St Raymond of Peñafort (c.1175 – 1275)
First reading – 1 John 3:22-4:6
“This is how we can tell the spirit of truth from the spirit of falsehood.” How can we distinguish the spirit of truth from the spirit of falsehood? We can distinguish between when we say that we believe in the name of the Son of God, Jesus Christ and we don’t love one another. This is the spirit of falsehood. But when we believe in Jesus Christ and when we love one another, that is the spirit of truth. Also it’s vice versa; if we don’t believe in Jesus Christ and just we love each other this is spirit of error because your love to each other is superficial and attached to this world. But if our love to each other is based on our belief that Jesus Christ is the son of God, we have the spirit of truth. Because our love to one another is a participation in the life of God as we love one another as the Son of God told us. We believe in Jesus Christ; we follow Him, and we love each other. When one element in this is missing, we fall into error. Let’s reflect: Are our belief in Jesus Christ and our love to one another are connected?