In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Discernment is a gift from God that consists of supernatural knowledge of the secrets of the heart or personal things.
The practice of discernment of Spirits is as old as Christian spirituality.
To discern is to distinguish between good and evil in order to choose the good.
It's important to discern everything we read, listen to and watch
as Saint Paul stated: "test everything and hold on to what is good"
1 Thessalonians 5:21
The Apostle Saint Paul calls it “discretio spirituum”
which means discernment of spirits
which is knowing how to distinguish and know
when the inner speech or visions are of the good spirit or of the bad spirit.
Many saints had the beautiful gift of discernment from God
and lived it in its fullness.
Therefore, if we don't have it, we can ask God to give it to us
and He who can read our hearts can grant us that gift
if it's His will.
In this video we are going to share the criteria and valuable information
that will help us to know about the gift of discernment
and how we can do our effort to humanly start discerning.
Let's remember that God values our effort
and it is through our effort that we show God that we want something.
We are going to know deeply what discernment is in the New Testament and how Jesus did it.
In the Old Testament the problem of discernment was related to the Mosaic Law
and in the New Testament
it is the Spirit of God, who is revealed to all men in the person of Jesus.
We will analyze the context of Jesus' discernment.
The verb KRINO, from the Greek, is the most used in the New Testament
it has the following definitions:
separate
choose
cut
distinguish
discern
All these definitions express to us an action typical of human knowledge and its judgment
in the face of a reality that must be assumed.
KRINO has a derivative DOKIMAZO, which means to test
to examine in detail, as well as to put someone or something to the test.
In Romans 12:1-2
Saint Paul exhorts the Romans to offer themselves to God totally.
For this offering to be pleasing to God, a renewal of the mind is necessary
the capacity to distinguish in all things that are done
desired or expected that which leads us to the Will of God
The will of God, according to Saint Paul is the good, the pleasant, the perfect.
Another aspect that we can highlight is the Cultual meaning
or everything related to the religious cult of the offering.
The body is offered
not as a simple material element,
but as the depository of all the attributes of people.
In other words,
offering oneself totally and definitively to God,
without reservations or limitations
is what allows man to know how to discern His will.
In the Scriptures we have seen how discern and discernment are words that express an interior reality
in man's relationship with God.
This means when a person wants to do a process of discernment,
he has to do it based on what is known in theology as "Call-Answer".
The subject of the call is always God.
The object, is the man.
The reason for the call: the mission.
In Jesus Christ a call that God makes to men
is the call to a mission
we can see this in Matthew 5:48.
We must bear in mind that the listening capacity is fundamentally about listening with the heart
as requested by Solomon.
The capacity to listen with the heart
is only acquired when one lives a deep relationship
of friendship and trust with God.
Prayer helps us create that environment where discernment moves.
In conclusion
if we could summarize it in one sentence,
we can say that: "To discern is to have the capacity to distinguish the best of the best."
Discernment is a matter for men and women
married and single
for young people, for children, for adults, for the old.
The most perfect example is found in the life and behavior of Jesus.
Because to believe in Jesus is to follow Jesus
And to follow Jesus
is to assume as criteria of discernment exactly the same criteria that guided Jesus:
Jesus assumed the cause of the poor and oppressed as his own cause
For this reason, he expressed solidarity with them
and made solidarity his fundamental means of evangelization.
Unlimited solidarity.
A solidarity that inevitably caused conflict to the point of persecution and death.
This model of solidarity is the ideal that should guide the Christian's conscience in its decisions.
These criteria do not seek to have an exemplary behavior
nor to be a person "of order"
according to the criteria of the established society.
Jesus did not intend the implantation of the Kingdom of God, using any kind of means.
Jesus stayed with those in need and for them He did what was done.
To become a disciple of Jesus a calling is necessary.
When following Jesus, the disciples get to know the teacher
whose typical attitude is service.
In this following and service
the disciples get to know the teacher-Jesus to dedicate themselves to mutual contemplation
and to fulfill the mission of announcing and making signs of the Good News.
"Call" is the word used to express the assignment of a mission to a prophet
as Yahweh mysteriously called Samuel three times.
In the New Testament he speaks of the call to faith, that is, to salvation in general.
God calls through Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ called many disciples and of these he chose a few to form the small group of apostles.
The apostle is first a disciple
and this condition of disciple is never lost
but is considered prior and necessary.
Apostles never stop being disciples.
The way Jesus calls people is simple and in various ways:
Sometimes it is Jesus himself who takes the initiative.
He passes by, listens and calls.
Other times, it is the disciples who invite relatives and friends
or it is John the Baptist who points to the Lamb of God.
Other times, it is the same person who introduces himself and offers to follow Jesus.
The person being called knows Jesus.
They have already lived with him.
They have had the opportunity to see him help people
or to listen to him in the synagogue of the community
They know how Jesus lives and thinks.
Let us remember that discernment
is the mediation that is established between the love and glory of God.
Therefore, the key to discernment is love.
Man can be deceived, by doing discernment
and he can take as God's will what, in reality, is human will.
So, what criteria does the believer have to know that the voice of conscience does not deceive him
and to be able to choose what he has to do?
The Christian only has the criteria that are provided by the fruits of the Holy Spirit
the fruits of the Holy Spirit that we find in Galatians 5:22-23
Where these fruits are produced, discernment is correct.
Where these fruits are not produced, discernment is false
even though there are other things, such as: piety, devotion,
fidelity to rules, effectiveness, and more.
All of this is good and necessary. But it is not enough.
And it can even be misleading,
because man can satisfy himself in his conscience with these things
and, precisely because of this
he may not realize how far he is walking away from God.
Only the presence of the fruit of the Holy Spirit
can guarantee the rectitude of our decisions.
The fruit of the Holy Spirit is reduced to one thing only:
fraternal love in its various manifestations.
The vertical relationship towards God
is never presented as a fruit of the Holy Spirit
that is, it is not presented as a criterion for knowing whether man is right or wrong
when trying to discover what God wants from him.
Only the fruits that are produced in our social coexistence can guarantee the rectitude of our decisions.
Consequently
where there is division, resentment, aggressiveness,
intolerance,
stinginess, distrust,
self-sufficiency, insincerity,
distancing from others,
especially, if they are the poorest
and, especially where there is oppression
it is entirely impossible in these things
no matter how high the motives that are produced, to find what God wants.
In the text of Romans 12:2
it speaks of the necessary rupture in any process of discernment.
The indispensable condition, in order to carry out Christian discernment,
is the breaking with the world.
That is, not accepting that the established order is above the values that God has set.
God creates man, according to the image of Jesus
making a real community with Him, humbly dwelling with Him.
If we look closely at the great manifestations of God that appear in Scripture
we will realize that He always manifests himself not to isolated individuals
but to individuals belonging to a community and by following the order in the community.
God certainly speaks in a personal way, but keeping the community in mind
If properly discerned,
not only the individual will benefit but also the entire community will benefit from it.
One of the surest criteria for discerning the authentic inspirations of the Holy Spirit is readiness to obey.
The Holy Spirit does not guide us to become independent in relation to these human authorities.
On the contrary,
he makes us more obedient to them,
and give us happiness through our obedience and readiness to obey the authorities
as God's servants for our good
Humility is one of the most difficult virtues
since pride in its many forms is inoculated in the depths of the human being, from its origin
For this reason,
Humility is another of the valid criteria to know the genuine inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
It is proper to His action to foster humility:
“if we have the life of the Holy Spirit
let us not seek vain glory.
Jesus, after the great manifestations of His power, orders that these not be published"
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.