Further Theological Discussions
“The current demonic surge, perhaps the last battle, may make it appear that the dark days have returned, but not so. Christ’s victory is both total and irrevocable, although it is still growing into its full manifestation. We need merely affirm Christ’s victory in prayer and at Church in order to participate in it. We absolutely do not have to wrestle these demons, as psychologically satisfying as that might be at times considering the tragedy they have caused. They are simply too big. They have a thousand unseen tentacles that will inevitably cause harm to those around us if we are foolish enough to engage them directly.
“Don’t get me wrong; we should never fear them or permit ourselves to be intimidated; God is on our side. But prayer is simply a smarter way to deal with demons than fisticuffs.
“Many people on the street these days look possessed, and they are certainly in danger of it, but they don’t act possessed, not fully. Therefore, hardly any of the candidate situations constitutes true possession. That’s not to say that the typical behavior of the modern citizen is good; it is not good. Modern society seems to have fully lost its conception of sin.
“Admittedly, people who are oppressed heavily by demons can be a sort of pariah to those around them, almost a curse. But when someone is truly possessed the real trouble starts: encounters with the dramatically supernatural, not just a hint of paranormal bouquet.
“The
senseless acts of family violence that are all over the news, the campus
shootings, homicidal road rage, apparently normal people ‘going postal’ etc.
That’s where you look for demonic possession. Over fifty children die of
abuse in their own home every year right here in the little state of
“On the other hand, when previously faithful people inexplicably begin to blaspheme God and exhibit an overpowering aversion to the Church and the scripture, there is reason to fear possession. Of course, the supernatural remains predominantly veiled and mysterious to human perception, and the devil may elect to employ very complex stratagems. It may serve his purpose to conceal his presence for a time in some cases. The only way to know for sure if someone is possessed is for the bishop or priest to place the demon under Christ’s authority in the Holy Rite of Exorcism. Only when the priest wrings the truth out of the demon by the sheer power and authority of God can the diagnosis be confirmed. However, no one besides the bishop or his delegate is currently authorized by the Church to do this.”
Father pauses for a moment to think.
“C. S. Lewis’ space trilogy is not bad either, put that on your list: Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength are the titles. It is called the Ransom trilogy in the index to Christian literature. Professor Ransom, the central character, leads the forces of good in an epic struggle against an evil takeover of world government. A genuine page turner. Stock up on snacks. You won’t want to leave the sofa for a few days.
“Lewis, as you probably know, is the author of Chronicles of Narnia. You may remember the movie with the lovable Christ-like lion. Lewis has written countless uplifting books of the faith. The Ransom trilogy is fiction, but it reveals the underlying spiritual war we are currently embroiled in, and how government can be ludicrously affected.”
“I remember reading the Ransom trilogy in high school. I just considered it science fiction at the time,” Rick recalls.
“You are technically correct. It is in the science fiction genre, but Lewis is one of the premier theologians of all time. The implications for our current struggle are there, trust me. Pray for discernment—you’ll get it.
“Let’s
take a real world example, the absurdly slow response to the evacuees at the
“The U.S. Coast Guard, thanks be to God, did its normal superlative job rescuing people, but simply could not be everywhere at once. The Coast Guard’s performance bordered on the miraculous, and USFWS did a great job. But the bureaucratic decision makers got in the way of an optimized application of the resources available. People died because of it. That was a classic example of a government infected with demonic intrusion. Inhumane idiocy of this kind has all the earmarks of the demonic. Lewis’ trilogy takes the situation a step further to reveal its fully insane potential.
“Take my word for it. The devil planned and assembled the Katrina tragedy one piece at a time, as if he were laying out a jigsaw puzzle. He then supernaturally blocked and delayed proper response until it was too late for some.
“Rapid response military units should have been placed on standby the moment Katrina entered the Gulf with Category 4/5 winds. They should have been sent in immediately once the winds cleared. A big problem requires a big solution. It’s common sense. Neither the obvious nor the possible were done in this case. Nonetheless, the bureaucracy will give you twenty years of congressional investigations at the taxpayers’ expense and a hundred reams of complex reports, all of which serve to do nothing more than mask or attempt to excuse an inexcusable failure.
“As
John
Cougar Mellencamp aptly satirizes concerning the similarly
inexplicable
“We have Northcom now to perform the rapid response function, but it could have been there decades earlier.[iii] Contrived or exacerbated tragedy is one of the many forms spiritual warfare takes. Natural disaster unfortunately provides the perfect medium for the devil to work in. Burying effective response under layers of complex bureaucracy and then excusing it under the guise of legal technicality is one of Satan’s favorite tactics.
“Killing
our unborn children through abortion is another prime example of demonic
intrusion via socio-political sabotage. The lives of 6,000 innocent children per
day are legally being taken, often under horrible circumstances. This
atrocity was made ‘legal’ by the complex but ultimately unfounded analysis in
the 1973
“Most
citizens of the
“In partial-birth abortion, a fully formed and frequently viable child five to seven months old, and sometimes older, is delivered feet first until only the head remains in the womb. The baby is given nothing for pain relief. The skull is punctured with a sharp instrument and a vacuum tube inserted into the skull. The brain of the child is sucked out while the child is alive, potentially awake and aware! This is done so that the child’s head can be collapsed, making its delivery painless for the mother. It is also done to avoid giving the “unborn” child the full legal protection offered to born children under the Constitution as interpreted by Roe v. Wade itself.
“Although the grey matter of the brain is insensitive to pain in the sense of responding to a direct pin prick as does the skin, it is the seat of consciousness. Deep panic, phantom pains, intense fears and powerful psychological traumas can in principle be expected to be induced by disconnecting a living brain from a living body minus the use of an anesthetic and, ripping and tearing it and forcefully compressing it through a vacuum tube.
“The defenders of partial-birth abortion will make ludicrous claims such as that there is no scientific evidence to support concerns for the suffering of the child who undergoes this procedure; but what evidence do they consider to have been possible to acquire, given that the seat of consciousness of the recipient resides in a trash container, with no possible means to survey its experience! One need merely imagine themselves undergoing the same procedure to realize the potential of pain and trauma.
“After all is said and done, partial-birth abortion is the exact equivalent of barbaric capital punishment; it is the equivalent of a beheading, and one sanctioned without benefit of trial. It is even worse because of the compression of the brain tissue in a violent manner. At least the convict’s brain is left in peace.
“Beyond depriving the unborn child of due process of law prior to capital punishment, to vacuum the still functioning and aware seat of individual consciousness from a living human being into a machine to simply be disposed of as garbage is an unthinkable horror and the ultimate insult to human dignity. Beyond that, it is simply evil.
“Partial-birth abortion is a heinous crime against the most innocent among us. It is an obvious attempt to artificially circumvent our own laws, which state that a born child is a citizen with the right to life by starting the delivery then stopping it artificially just prior to completion. Obviously the child is born; the substantially completed delivery cannot be reversed.
“Partial-birth abortion is a horror unmatched in the history of civilization; it is nothing less than a throwback to the child sacrifice cults of Moloch in biblical times.[iv] It is a tragic blind spot in a sick society, a blind spot supernaturally perpetuated by the devil.
