Since time immemorial, we have been warned about false prophets. The Bible is full of such warnings. Now, sadly, we seem oblivious to these warnings. I get the impression many feel these warnings have become obsolete or irrelevant.

We have to understand that the quest for truth always brings with it the accompanying concern to be watchful with falsehoods. And so, given our human condition, we also have to learn to distinguish between true prophets or teachers from the false ones. There are guidelines on these matters.

This is not to drive us paranoid, but we need to be reminded that the worst falsehood can be made to look and sound like the truth, and that the falsest prophet can be made to appear precisely like the true teacher.

They can have the form, but not the substance, the fiery rhetoric but not the message. We cannot exaggerate our duty to be vigilant, and to do all we can to properly carry out our part, whether we are cleric or lay, in the prophetic mission of the people of God.

Problems abound in this matter. For one, the concept of truth has suffered tremendous defacement. Instead of truth, people talk more of opinions. There are no more absolute truths or truths of faith, only relative and personal opinions.

Not that there is no room for opinions. They will always be around. But nowadays, there?s hardly any effort to try to conform them to truth. Their weight and power is often derived from sources other than the truth and some objective universal law. They come more from brute force, naked political maneuvering or subtle cultural conditionings.

In the meantime, truth or reality is often reduced to what simply is sensible, or practical, or intelligible. Beyond that, there is no more truth or reality. Thus, spiritual and supernatural realities are systematically blocked and discarded.

At best, they are considered mere figments of the imagination, or material for one's reasoning. They don't exist by themselves. They may just be products of one's psyching his own self.

With such understanding of truth, you can just imagine how the concept of true prophet or teacher can be greatly disfigured, almost beyond recognition. Fact is it has been twisted, distorted, severely reduced, detached from its source and goal.

Mention the word, prophet, and the immediate idea that comes to the mind of most people is an ancient figure, obviously held irrelevant in the present, who made some predictions of events that now also have little resonance to many.

I'm afraid it's a concept that has been fossilized in the lives of many, hopefully not yet in the culture of peoples, together with the reality of religion, faith, God. The curiosity that it generates today is precisely one that a typical guy at present has toward a fossil.

Mention the word, teacher, and there's hardly anything that goes beyond the idea of a mentor in the class room, transmitting merely technical data. Its foundation to God, its eminently religious dimension, is almost completely obliterated.

To a certain extent, this phenomenon is understandable in the secular world. But I'm afraid it is creeping even into the ecclesiastical world. A few ecclesiastics are acting less of prophets and teachers in the name of Christ, head of the Church. They act more like opinion-makers themselves.

They are quick to make their opinion on socio-political issues known, giving as excuse the need to evangelize these aspects of our life. And yet, many indications on this matter as articulated in the Church's social doctrine seem to be ignored.

This, to me, is a problem that needs to be urgently resolved, before things really go out of hand, producing a real mess. Some Church leaders are cheapening their clerical dignity, misunderstanding their mission, and are adulterating the Gospel message with their own personal opinions.

In the Gospel, Jesus showed his anger to the people?s leaders then precisely because they distorted all the prophecies, doctrines and tradition related to the coming of the Redeemer. Terrible words were used, like:

Woe to you, lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge. You yourselves have not entered in, and those that were entering in, you have hindered.? (Lk 11,52)
I wonder if these words could still be uttered by Christ to us now.

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Fr. Roy Cimagala is the Chaplain of Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE) in Talamban, Cebu City. You can email him at:Email: roycimagala@boholchronicle.com