The more pride we have, the more likely
we are to be deceived. It happens to everyone. Even the most
well-intentioned can be deceived -- in matters of the world or spirit. In
the realm of mystical, this can even happen with "gifts of the spirit" --
such as healing. It's one reason the Church is so careful. Years ago, a person we know was "healed" by a
"visionary" but the healing was temporary and this person was soon worse
off than with the original affliction.
How can that be?
Can demons heal?
According to Monsignor Milivoj Bolobanic,
an exorcist from Croatia who has written extensively on the topic (for our
discernment), deceptive spirits can "cause physical and spiritual visual and
auditory illusions; a false state of ecstasy; make a body radiate and
cause a feeling of great warmth in the heart; cause a sensual sweetness;
cause stigmata and other sensory or mystical bodily occurrences; and cure
uncommon diseases in an instant that have originated from evil spirits."
In other words, just about anything; and they can remove illnesses they themselves have caused (or
exacerbated).
That's not real healing, of course, and there is
always a price to pay.
False "gifts"?
One has to be careful because the
evil spirits are superintelligent and without Jesus we're no match for
them. Notes this priest: "Among all the saints, Satan and the occultists prefer to
mystify by imitating Saint Pio of Pietrelcina. People who are fanatically
devoted to Padre Pio seek a way to receive the stigmata, become able to
bilocate, and so forth, all for the purpose of rendering his imitation as
true as possible."
Deceptive spirits can cause "odd images" in photographs, Monsignor Bolobanic (in
An Exorcist Speaks) points out, and so it is that when we encounter a "sign" or a
person with a mystical gift we must first step back and consider it
through the lens of humility, fasting, and prayer.
We have to be careful not to be overly wary (look at how Jesus was
accused, when He caused miracles, of operating in concert with the devil),
but we also have to look closely at anyone associated with a supernatural
happening and look first and foremost for humility.
Holiness and a heroic life of living evangelical virtues are preferable,
he says, to
spectacular manifestations.
But manifestations there are, and the evil ones apes them as a diversion.
This is a very common tactic of the devil: to distract us. He distracts us
with idols. When we think of idols we think of half-human, half-animal
representations in Egypt or the golden calves of Babylon or the goddesses
or Rome and Greece.
And idols -- evil -- they were.
But there are other "idols," and if it seems strange that the Vatican
should teach that those other idols include such things as money, fame,
power, entertainment, food, comforts, luxuries, or other bad habits and
"mis-orientations," we should look at them in the sense of what they are:
distractions. Like the golden calves of old, like multi-armed goddesses,
and jackal-headed images of pharaohs, they divert us from the path of holiness.
We are addicted to the fleeting enjoyment but they never fill us and leave
us satisfied, as do things from the Lord. How can we compromise with evil and still be okay?
There is no such thing as the "lesser of two evils."
There is intrinsic evil and we are blinded to it when we have lost touch
with the good deep part of us that discerns in the spirit of
self-effacement.
Monsignor Bolobanic points out that
"some people are hindered to turn to God because of their 'enlightened'
scientific and philosophic accomplishments. Their pride is blocking them
from seeing the Truth. As a result, they go to the opposite extreme,
putting their trust and worship in their favorite idols: gold idols --
economic power; brass idols -- technology and armaments; stone idols --
massive buildings."
How many of us are diverted by those things in our pockets and purses
called cell phones?
How much time do we spend talking versus praying, listening to radio or
gossip or television versus waiting for the soft still Voice of the Lord?
Now here's a prayer he gives us:
"Jesus, my Lord, have mercy on me. I am sorry for all the sins I have
committed. I despise all my sins and sinful occasions. I kindly ask You to
forgive me. Wash me in Your Precious Blood. My Lord and my God, have pity
on me, a sinner. My soul thirsts and longs for Your Holy Spirit. Fill me
with Your Spirit so powerfully that I may be cleansed, healed, and saved.
Thank You, Jesus, I praise You, Jesus!"
Says a responsorial psalm from last week: "The Lord is near to all who call
upon him, to all who call upon him in truth."
[resources:An Exorcist Speaks]
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