“Another, perhaps more subtle, example of a demonically induced blind spot is the current situation in our science classrooms. Accidental or atheistic evolution (the neo-Darwinian form) is being taught in our schools and colleges, but the public has been led to believe that only basic evolution, descent with modification (a form that does not rule out God, and is compatible with the teachings of the Church) is being taught. The federal courts have inanely refused to distinguish between the two versions. They have permitted the philosophies of materialism and atheism to be taught in science classrooms as if they were science.
“The
war between good and evil rages on in the most unlikely spots. Christians all
too often underestimate their opponent. I’ll wager the devil had his hand in
the chemical explosion in
“In
the Ransom trilogy, C. S. Lewis tried to wake people up to this problem by
prophetically showing us how far satanically induced insanity can go in
government. Ironically, although Ayn Rand was an atheist, her classic novel, Atlas
Shrugged, gives a startling depiction of a government and academia overcome
by evil influences, the supernatural source of which
“Father Gabriele Amorth’s books on exorcism are more directly to the point. Dr. Ed Murphy’s Handbook for Spiritual Warfare is a good one too, although he is not Catholic. Let me write those down for you. If you can’t find them downtown, I’ll loan you a copy from the rectory.”
After completing the note, Father produces a leaflet explaining how to pray the Rosary.
“Start learning it. The Rosary is a series of short familiar prayers, said in a certain order, while meditating upon the mysteries of Christ’s life. The Rosary is a very powerful way to pray. In addition to being a devotion to Christ our Lord, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit, the Rosary is a devotion to blessed St. Mary. St. Mary is not reverenced on the same level as God, of course, but as the Lord’s human mother. ‘Honor thy father and thy mother.’ It is only right that the Lord keeps the ten commandments. St. Mary’s intercession on our behalf is quite naturally powerful and efficacious; she will protect you if you call upon her for help.
“We’ll put you in RCIA, that’s our adult instruction program, in the fall, and you can join the Church next Easter—assuming you’re interested?”
“Oh, I’m interested,” Rick confirms, holding out a trembling cup for more coffee.
Pam steadies his wrist as she pours. “You take care of him, Father,” Pam pleads.
She has known Rick since first grade. She also knows the harried look of heavy demonic attack. Three weeks ago, she was herself sitting in the same booth across from Father Bernie receiving the same instruction.
“You know I will, Pam. Do you have any day-old Danish back there by chance?”
“I know, don’t tell me…it makes you hungry. Just let me go and check.”
Pam smiles mischievously and disappears into the kitchen to check for Father’s pastries.
“Pick up a Catechism of the Catholic Church, you’ll need that too—nine bucks. It answers many important questions. Most bookstores have it, or can order one for you. The best nine bucks you’ll ever spend; or, simply read it at the library or reference the electronic copy on the Internet.”
The pancakes disappear, the eggs, then the meat.
“God Bless you, Father—for being there,” comes from Rick.
“It’s what I do, but you’re welcome.”
They step outside to admire the pleasant garden setting and Spanish décor of Axton’s second story veranda. Father walks over to the edge of the balcony, contemplating the clear night sky.
“There’s a war on out there, Rick, and you can’t even see it. Our children are overrun by demons in their sleep, and all the adults have time to do is hurry along after another dollar. They drop their little sons and daughters at kindergarten without so much as ‘Did you sleep well last night?’
“Children do have significant protection from their guardian angels, but the little tikes are scared to death from the devil’s intrusions into their sleep and dreams. They will remain scared until their parents either affirm faith in Christ on their behalf or they can achieve an age sufficient to learn faith in God for their protection. Not knowing of God’s love and protection, children may feel they have no choice but to make an alliance of some kind with the devil—just to survive. It’s a horror story,…in truth, an enormous invisible heartbreaking nightmare!
“This is the final battle, Rick. We have to stand up and do something!
“Pope Leo XIII had a vision of this. Sometime around the turn of the previous century, he saw Christ and the devil in conversation. This was just prior to World War I. Offering an arrogant challenge, the devil had the audacity to ask Christ himself for additional power over those who would consent to serve evil, and additional time, in order to pose a powerful assault on the Lord’s own Church. Satan bragged that, with only this much assistance, he could destroy God’s Church. Accepting the challenge, Christ granted him the additional power and time. The day of that final assault has arrived!
“The evil ones, the Satanists, have done the equivalent of writing the devil a blank check, signing up to serve him in general terms. Christ has apparently agreed to permit the devil to call in those checks for the purpose of the final assault. In effect, God is doing the equivalent of a parent teaching a wayward child not to smoke; he is making them smoke the full cigar, no getting away with a few quick puffs of rebellion.
“Satanists can regain their autonomy in the ordinary way, by appealing to Christ to save them[v]—assuming they repent in their heart and renounce evil. Until they do, those who previously agreed to serve the devil in return for some evil gain, perhaps not knowing what it entailed, are now learning what is involved the hard way. Many have become partially or fully possessed—a puppet master scenario right off the big screen. When the devil needs something from a Satanist in a given situation now, he simply steps in and takes it.
“Unchecked by prayer or the intervention of God, even subtle behaviors when coordinated among thousands of people acting in concert can be a devastating weapon against the innocent. Good people can be set up for sabotage in practically an infinite variety of ways, yet no one can be held legally accountable.
“The heart of the satanic campaign is a nibbling away at a person’s positive self-image, optimism and faith. Like a swarm of mosquitoes, the undetected satanic masses inject bits of negativity here and there and everywhere around us all day every day, waiting for just the right moment when our faith and optimism falters. At the moment when the contrived stress is at its peak, demons swarm in to gain control or to cause a direct injury. Satanists inevitably hit us at a weak moment—cheap shots. There is no honor to be found among the entire lot of them.
“Whole wars have been started using satanic coordination. Practically any situation you can imagine can be orchestrated through the combined effect of the supernatural ability of demons and the demonically coerced or voluntary complicity of millions upon millions of people who either actively serve the devil or have insufficient faith in God to insulate them from powerful supernatural intrusions. The devil can even use Christians as chessmen in this evil game, if we don’t’ guard against it.”
“Millions of people are playing into the devil’s hands? It can’t be that bad.”
“I fear so. There aren’t that many of us, people of faith who are sufficiently awake and aware of the threat and committed to fight back. How many remain in the undecided middle is unclear.
“We are not defenseless. Pope Leo XIII said God has promised greater gifts to us so that we can counteract the evil threat. This is done primarily by leading good Christian lives in the old-fashioned sense; if we do, the Holy Spirit will imbue us powerfully as God pours out his spirit on his people per Joel chapter 4. Intransigent evil around us will simply be burned up in tongues of holy fire.
“The full and ugly truth of the matter is that Satanists attend invisible gatherings in the spiritual dimension made possible by connections with demons. They rarely hold black masses in the physical world. Having a heavy demonic connection (affliction really) is like putting on a virtual reality headset. Much as the saints have been taken to Heaven, Hell and Purgatory in the Spirit and reported on their visits,[vi] Satanists actually gather and hold rituals in the spiritual dimension. There is a sort of virtual reality community the Satanists participate in, but the impression that it has genuine reality and consistency is an illusion. They are simply being deceived at a level of complexity human beings cannot see past without divine assistance.
