12th Week OT (W)
My maternal grandmother, Milly, made the best chocolate pie in the Mississippi Delta. Maybe in the whole state. Let's say all attempts by aunts, cousins, and second-cousins to duplicate her prize pie fail miserably. There's a written recipe. But it wasn't written by Milly. No one knew who composed the recipe, but it is obviously wrong. Over time, lots of sweet tea, and wasted ingredients, the aunts, cousins, and second-cousins compose a recipe that even the oldest members of the family would agree is authentic. Finally! We have the Real Thing captured on paper never to be altered. Mama Milly's Famous Chocolate Pie had reached it culinary perfection. And no pie could rightly be called Mama Milly's Famous Chocolate Pie unless it tasted like it came from her kitchen. The pies her generation of aunts made were fed to the next generation. That generation fed their pies to the next. And so on. We know a pie is the real deal b/c we have family members who remember. When a fake Milly pie makes an appearance, we know it immediately. Even if it tastes better; it's not a Milly pie. And the pie maker is false. We know the baker by his/her pies. Beware false bakers!
Jesus tells us to beware false prophets. Since false prophets rarely – if ever – advertise their duplicity, how do we know they are false? By tasting their pies. Or, as Jesus puts it, by judging their fruits. Good trees produce good fruit. Bad trees bad. So, is the prophet's fruit good or bad? This could be asking whether or not his/her prophecies are fulfilled. Does the prophet prophesy accurately? Or, we could be asking whether or not the prophet prophesies in a way that brings about unity, peace, hope, and holy guidance. Bad fruit brings about: division, turmoil, despair, panic – all leading to a loss of faith. Our history as a Church is jammed packed with false prophets, bellowing about one impending disaster or another. What they all have in common is a lack of trust in God's providence for his Church and a spiritually unhealthy fascination with when All This comes to an end. God sends prophets our way for just one reason: to tell us we have strayed and need to get back on track. He's in control. His plan has always, is now, and will always win out. Nothing changes that. Not war, natural disaster, dumb politicians, or corrupt Church leaders. If you're paying attention to your growth in holiness then you know we are off course. You know we are barreling toward the last guardrail and the brakes don't work. That's been true since three seconds after Christ ascended into heaven. And this is why God wills that through our baptism into the life, death, and resurrection of Christ Jesus we are all made prophets. Priests, prophets, and kings. What David and Elijah and John the Baptist and Christ Himself were by birth, we are made by water and the Spirit. Our great challenge is to be authentic prophets for the God's call to repentance from sin. So, if you want to make Mama Milly's Famous Chocolate Pie, you'll need real chocolate, heavy cream, lots of real sugar and butter, and a tub of lard for the crust. Try it with skim milk, Stevia, and Crisco, and you'll wear the shame of being a false baker. Real bakers, like real prophets, only use real ingredients. And they only produce good fruit.
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