Pope Francis appealed to Christians to be more vigilant about what they allow into their hearts and to "test the spirits" in order to avoid falling victim to the false prophets of our time.

Vatican Radio is reporting on the homily given by the Pope at morning Mass on January 7 in which he reflected on St. John's "almost obsessive" repetition of the words, "remain in the Lord." The apostle is emphasizing that one of the attitudes of the Christian who wants to remain in the Lord is to understand what is happening in their own heart. For this reason, we are warned to "not trust every spirit, but test the spirits" in order to properly discern them. Does something help us to remain in the Lord, or does it steer us away from him?

“Our heart  always has desires, has cravings, has thoughts, but are these from the Lord or do some of these things take us away from the Lord?” the pope asks.

“If this goes along the line of the Lord, it will go well, but if not… Test the spirits to see if they really come from God, because many false prophets have come into the world. Prophets or prophecies or suggestions: ‘I want to do this!’ But this does not bring you to the Lord, it leads you away from Him. That’s why vigilance is necessary. The Christian is a man or a woman who knows to keep watch over his or her heart. And many times our heart, and with so many things that come and go, seems a local market: everything, you can find everything there… No! We need to test things - this is from the Lord, and this is not – in order to remain in the Lord.”

By what criteria should we determine if something comes from the Lord or from the antichrist? St. John gives us a "simple" idea, the pope says.

“Every spirit that acknowledges Jesus Christ come in the flesh belongs to God, and every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus does not belong to God. This is the spirit of the antichrist.”

But what does it mean, “to recognize that the Word is come in the flesh?” It means “recognizing the path of Jesus Christ,” recognizing that He is God, that He emptied Himself, He humbled Himself, even to death on a cross."

“That is the path of Jesus Christ: abasement, humility, humiliation as well. If a thought, if a desire takes you along the road of humility and abasement, of service to others, is from Jesus. But if it brings you to the road of sufficiency, of vanity, of pride, along the path of an abstract thought, it is not from Jesus. We think of the temptations of Jesus in the wilderness: all three proposals the demon makes to Jesus are proposals that intended to take Him away from this path, the path of service, of humility, of humiliation, of charity. But the charity accomplished with His life, no? To the three temptations Jesus says no: ‘No, this is not my path!”

The Pope then invited the congregation to consider what happens in their own hearts. "What do we think and feel, what do we desire, do I examine the spirits? Do I test what I think, what I want, what I desire, or do I accept it all without discernment?"

He warned that too many times, the heart is like a busy highway with all kinds of things passing by.

"Put it to the test!" he advises. "And do I always choose the things that come from God? Do I know which are the things that come from God? Do I know the true criterion by which to discern my thoughts, my desires? Let us think of this, and let us not forget that the criterion is the Incarnation of the Word. The Word is come in the flesh: this is Jesus Christ! Jesus Christ who was made man, God made man, who lowered Himself, humbled Himself for love, in order to serve all of us. And may the Apostle John grant us this grace to know what is happening in our hearts, and to have the wisdom to discern what is of God and what is not of God.”

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