The false prophets

In today's readings, there are multiple mentions of the word "false". In Psalm 118, the psalmist asks the Lord to "Keep my eyes from what is false".

In the Gospel from Matthew, Jesus gives the disciples this warning:

Beware of false prophets who come to you disguised as sheep but underneath are ravenous wolves.

"Wisdom" is the first word that comes to mind when I think about distinguishing between what is true and what is false.

Wisdom comes from experience, so in order to understand and put into practice the distinction, you have to experience most things.

Not necessarily everything. 

For some, you can be contempt with what you hear from those who have experienced it before or, like the case of king Josiah in the first reading, you can learn from books.

Wisdom allows us to distinguish between true and false statements, good and evil.

The difficulty is that most times what is false disguises itself as true.

This goes all the way back to Adam and Eve, where the apple is falsely presented by the serpent as something good.

In our life, the first gate against falsehood are, for most people, their parents.

Even in our adult age, they still try to protect us from what is not good for us.

In today's world, it's easy to come across false prophets in media, particularly social media.

Fake news are a way to present as true something that at best is only partially true and, at worst, is completely false.

Curiously, the more extreme the false position is, the more likely for people to hold on to it.

I believe we don't have to go on social media to experience the "false prophets".

There is false prophet in each one of us.

It's a constant voice running parallel to our lives, telling us what we should do or, more often than not, what we should have done.

It's the voice trying to discourage us from progressing, learning, improving ourselves.

It's the voice that looks inward into our own interests.

It's the voice of scarcity or limited resources.

It's telling us to be selfish.

It's telling us to build a fence around ourselves and fight off what and who is around.

It's presented to us like the best, most viable option.

Wisdom helps us identify this voice but ultimately the choice is ours to make.