“This corresponds to Revelation chapters 16 and 17, a virtual reality international ‘city’, ‘Babylon’, the great ‘harlot’ that sits on many waters. The devil offers lurid fantasies and experiences a person might not otherwise expect to obtain in this world, complete with acute, though hallucinatory, visual, auditory and tactile sensations. Like in the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, Total Recall, many people are willing to pay to escape dull everyday life, having no patience to wait for the Lord’s perfect world that is coming, and not long now.
“Perhaps I should say they think they are attending invisible gatherings in the spirit. Satanic VR is ripe with dangerous deceptions—who knows how much is true and how much a deception. Inexplicably, many have chosen to live in this false reality. Certainly, being so closely connected to demons for extended periods of time poisons both the soul and the body, yet people appear to be heavily addicted to it, possibly even from childhood.
“The bottom line is that there is an entire well-established, although secret, satanic culture out there. Tragically, it is a very sick, evil, addicted and dangerous culture. Beyond the millions who are fully satanic, many more are occasionally pulled into the experience and will trade things to the devil for the privilege, or they trade him evil deeds in exchange for some dishonest gain in this world.
“Your own legal brief against abortion shows this. Did you ever wonder how such a “psycho” logic as underlies the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision could become blessed at the highest levels of law? How mankind could ever come to consider it morally right to kill our own children? This was made possible because we the people allowed the devil to orchestrate it, primarily in permitting our Constitution to remain silent on the question of the unborn child’s right to life.
“This is not a personal indictment of Justice Blackmun and his court, though neither is it absolution. The important point is that we, the citizens and the Congress, gave the Supreme Court an option it should never have had by not correcting the deficiency in our Constitution. The law must be clear to be of use, and, of all things, the law must be clear about the right to life itself. The court’s job is merely to interpret the law, not to make it. Given no reference to the unborn child in the Constitution, the Supreme Court was, in effect, forced to make the law. They called it interpretation, of course, having no other choice under the separation of powers.
“The Supreme Court could have saved the unborn child in Roe v. Wade, but they were not legally obligated to do it. They opted for death instead. This is a flagrant instance of the devil’s influence. The same goes for the President’s or FEMA’s freedom to choose to use or not to use our large rapid response military units in the first days after Katrina. Regardless of whether the President or any other decision maker was unfairly obstructed by unstoppable supernatural forces, and they apparently were, we the citizens must demand political accountability. More importantly, we must fulfill our own obligations to make the law unambiguous. We must redefine the law in such a manner as to remove the option of legally sanctioned tragedy.
“And, here is yet another orchestrated trap of the devil’s that I’ll bet you would never guess: the two party political system. Genuine corrective action can often be impossible without additional political choices. We have to work to create more voting options: Catholic/Christian candidates, like our president, Monty Lewis. As it stood after Katrina, we had a choice between killing unborn children with the Democrats or leaving victims stranded in a natural disaster with the Republicans. Thank God for the Christian/Catholic Independent Party.
“The list of the devil’s traps goes on. Occasionally Satanists are caught at sabotage, but not often. That could soon change, however. With the Lord’s help, the next few decades or centuries could reveal the satanic activities in full. It is, even now, becoming difficult for them to hide.
“This kind of thing has probably gone on since time began, but I don’t think it has been publicly made known within the larger Christian community until recently. The novels of C. S. Lewis, L. A. Marzulli, Michael D. O’Brien and Frank Peretti have recently broken the ice on these themes in conjunction with the nonfiction efforts of Father Gabriele Amorth, Ed Murphy and Neil Anderson. Certainly, though, some of the saints would have known in general terms, having at times been engaged in open warfare with evil spirits.
“At this point in time the pace has picked up and we seem to have entered the beginning of the period referred to in Matthew 10:26 where all will be revealed. The previously secret activity of the satanic community will be coming out in the open in one form or the other. It should be interesting to see—but by no means pleasant.”
Rick shakes his head. “Huh-uh.”
Father Bernie leans back admiring the stars, astronomy being one of his hobbies.
“You can see that this event is not just about telepathy. Certainly I treasure the gift of angelic voice, with it the Lord at times permits others to hear my prayers or scripture readings in the Spirit. But far greater things are happening. As far as spiritual gifts go, the most important primary gifts are the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit: wisdom, understanding, counsel, strength, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. These all complete and perfect our virtues. Additionally, visitations from one of the saints, an angel, or even the Lord Himself are becoming more frequent. Now that’s something!”
“Are visitations possible for real people, like me—” Rick pauses, trying to camouflage the doubts he had not meant to reveal “or just Popes and evangelists?”
“They are absolutely possible for ‘real people’—always have been. As for as God is concerned that is the only kind of people there is. The more real you are the more God loves you; pretension does not move us closer to God, honesty and humility do. Church records document many visitations to laymen, and reliable unofficial accounts confirm thousands more. They happen all the time, and are, of course, the most wonderful blessing when they do.
“Saints have come from all walks of life, most of them fully reluctant to be pulled into the limelight, and openly acknowledging the fact that they too are sinners going humbly about the Lord’s work. The saints have, as often as not, been as fully surprised and amazed at the Lord’s outpouring of his Spirit around them as those who laud their virtues!
“Saints are mere mortals like the rest of us. They come from the poor, the rich and the in-between. They are otherwise normal people who happen to have a personal love of God and their fellowman; generally, they are just very compassionate and caring souls, people who God decides to reward for having love in their hearts.”
Father Bernie finishes his coffee, says a brief prayer, then performs the Sign of the Cross. Seeing Rick’s cup quivering in his hand, he gives him one with a little extra flourish. Rick bows his head as the blessing washes over him, cleansing away the demonic contamination. He raises it, refreshed and renewed.
“Thank you for that, Father. Thank you.
“Father, how bad can this get?”
“Although Satan was substantially displaced as de facto ruler of the Earth by Christ’s victory on the cross, the two world wars nonetheless give some indication of the devil’s capacity to wreak havoc. We may soon find out more.
“What can a fallen angel do precisely? We don’t know. The supernatural remains mysterious to us. We have no true standard, no inkling, really, of what Satan’s full capacity for harm is, that is, if he were not under the Lord’s restraint in some measure. Had we known this, we would certainly have been on our knees every day praying, thanking God for saving us from total horror.
“Now that Satan has temporary freedom, we can only pray for God’s protection and hope St. Augustine is right, that God will grant his people sufficient graces during the latter days to enable them to stand firm against the devil’s final assault.
“Certainly we have every hope of success. Matthew 16:18 tells us the gates of hell will never prevail against the Lord’s Church. Ephesians 6: the armor of God is available to us if we practice our faith. Malachi 3, the single chapter that comprises Obadiah, along with Micah 4 and Zechariah 10 and 12 all make clear that God’s people will trod down the wicked in the last battle, functioning as God’s stately war horse. The good guys win; we know that. What we don’t know is how dark it will become before the light returns, how we will have to struggle and suffer until final victory is gained.
“Even while acting as God’s instrument of the harvest, we must continue to pray for our enemies, offering the love and mercy of Christ until the very last moment, hoping against hope that they will seek God’s mercy in repentance. We will not be their judges. Eternal judgment resides in the hands of Christ alone. Nonetheless, God will burn up the ‘stubble’ of the wicked through his people by the fire of the Holy Spirit: ‘Jacob shall be a fire’.
