nd was suppressed. In the 1970 reform to the U.S calendar, Epiphany was moved from its ancient feast day on January 6th to the most convenient Sunday and the Christmas season was shortened from February 2nd to whatever day Epiphany fell on. In the Extraordinary form, Epiphany is still celebrated on the 6th and the Christmas season still lasts till February 2nd.
You can read her wonderful article here—
Reading 1
1 John 3:22–4:6
Beloved: We receive from him whatever we ask, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. And his commandment is this: we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he commanded us. Those who keep his commandments remain in him, and he in them, and the way we know that he remains in us is from the Spirit whom he gave us.
Beloved, do not trust every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they belong to God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can know the Spirit of God: every spirit that acknowledges Jesus Christ come in the flesh belongs to God, and every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus does not belong to God. This is the spirit of the antichrist who, as you heard, is to come, but in fact is already in the world. You belong to God, children, and you have conquered them, for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They belong to the world; accordingly, their teaching belongs to the world, and the world listens to them. We belong to God, and anyone who knows God listens to us, while anyone who does not belong to God refuses to hear us. This is how we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of deceit.
From the very beginning of the Bible, we're told that not everything supernatural is good. A talking serpent tricked Eve into committing the first sin.1 Balaam's donkey warned him he was in danger of being slain by an angel.2 How are we to distinguish good miracles from bad?
John tells us: only if what they tell us comports with what we already know about Jesus and God. At the time of writing, there was a heresy that Jesus wasn't fully human, but simply a visible manifestation of God. We don't run into that particularly heresy so much anymore, but there are others. The point is to trust in revelation and the magisterium of the Church.
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 2:7bc-8, 10-12a
R. (8ab) I will give you all the nations for an inheritance.
The LORD said to me, “You are my Son;
this day I have begotten you.
Ask of me and I will give you
the nations for an inheritance
and the ends of the earth for your possession.”
R. I will give you all the nations for an inheritance.
And now, O kings, give heed;
take warning, you rulers of the earth.
Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice before him;
with trembling rejoice.
R. I will give you all the nations for an inheritance.
Christ is King, and God holds rulers especially responsible for those living under them. Jesus is the perfect king, and thus John's first reading tells us to trust in his teaching. But we should not trust rulers of the Earth who contradict Him. And if we should somehow find ourselves in the position of ruling over others (either politically, or at a company or even a family), we should remember to take the above warning and remember God is always above us.
Alleluia
See Mt 4:23
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Jesus proclaimed the Gospel of the Kingdom
and cured every disease among the people.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Jesus' miracles are meant to be a sign of something greater.
Gospel
Mt 4:12-17, 23-25
When Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali, that what had been said through Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled:
Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way to the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people who sit in darkness have seen a great light, on those dwelling in a land overshadowed by death light has arisen.
From that time on, Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
He went around all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom, and curing every disease and illness among the people. His fame spread to all of Syria, and they brought to him all who were sick with various diseases and racked with pain, those who were possessed, lunatics, and paralytics, and he cured them. And great crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan followed him.
These events happened immediately after Jesus fasted in the desert forty days, and was tempted by the devil. Satan had tried quoting scripture out of context,3 but Jesus rebuked Him.
Here, we see Jesus fulfilling scripture, by moving into a town that didn't even exist at the time of Isaiah's prophesy,4 between the territories of two of the minor tribes of Israel.5 Jesus also begins His ministry by echoing the last prophet, John the Baptist, declaring “the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Jesus, by His life, clearly illustrates that there are good readings and bad readings of scripture. We have to do our best to follow Jesus and His Church, because that's the path to the Kingdom.
Capernaum was probably built after the Babylonian exile.
The territory of these two tribes was the first to be devastated the Assyrian invasion in the 8th century BC.