What we think is the right road
There are a number of Catholic leaders, both ordained and lay people, who “challenge the narrative.” That is, they are willing to blaze new trails and bring Catholic doctrine “up to date.”
But it’s the wrong road
In the Old Testament, we meet Balaam, who was asked by Balak, the king of Moab, to curse the Israelites. After a fashion, he began a journey to do so. Using Balaam’s donkey as a means of conversion, an angel persuaded Balaam to continue his trip but to say only the good things the angel desired. Balaam then delivered only blessings, and not curses, saying only what the Lord wanted (Num 24:13; see also Eph 4:29).
However, Balaam is known, in both the Old Testament and New Testament, as someone who would gladly sell his talent and reputation as a prophet. He also carries the chief responsibility for later causing the Israelites to sin by falling into idolatry at Baal-Peor (Num 25; Rev 2:14). For this, he was put to the sword (Num 31:8,16).
Balaam is commonly regarded as a type, or an adumbration, of false prophets seen by early Christians. Balaam loved the money and secular acclaim he won by misusing his power. “False prophets,” St. Peter warned us in 2 Peter 2:1, “appeared in the past among the people, and in the same way false teachers will appear among you” (2:1).
The Letter from Jude similarly warned us against the perennial danger of false teachers who claim to be believers: we must beware, he wrote, because “some godless people have slipped in unnoticed among us, persons who distort the message about the grace of our God in order to excuse their immoral ways, and who reject Jesus Christ, our only Master and Lord... For the sake of money they have given themselves over to the error that Balaam committed” (4, 11).
A number of years ago, while teaching at a seminary, I insisted that the mission of any Catholic church has four elements: glorify God, make saints, and – principally – save souls. These three missions are rooted in the fourth element: teach truth. Something is not true because the Church teaches it; the Church teaches it because it is true. When we depart from the truth for reasons of pelf (money), politics, power or prestige, we jeopardize our souls. “The western world,” wrote Servant of God Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, “has been attempting to preserve the fruits of Christianity after having surrendered the roots.”
At its root, Christianity is always conservative in that it seeks to preserve and to apply the Truth of Christ. There will always be Balaams who deceive and mislead, and the most dangerous of these fraudulent prophets – these fake shepherds, these false teachers – are either those who deny the need for repentance (why repent if there is no sin?) or those who teach only part of the truth.
False prophets ordinarily tell a “truth,” but it is a partial, exaggerated, contaminated truth. The Father of Lies, the Great Deceiver corrupts and kills souls. The devil cannot glorify God, make saints or save souls because he cannot teach truth. He can, though, teach by flattery, adulation or complaisance (CCC 2480), which confirm “malicious acts and perverse conduct.”
Because there will always be false teachers and prophets around us, we must assimilate biblical wisdom: Don’t believe everything you hear (1 Jn 4:1), but test it and avoid every evil (1 Thess 5:21-22). Test by standing firm in the Tradition of the Church (2 Thess 2:15), guarding the truth (2 Tim 1:14). Trust in the Lord; “never rely on what you think you know” (Prv 3:5). In our thoughts, words and deeds, we must conform ourselves not to the world but to God (Rom 12:2, cf. 1 John 2:15). The pillar and foundation of truth is the Church (1 Tim 3:15).
All of this is summarized well in the Catechism, which quotes St. Irenaeus: “Our way of thinking is attuned to the Eucharist, and the Eucharist in turn confirms our way of thinking” (1327). We are truly happy and truly free when we reject the advice of evil men (Psalm 1).
Balaam, the false prophet, can still provide a lesson to us: “Even if Balak gave me all the silver and gold in his palace, I could not disobey the command of the Lord my God in even the smallest matter” (Num 22:18). The tragedy for him, and for us, is that, hearing the siren-songs of Balak or of the world, we too often depart from our Catholic duty to “go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life.”
Deacon James H. Toner serves at Our Lady of Grace Church in Greensboro.