“As the last age now rushes to a close, God will bring the evil ones in close to us, close to the fire of the Holy Spirit. They will get a good look at what genuine faith in God can do. In the absence of repentance, and intent only upon doing more evil, they will, tragically, be consumed as the chaff of the eternal harvest.
“The devil’s servants believe superior numbers will allow them to overwhelm us, but the chaff will not overcome holy fire. As punishment for recalcitrant evil intentions, their spirit will be singed by the fiery wrath of God and subsequently wither and fade.
“God’s punishments and rewards will now begin to incrementally and inexorably advance in cycles. It will be the first fourteen chapters of Exodus lived over. Deliverance of the righteous is guaranteed, but the process will proceed methodically in steps, cycles of blessing and punishments. The evil ones will have every chance to do the right thing, to repent, within God’s will and grace. If he decides to harden their hearts, as he did with Pharaoh, however, grace may be withheld. Those who finally resolve to rebel against God’s will after forsaking repeated opportunities to save themselves in repentance will be consumed in the angry flames of God’s wrath no less than the Egyptian chariots were overwhelmed by the Red Sea.”
Father extends a document across the table.
“I typed these up for the next team meeting. Now may be a good time for you to read it.”
-------------
But on Mount Zion there shall be a
portion saved; the mountain shall be holy, And the house of Jacob shall take
possession of those that dispossessed them.
The house of Jacob shall be a
fire, and the house of Joseph a flame; The house of Esau shall be stubble, and
they shall set them ablaze and devour them; Then none shall survive of the
house of Esau, for the LORD has spoken.
My wrath is kindled against the
shepherds, and I will punish the leaders; For the LORD of hosts will visit his
flock, the house of Judah, and make them his stately war horse.
From him shall come leader and
chief, from him warrior's bow and every officer.
They shall all be warriors,
trampling the mire of the streets in battle; They shall wage war because the
LORD is with them, and shall put the horsemen to rout.
I will strengthen the house of
Judah, the house of Joseph I will save; I will bring them back, because I have
mercy on them, they shall be as though I had never cast them off, for I am the
LORD, their God, and I will hear them.
Then Ephraim shall be valiant men,
and their hearts shall be cheered as by wine. Their children shall see it and
be glad, their hearts shall rejoice in the LORD.
I will whistle for them to come together,
and when I redeem them they will be as numerous as before.
I sowed them among the nations,
yet in distant lands they remember me; they shall rear their children and
return.
Zechariah
12:1-10
An oracle: the word of the LORD concerning
Israel. Thus says the LORD, who spreads out the heavens, lays the foundations
of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him:
See, I will make Jerusalem a bowl
to stupefy all peoples round about. (Judah will be besieged, even Jerusalem.)
On that day I will make Jerusalem
a weighty stone for all peoples. All who attempt to lift it shall injure
themselves badly, and all the nations of the earth shall be gathered against
her.
On that day, says the LORD, I will
strike every horse with fright, and its rider with madness. I will strike blind
all the horses of the peoples, but upon the house of Judah I will open my eyes,
and the princes of Judah shall say to themselves, "The inhabitants of
Jerusalem have their strength in the LORD of hosts, their God."
On that day I will make the
princes of Judah like a brazier of fire in the woodland, and like a burning
torch among sheaves, and they shall devour right and left all the surrounding
peoples; but Jerusalem shall still abide on its own site.
The LORD shall save the tents of
Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the
inhabitants of Jerusalem may not be exalted over Judah.
On that day, the LORD will shield
the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the weakling among them shall be like David
on that day, and the house of David godlike, like an angel of the LORD before them.
On that day I will seek the
destruction of all nations that come against Jerusalem.
I will pour out on the house of
David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and petition; and
they shall look on him whom they have thrust through, and they shall mourn for
him as one mourns for an only son, and they shall grieve over him as one
grieves over a first-born.
Micah 4:11-13
How many nations are gathered
against you! They say, "Let her be profaned, let our eyes see Zion's
downfall!"
But they know not the thoughts of the
LORD, nor understand his counsel, When he has gathered them like sheaves on the
threshing floor.
Arise and thresh, O daughter Zion;
your horn I will make iron And your hoofs bronze, that you may crush many
peoples; You shall devote their spoils to the LORD, and their riches to the
Lord of the whole earth.
----------
“Zion, Jerusalem, Joseph, Jacob, Israel, Ephraim. Judah, and the house of David are all used as symbols of God’s people. The house of Esau, on the other hand, represents the evil ones who have rebelled against God. This holy war along with the other primary event themes of the end of days, including judgment, have been going on since Christ (John 12:31). This is one reason you are being attacked: you are, or are intended to be the Lord’s stately war horse in the last battle! That makes you a concrete threat to the devil and his community. Another reason is that the devil simply hates us because we are reborn of the Spirit and remade anew in the image of God. Satan doesn’t need the first reason to hate us, but we must be sure to give it to him. We must go to war for Christ. We must protect the innocent with prayer, with service to the community, with personal friendship, with devotion to the Church and its holy sacraments and with uncompromised acts of faith. We have to stop compromising the unlimited power, glory and majesty of God!”
Father Bernie smiles wryly, looking Rick squarely in the eye. “Turn up the flame of the holy Spirit in your life every chance you get: go to Church, pray, do miracles if you are permitted. But always remember that the Church is our center, the source of our protection and empowerment.
“The enemy wants desperately to douse the flame of the Spirit in our lives. Satan is all too happy to see his own people consumed in the fires of judgment, true, for that is his goal for all of us after all. But he knows the flames of the holy Spirit are first and foremost salvific. The optimism, joy, love and friendship generated by the holy Spirit inevitably breaks people free from his grasp. To douse the holy flame in our lives, the devil, and, most unfortunately, those people who serve him or otherwise fall under his temporary influence, will try anything and everything to put those around them into a negative frame of mind—anything negative whatsoever works to their advantage—but especially sin. Conversely, the holy Spirit is increased in our lives through a conscious choice to express goodness, love, friendship, joy, and celebration of Christ—again, especially in the sacraments of the Church.
“This is why people around us appear to be doing an endless stream of inane things, things that seem to have no other purpose than to ruin a positive mood—for that is precisely the purpose. We must remain on guard against the negative. ‘Don’t worry, be happy,’ must be our war cry, following St. Padre Pio. Otherwise the devil will use us as an instrument to promote negativity. It is a bitter pill to take as a master strategy, to trust God so fully that we are miserably happy, but there it is; that’s how much God loves us. Our defense against the devil’s final attack is to center ourselves in love, joy, faith and happiness.
“In addition, keep a safe distance from anyone who shows signs of being physically or spiritually dangerous. If contact can’t be avoided, affirm Christ with confidence. Evil cannot stop you when you affirm Christ; they must cower before the Lord. Evil shrivels and melts away in the presence of the holy fire. Should martyrdom be required to glorify God, so be it. Martyrdom is not a defeat but the greatest gift and victory the Lord offers his children here on earth.
“Who would have thought the last battle would to be so simple! The requisite affirmation of Christ is done, surprisingly enough, by simply practicing old time religion, by living a humble Christian life. Therein lies full victory! That’s not to say that it will always be easy. There will be suffering, trials, tests and tribulations of no small magnitude—even martyrdom. But both victory and eternal reward are certain.”
