Look, Here is the Messiah! No, There He Is!

Whenever I think of how much Christianity has divided since the time of the Great Schism in the year 1054 to the present time, in which there are now literally thousands of Christian denominations and movements throughout the world, I think of the following words Jesus spoke to the apostles in the Olivet Discourse (Matt 24:23-28 NAB)

23 If anyone says to you then, 'Look, here is the Messiah!' or, 'There he is!' do not believe it.
24 False messiahs and false prophets will arise, and they will perform signs and wonders so great as to deceive, if that were possible, even the elect.
25 Behold, I have told it to you beforehand.
26 So if they say to you, 'He is in the desert,' do not go out there; if they say, 'He is in the inner rooms,' do not believe it.
27 For just as lightning comes from the east and is seen as far as the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be.
28 Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.

I think of these words also whenever well-meaning Christians, who I'm sure were genuinely concerned about my salvation, have said things to me like, 'why are you still remaining in the Catholic Church, it's a cult based on pagan practices,' or there is no biblical basis concerning the practices and doctrine of the Catholic Church, I immediately focus on the Jesus' words, 'Look, here is the Messiah!' or, 'There he is! do not believe it.'

Christ warned in verse 24 of this passage, that false prophets and false messiahs would be able to deceive even the elect. You have to ask yourself the question, how is one so easily deceived? The answer is a lack of genuine knowledge about our faith!

I am not being judgmental here because I have certainly been guilty for many years of not taking the time and putting the effort into learning about my Catholic faith, but how many of us spend tremendous amounts of time to engage in meaningless activities, yet can never find the time or the energy to learn about our faith.

Please! Take the time to learn about your faith and put it into practice. It's been Christ's gift to us for the past 2000 years! When you sincerely seek the truth about it, you'll find it to be a beautiful source of spiritual strength and nourishment that is intended to sustain us until our Savior's return!

Peace!