The Twenty-First Sunday After Pentecost (Gal. 2:16–20; Lk. 8:5–15)

By the thorns and thistles that choke the word of divine truth, in addition to wealth, pleasures, and the cares of daily life, we must in our time understand also the various false teachings spread by scholars who have lost the truth and gone astray from the path to it. Many such teachings circulate among us: some openly and directly oppose the truth; others work through coded hints, understandable nonetheless to those at whom they are directed. In substance they act like carbon monoxide: entering imperceptibly, they cloud the mind and lead to a loss of clear awareness of everything around one. Whoever has inhaled enough of this fume begins to rave like a sleeper, for everything appears to him in an entirely different light from how it really is and how it appears to those of sound mind. When you encounter such a person, you see that in him not only all truth has been suppressed, but even the sense of truth has been stifled, and falsehood has penetrated into every faculty of the mind. What is to be done? Do not listen to and do not read these ravings; and if you have involuntarily heard or read them, throw them out of your head; and if they will not be thrown out, subject them to reasoned examination, and they will all dissolve like smoke.