Rick smiles. So, this is how we deal with these putrid evil things, the way good people have always dealt with them all these many years, perhaps without knowing the full effects of their simple faith: ignore the devil completely and remain focused on Christ’s victory. Don’t worry be happy! This is actually something I can do.
Father is exhausted. He moves to close.
“The direct spiritual warfare our team is designed to do is an important part of the last battle, but our primary focus as Christians remains what it always has been. We must first cultivate greater holiness and closer friendship with God in our own lives. We should work to implement social improvements. We should spread the Gospel in our own personal way through the opportunities that present themselves in our daily lives. We must continue to give relief to the poor; to release people from demonic oppression through the healing power of prayer and friendship, to establish and maintain good government, and perhaps most important of all, to teach our own children the faith.
“Other top priorities remain ending abortion and rescuing the martyrs. Christians are being attacked, imprisoned, tortured and killed for their faith in some twenty countries around the world even today. This is no less a horror story than when the Romans threw the Christians to the lions or boiled them in oil.
“These crises urgently call for further work, spiritually, through acts of faith, prayer, use of charisms and spiritual gifts, and by just getting out there and getting our hands dirty. It all adds up to one more lost battle for the devil.”
Pam finally returns with pastries, fresh ones. She pretends they are day old. Pam knows Father Bernie puts an equivalent donation into the local food bank for the poor when he can finagle a freebee at a bakery or a restaurant. It is too late to quibble over details in any case.
"These Danish are awfully warm and moist for day-old, Pam."
"Oh really? Well, I just warmed them up a bit for my favorite homilist."
She begins putting up the chairs for the night.
Seeing no reason to admonish Pam for having good taste in homilists, Father invites Rick to help himself. In a moment, they have devoured six of the delicious cinnamon rolls. Father says the concluding Grace.
"Let’s get out of here, Rick; its time to go to work."
---------------
Smiling, Clayton tugs at his ear lobes.
“Spiritual voice is real. I heard Mr. Alvarez telepathically today, and understood him. He doesn’t speak a word of English! He didn’t say much, only ‘God bless you’ but it was enough. Unfortunately, spiritual voice is a gift the devil loves to impersonate. He has been jabbering BS in my ear most of the day trying to make me doubt the veracity of the original occurrence.”
Clayton hands over a Bible with a handful of colored page tabs.
“There’s something you should see here. The last chapter of Mark, chapter two of Acts, and a few related passages.”
“OK,” Rick begins flipping the pages, “Matthew, Mark, here we go...”
His finger runs down the pages of Mark, and he begins to scan silently:
“When the Sabbath was over…Jesus rose early…these signs will accompany those who believe…In my name they will drive out demons,” and then speaking out loud as it hits him, “they will speak in new tongues.” He notices a second tab at 1 Corinthians, chapter 13.
"If I speak in human and angelic tongues..."
Full understanding of a holy event might be beyond man’s grasp, but you could get this far—you could confirm that it was happening. It’s happening! Rick bows his head. Reaching again for the Bible he finds Acts chapter 2:
When the
time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together. And
suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, 2
and it filled the entire house in which they were. Then there appeared to them
tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them. And they
were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues,
as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.
Now there
were devout Jews from every nation under heaven staying in Jerusalem. At this
sound, they gathered in a large crowd, but they were confused because each one
heard them speaking in his own language. They were astounded, and in amazement
they asked, ”‘Are not all these people who are speaking Galileans? Then how
does each of us hear them in his own native language? We are Parthians, Medes,
and Elamites, inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and
Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya near Cyrene, as
well as travelers from Rome, both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and
Arabs, yet we hear them speaking in our own tongues of the mighty acts of God.”
They were
all astounded and bewildered, and said to one another, “What does this mean?”
But others
said, scoffing, “They have had too much new wine.”
Then Peter
stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice, and proclaimed to them, “You who
are Jews, indeed all of you staying in Jerusalem. Let this be known to you, and
listen to my words. These people are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only
nine o'clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet
Joel:
‘It will
come to pass in the last days,’ God says, ’that I will pour out a portion of my
spirit upon all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young
men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams. Indeed, upon my
servants and my handmaids I will pour out a portion of my spirit in those days,
and they shall prophesy. And I will work wonders in the heavens above and signs
on the earth below: blood, fire, and a cloud of smoke. The sun shall be turned
to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the coming of the great and splendid
day of the Lord, and it shall be that everyone shall be saved who calls on the
name of the Lord.' "
“There’s something else. Look at James 3. He says the human tongue is influenced by the forces of hell and cannot be tamed. Now look at what St. Peter tells us in 2 Peter 1:19-21, that prophecy can make no errors at all: it is wholly reliable. Therefore, the human tongue cannot be used for direct real-time prophecy; a flawless vehicle of some kind must be available. Otherwise prophecy must be subjected to the discernment process over time and the real time prophetic events of scripture in the Old Testament become impossible without some exceptional gift from God for the prophets to use in order to overcome the demonically generated imperfections St. James has warned us about.”
“Angelic voice, a gift of the Holy Spirit!”
“Perhaps. God could simply boot out the devil and control our tongues temporarily with perfect effect, of course, if he so chose to do it. On the other hand, it is possible that when the apostles were speaking to the crowds at Pentecost they used the prophetic gift of angelic voice so that they could be understood by all and simultaneously maintain the inerrancy prophecy requires.
“When speaking to individuals they may have used the more ‘down to earth’ gift of languages, or tongues, and actually spoke the other man’s language using their physical voice. Also, as the Holy Spirit descended at Pentecost, the rapture of such a close communion with God may well have, in addition, evoked the lesser gift of unintelligible utterances, a form of tongues that is understandable only by God, and perhaps the angels. This last form is what is more commonly referred to as speaking in tongues.”
“Alleluia! I never thought I would encounter a genuine spiritual charism, to hear someone speak with the voice of an angel! This whole end times thing is amazing! Wow! I assume you are going to Father’s reading in Evansville tomorrow. I need a ride down if you don’t mind. My car is in the shop. Also, how about Mass on Sunday; Father Bernie called to invite us.”
“You are welcome to ride down with me tomorrow, and for Mass too, I’ll pick you up at 7:30 A.M. Sunday morning.”
“Thanks a lot, Clayton.”
-----------------------------
“In theory, biblical references to a darkening of the Sun could signify a complete burnout, the end of the solar system—and there are plenty of cataclysms indicated in prophecy—but Solar burnout is scientifically predictable. Taking this view would contradict the biblical maxim that no man will know the day or the hour of the Lord’s return.
“This assumes certain things, of course. One, that we are not moved to another solar system prior to the destruction of this one, and, two, that God doesn’t miraculously cause burnout prior to the close of the Sun’s natural term.
“Then there is Murphy’s Law. At some point in the future man, himself, might have the technology to destroy the Sun with an advanced missile of some kind ala Star Trek Generations. A lunatic might decide to launch one in an insane nihilistic frenzy.
