Fake news

Gospel: Mt 11:16-19
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/121324.cfm

To change, we have to be willing to change. We can let the world impact us for the better, or we can let it impact us for the worst. We can let ourselves be moved into a complementary position for others or we can hold our ground. We can accept and reciprocate or we can reject and push away.

You hear a lot today about fake news. It’s a term used by almost all sides of a given issue or way of looking at an experience. Any view that is different from your own is fake news. Even facts can be seen as fake today if it supports a view different from your own. Truth is what you make it, and we can’t let things challenge us to think differently. We can easily fall trap to the mentality that Jesus speaks of in today’s gospel. Once we’ve doubled-down on a belief system, it’s next to impossible to change our minds. If we change our minds, it impacts the way in which we see the world and can fracture our ego.

Jesus calls us to transform. Not to be transformed for the sake of transformation, but so that we can grow closer to others and to God. An open heart has room for all as a closed heart has room for no one. We all fall somewhere in between and it can fluctuate. God wants us to continue to open to a deeper understanding and experience of love for creation, ourselves, each other, and God.

In the end, wisdom is vindicated by her deeds, or truth is understood by what it brings into being. Hate will propagate hate, and love will propagate love. Choose that which brings about justice, mercy, and love. Amen.