“The Sun danced at Fatima, Portugal in 1917. It (or its shadow) went backwards in Isaiah 38, and it stayed in place 24 hours for Joshua to finalize his battle.[viii] In view of the miracle at Fatima and these biblical precedents, we must allow that God could terminate the Sun early through miraculous intervention. Of course, the only biblical precedent needed to ground the possibility of miraculous intervention of any kind is the simple verse, ‘All things are possible to God’.
“Also, recall Christ’s comments that he could return at a time when we least expect it. Jesus tells us to go so far in anticipation of his early return as to sleep with our clothes on. This is a figure of speech, of course, not literal. It refers to maintaining our dignity through purification from sin. This way we are not embarrassed by sin when Christ returns. Despite the deeper meaning, the implication remains that our Lord could return at any time.
“Christ may also be teaching us the truth of individual judgment here. Our death could come at any moment by accident, crime, war, or illness with little or no warning. As they say in the movies…”
Father takes a moment to gather his dramatic personae. Pretending to pull out a machinegun, he mimes its shape, announcing loudly in the voice of Jimmy Cagney, “ ‘Prepare to meet your God! I’m gonna give to you like you gave it to my brother’ ”
Leaning backward against the imagined recoil of the formidable weapon, Father sways from side to side spraying the group with saliva instead of bullets.
“Plllllllup… Plllllllup… Plllllllup…”
“Encore, encore!”
Having regained psychological balance in the presence of applause, Father sits down and continues the exposition of Revelation.
“Using common astronomical signs as a primary referent for Revelation 6:12-13 is not an absolute certainty. Eclipses are not uncommon; two to five solar eclipses occur each year. Lunar eclipses are somewhat less frequent. The Leonid meteor shower normally occurs only once per year. This month the Leonid occurs twice, which is unusual. Having a double meteor shower in the same month as both a lunar and solar eclipse is even more improbable, something like one chance in 1500.
“Taken separately, none of these events serve as unique time markers. However, an improbable convergence of all of them in conjunction with a spiritual event corresponding to the passage’s symbolic meaning, in this case a major demonic incursion, would seem to surpass standard probability expectations sufficiently to constitute a valid sign.[ix]
“The symbolism of Revelation 6 is integral to its meaning. At Revelation chapter 9 the footnotes reveal falling stars to be common symbols for fallen angels, or demons. What is on the surface a reference to astronomical events is also announcing a major demonic incursion through the use of symbolism. Therefore, because both the literal and symbolic import of Revelation 6:12-13 have now been satisfied, the current astronomical signs are validated.
“After all, why give a sign if it is never to be understood? Reason, common sense, informed exposition and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit must be capable of resolving the meaning of a biblical passage at the point in history when God actually brings forth the sign, else the sign is useless.
“The Church does not do astrology, of course; the devil’s people work with astrology. God does, however, use astronomical signs to guide us at special times. There is a notable precedent: the Lord’s birth, ‘a star in the east’. Also, as I mentioned, Joshua made the Sun stand still for an entire day, and, in Isaiah, God caused the shadow of the Sun to go backwards and retrace its steps.
“For Joshua, that sign represented victory. The sign for King Hezekiah in Isaiah 38 signaled protection against enemies, personal healing, and deliverance from death.
“Christ’s return represents the absolute fulfillment of all of these gifts: victory, healing and deliverance from evil and death. Therefore, God would be consistent with biblical precedent in using astronomical signs as harbingers of his return.
“Two aspects remain to be clarified whenever signs are given: involvement of the miraculous, and whether the revelation is public or private. The star in the east might have moved in an unnatural course in order to guide the wise men, perhaps even descending, or perhaps it did nothing miraculous. It could have merely marked the spot from a normal and stable position. The wise men might have been moved by the Spirit in such a way as to maintain a corresponding course attitude that periodically placed Bethlehem under the star from their perspective. There is actually such a thing known to science as a wandering star. On the other hand, what was taken to be a star may simply have been an angel whose radiance caused it to be mistaken for a star, or the angel that appeared to the magi to announce Christ’s birth may have intentionally assumed the appearance of a star for the purpose of guiding them to baby Jesus.
“On the other hand, the Sun appears to have behaved miraculously for Joshua. Joshua’s army had twenty-four hours of sunlight in which to prosecute battle. Alternatively, it is possible that God gave Joshua’s troops the ability to see in the dark until their foes were vanquished, thus accomplishing the same result with a collection of individual gifts in lieu of stopping the Earth’s rotation around the Sun. The biblical language, in this case, may be symbolic for the purpose of glorifying God for his magnificent gifts, or it may be a simple description of how Joshua’s men experienced the event in the best way they knew to describe it. They may have even been provided with an internal image of the Sun to avoid their being distracted from the frenzy of battle until the enemy was destroyed. However, as both the Sun and the Moon are described as holding their relative positions for an entire day, a real public miracle seems the most likely interpretation of Joshua 10. In either case, the event in Joshua 10 was fully anomalous and simultaneously known to many. It therefore appears to involve the miraculous whether the orbits of heavenly bodies were stayed or hundreds of people were simultaneously given the ability to see in the dark.
“Interestingly, giant hail stones fell upon Joshua’s enemies, killing more of them than his warriors slew. Taken together with the plague of 100 pound hailstones in Revelation, this raises the question of recurring themes in scripture.
“But I digress. Returning to the question of the miraculous, the event of King Hezekiah’s observing the shadow of the Sun go backwards, is more ambiguous than Joshua 10; it is as likely a private revelation as a public one. However, in Sirach 48:23 the author says Isaiah “turned back the sun and prolonged the life of the king.”
“Even at Fatima, Portugal, with St. Mary’s appearance there to the three shepherd children in 1917, the Sun was quote unquote seen to do odd things. At Fatima, however, not everyone in that part of the world observed the irregularities at the same time.”
“Due to the absence of the publicly miraculous in this month’s astronomical signs, the intuitive tendency is to look for something more dramatic and cataclysmic to fulfill Revelation 6. But there is a scriptural argument against cataclysmic events as signs of the end. The scripture says that most people will remain oblivious to the warning signs of the end, as in the days of Noah. They will continue their normal lives, eating and drinking, marrying and carrying on daily business as if nothing unusual is happening right up to the last moment. That tells us that, whatever the signs of the end will be, they will not be unequivocal; they will remain plausibly deniable to the rational intellect minus the aid of inspired interpretation.
“That would seem to definitively rule out the death of the Sun by any means, natural or supernatural. Business as usual would be a bit difficult without it. Once the Sun has completely burned out, the warning period will be so brief as to be of little use. Even with a gradual phase-out of the Sun life would not survive the first noticeable change; our ecosystem is too sensitive.
“Only in pure and wildly speculative theory can science conceivably construct an artificial substitute for the Sun. This has not been shown to be feasible. The passing of the Sun must be assumed to be irremediable, alarming everyone, which the scripture says will not occur; most will miss the signs of the end.
“This suggests that the primary import of Revelation 6:12-13 is symbolic, representing a spiritual darkness, not a physical event at all. God is warning that His light will be withdrawn from an evil world, leaving us at the mercy of the devil who has been released from the pit. This spiritual catastrophe teaches us how critical the light, love and warmth of God’s presence in our lives is to our survival and well being, a presence we too often take for granted without giving God thanks and praise. This kind of sign is immediately perceivable to good people with spiritual discernment; they will be painfully aware of the Lord’s absence. The evil ones, on the other hand, being oblivious to God’s actions in their lives, will not notice a change sufficiently dramatic to satisfy their misconception of what the signs of the end will be because they are already living in a self-imposed darkness.
“The Lord has told us that this is precisely his reason for using subtlety in the scriptures when he explained the parables to his apostles. If the signs were unmistakable, the evil ones would repent, but they would repent merely to preserve themselves, not due to conversion of heart.
“These signs are being given as the signs of impending judgment. They would defeat their very purpose if by their nature they made the separation of good from evil impossible. Although subtle, by putting our eternal salvation at risk in the removal of God’s light from our world, the event is even more cataclysmic than if mere physical survival were threatened. One’s instinct to look for truly cataclysmic events in Revelation 6:12-13 is therefore justified and fulfilled by the symbolic reading, the allegorical and eschatological senses, of these verses. Eternal damnation is the most cataclysmic event a human being can experience.
“The imposition of a spiritual darkness may seem to contradict the Lord’s promise in Joel 4 and Acts 2 to pour out his spirit on his children in the last days, but that outpouring is directed not at the world as a whole but only those living their faith in wholeness each day. Thus, the message St. Mary has repeatedly emphasized in recent apparitions, to return to an affectionate friendship with God through renewed devotion to prayer, exactly fits the end times prophecy of Revelation 6:12-13 because she has posed this alternative of renewed faith and devotion as the only way to avoid being overcome by the darkness symbolized in Revelation 6, the only way to stand against the demonic assault. We will receive the promised outpouring of the Lord’s spirit in the process of affirming Christ in our life each day, especially by devotion to the Holy Rosary. St. Mary is our doorway to Christ and Christ is the way to the Father from whom the outpouring of divine gifts spring. The Lord’s spirit will not be poured out in equal measure upon all of humanity, but, rather, much more so upon God’s spiritual children, those who have love of God and neighbor in their heart, those reborn of the Spirit who are actively cultivating their faith and friendship with God. ‘To those who have more will be given…’; ‘as is your faith be it done unto you’ ”
“Revelation 6 illustrates the important rule that to accurately interpret a biblical passage it must be set within the context of the entire scripture.[x] Prophecy especially requires this technique. Prophetic passages are so mysterious that they could mean practically anything without further clarification from context.”
“What do you think will happen next, Father?” Pam asks.
“More dramatic signs, actually a continuation of signs we have already seen: earthquakes, tidal waves,[xi] hurricanes,[xii] cultural degradation of the great apostasy, the tribulation, a spiritual form of tribulation deriving from Satan’s final assault. Jesus’ comment at Luke 21 gives an additional sign: ‘Kingdom Shall Rise Against Kingdom’. In addition to the obvious allusion to nations at war, this refers to the Kingdom of God confronting the Kingdom of Darkness in the final spiritual battle. This is a palpable fight where good people stand up alongside the host of Heaven to wage war against evil. Christ’s reference to the Kingdoms colliding is not merely a poetic allusion to theoretical differences between moral and immoral cultures; it is a real fight.
“I should note that the Church teaches that the thousand year reign of Christ, at least in one important sense, is indisputably underway. This is the Augustinian view that Christ has been reigning from Heaven since his victory on the cross, and that Christians are permitted to participate in that reign by affirming Christ’s victory—Revelation 5:9-10. Granted, this is somewhat mysterious, but the Church teaches that we are joined in Christ’s mystical body and participate in his resurrection even now.
“Not only do Christians on Earth have an immediate share in Christ’s victory over death, but at times we may be permitted even to participate in Christ’s heavenly life through the communion of saints.[xiii]
“While having stridently affirmed that Christians on Earth are genuinely resurrected with Christ in this mysterious and participative Augustinian sense of the word, the Catholic Church has, nonetheless, never made the question of a literal first bodily resurrection a primary topic in theology. Many Protestants, of course, have simply assumed a literal first resurrection as an unquestioned truth. Protestants potentially differ among themselves on the specifics of how, when or even why and for whom or how many the first resurrection occurs. Despite the lack of emphasis on the topic of a literal first resurrection in Catholic theological tradition, and despite the fact that a prima facie case can be made for a literal first resurrection within the scripture, the Marian dogma of the assumption and glorification of Our Lord’s Mother indicates that her glorification is and will be unique among men until final judgment. Pope Pius XII proclaimed this infallibly in his encyclical Munificentissimus Deus - The Assumption (paragraph 5).
“Garfield and I have studied these end times questions closely for some time now. As the doctor says in X-Files: The Movie, ‘We now have some of the answers, not all’. The intensity of current events has, in any case, made the leadership role of Christ more manifest to those with “ears to hear and eyes to see.”
“Let me see your Bible, Pam. Now, here is a passage strongly suggestive of a literal first bodily resurrection, one ongoing since Christ’s victory on the cross. [Matthew 27:45-53].
From noon
onward, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And about
three o’clock Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?”
which means, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” Some of the bystanders
who heard it said, “This one is calling for Elijah.” Immediately one of them
ran to get a sponge; he soaked it in wine, and putting it on a reed, gave it to
him to drink. But the rest said, “Wait, let us see if Elijah comes to save
him.” But Jesus cried out again in a loud voice, and gave up his spirit. And
behold, the veil of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth
quaked, rocks were split, tombs were opened, and the bodies of many saints who
had fallen asleep were raised. And coming forth from their tombs after his
resurrection, they entered the holy city and appeared to many.
“This passage is quite powerful. It remains mysterious to some extent regarding the exact nature of those saints’ resurrection and what happened to them afterwards, but the symbolic meaning is clear enough: we will be resurrected to eternal life through Christ’s victory over death and sin on the cross.”
“Father, that passage reminds me of yet another tough question—something that has always bothered me. Why would Jesus think God his Father had abandoned him, even at the moment of death. All of his teachings tell us to place our values in the eternal goods of the next world and not to value the things of this world, even to hate this life. Was it simply the overwhelming intensity of the pain that made him say that?” Pam asks.
“Obviously, Pam, he did not mean full abandonment in a literal sense because it would, as you said, contradict his teachings. Certainly, God the Father, being all good, a perfect loving father, would never abandon his son. You have correctly applied the rule that to interpret a passage it must be considered in relation to the rest of the Bible.
“So, what did he mean? Christ’s statement is a quote from Psalm 22; Jesus was praying the Psalm, not criticizing his God, and not merely crying out in pain, though certainly he had every justification for doing that.[xiv]
“The first thing to note is that Psalm 22 is titled The Prayer of an Innocent Man. Christ used this vehicle, the 22nd Psalm, in conjunction with the universally acknowledged veracity of a dying man’s last words, to affirm his innocence, a condition critical to the efficaciousness of his sacrifice for our sins.
“The 22nd Psalm also epitomizes the suffering of the human condition. Christ was using it to validate his true humanity, to confirm that, although divine, he chose to live and suffer authentically as a human being.
“Christ also here reminds us that he is the fulfillment of the messianic prophecy, as Psalm 22 is the Psalm that prefigures the Lord’s crucifixion. There may also be one additional lesson in Christ’s words from the Psalm. As Christians we will be carrying our own cross. The devil will no doubt suggest to us that we should consider ourselves abandoned by God because he has permitted suffering. However, Jesus’ life proves this to be a false alarm because he was gloriously resurrected on Easter morning and ascended to sit at the right hand of God! A magnificent reward awaits those whose souls are purified through suffering. We have not been abandoned, but rather tempered and purified to prepare us for a much greater gift.
“But, even considering these clear additional meanings, how can we rule out Christ having intended to express the more literal sense of his statement, that he truly felt God had abandoned him, as an additional meaning?
“Again, we have to put the event in context. We already know from the other Gospels that Christ refused the drugged wine offered as an anesthetic. His purpose in refusing it was to intentionally experience the most pain possible in order to more fully atone for our sins through his suffering. Therefore, he would not have been incredulous that God had not saved him from the pain he himself had just chosen to make more intense, and, as you said, he fully knew he was going to a better place. Christ did not fear death as such. Rather, Jesus was simply praying the Psalm as an important message to us and as a personal comfort against overwhelming pain. This Psalm applies to our greatest moments of trial. In praying it Christ was teaching us that scripture is the greatest comfort we have in difficult moments, while simultaneously drawing his own solace in time of need from the divine word.”
“He was teaching us even at the final moment of his greatest pain?”
“Yes. He had reached the point of pain surpassing human endurance; he was at the brink of death; and he expended his final effort to teach us, his Father’s beloved children, that we have supernatural comfort available in the scriptures sufficient to get us through pain and suffering beyond natural tolerance, even and especially in final perseverance as we pass from this body into the eternal world. He was also giving us one final assurance that the messianic mission had been completed in our behalf.”
“Wow!”
“Thanks be to God!”
“Is there additional support in the Bible for a literal first resurrection?”
“Yes, but it is mostly indirect, and not fully unambiguous. But, remember, the Marian dogma must guide our reading. Whatever those passages mean they cannot entail glorification prior to the final judgment because that privilege is unique to St. Mary.
“For example, there is the perpetual riddle of what Christ meant in Chapter 9 of Mark, at verse 1, when he told his disciples there were some standing with him that would not taste death until they had seen the Kingdom of God come in power. I think this riddle could be satisfactorily answered in the hypothesis of a literal first bodily resurrection (again, minus glorification) ongoing since Christ.
“It is possible that Mark 9:1 was implying something else, such as that the power of God would be made manifest to the apostles before their death in mighty deeds and miracles. But the apostles had already seen the power of God manifested in this way. Why make a big deal of predicting something that had in large part already occurred? So the first resurrection would seem to be a more likely interpretation.
“St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:51, ‘Behold, I tell you a mystery, we shall not all fall asleep, but we will all be changed’. Taken in conjunction with Mark 9:1 this suggests the first resurrection.
“Such
a literal first bodily resurrection,
although manifested in Heaven, would bring enormous blessings to the earth when
the martyrs assume thrones of judgment to assist Christ in his reign per
Revelation 20. We must be careful to note that this is judgment in the Old
Testament sense; it is not eternal judgment of souls, a decision that
resides in Christ’s hands alone.
“Old Testament ‘judgment’ means spiritually
empowered and divinely authorized leadership. In the Old Testament, the
‘Judges’ were spiritual leaders who did mighty deeds, showed miraculous signs,
and exerted decisive power over the enemies of God’s people. They adjudicated
internal disputes among the people, though they certainly did not perform
eternal judgment of souls.
“The very fact that the martyrs are said in
Revelation 20 to sit upon thrones seems to imply embodiment. One cannot
rule out that a symbolic use of the term was intended, but it would seem more appropriate
in terms of natural dignity for an embodied than a disembodied human soul to
assume such a dignified position. The whole or natural state of humanity is the
unity of body and soul; humans are incomplete without it. So, a literal first
bodily resurrection ongoing since Christ is a legitimate and defensible
hypothesis; but they have to remain normal human bodies, that is, not
glorified, due to the doctrine of the uniqueness of St. Mary’s glorification.
All we know for certain is that the Bible recounts the assumption of some
persons bodily into heaven, including Enoch and Elijah. We know there was some
kind of resurrection event affecting saints buried in Jerusalem at the moment
of Christ’s resurrection from the dead. And we know that Christ himself, his
Apostles, and even some of the prophets of the Old Testament brought people
back to life from the dead in normal bodily form. The rest remains a mystery.
----------------------
“St. Mary has repeatedly warned in recent apparitions in clear and definite terms that the devil is attempting just such a takeover. She exhorts us to return to the Rosary to acquire sufficient protection. At this late and critical hour, the only alternative to demonic possession or a stifling oppression is a renewed devotion to prayer and church, especially the Holy Mass and confession.
“Those who do choose Christ and successfully hold on to free will through prayer, an active faith, and most especially by keeping love in their heart, will nonetheless find themselves at times surrounded by evil. This may take the form of either demons or people, or both. It could include even one’s own family and friends[xv] who have, for the moment at least, chosen wrongly and fallen under the devil’s influence. Demonic oppression has reached epidemic proportions—and the threat of mass possession looms ominously over battlefield earth.
“Not to despair, however. The close proximity of the enemy is not a sign that God’s forces are losing, quite to the contrary. God is intentionally bringing the evil ones in close to attack the faithful so that the Holy Spirit within us will burn up the evil like chaff raked into the fire at harvest. We will not be judging the evil ones, as only Christ has that authority, but the harvest event will be spontaneously enacted through us as we express our faith in wholeness in our daily lives.
“This magnificent spiritual event, as enormous as it is, nonetheless remains fully discernable only to those the Lord has blessed with the gift of discernment of spirits. An exception, of course, is the senseless horrible violence in the news, which should serve as a sign of the demonic to anyone. Unfortunately, with Satan being free, we can expect more of this kind of insanity.
“The ‘mark of the beast’ experience is recurring in our modern world. It poses only a limited and invisible menace in countries where freedom of religion is protected by rule of law and constitutional government. Nonetheless, even in free societies, Christians are being persecuted in creative ways, excluded from influential jobs and positions of achievement or social status through invisible machinations, sabotaged at every turn via supernaturally coordinated prejudice. This is done in a thousand ways that, generally, only prayer can defeat, but will defeat. The satanic community may invisibly predominate in various sectors of society at any given moment, and Satanists are each willing to a greater or lesser extent to cooperate with the devil in sabotaging our lives.”
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“Symbolism is another tool that adds richness to scripture. The symbolism of the Sun being darkened represents the change to our life experience that will result from the heavy demonic incursion. Father Gabriele Amorth, a noted author on the subject of spiritual warfare, and one of the most distinguished exorcists in the history of the Catholic Church, twenty years ago remarked that the smoke of Satan had entered everywhere.
Amorth makes an ominous comment in his second book, An Exorcist: More Stories, that corresponds very closely with our view of the current demonic incursion. “When I am asked how many demons there are, I answer with the words that the demon himself spoke through a demoniac: ‘We are so many that, if we were visible, we would darken the sun.’[xvi]
“This has an eerie similarity to events in Revelation including the locusts being released from the pit, locusts with a scorpion’s tail that torment those without God’s seal. Chapter 9 of Revelation says the locusts that come out of the abyss are led by the angel of death or destruction, Abaddon, which I take to be another name for Satan. So, in both Revelation 6 and 9 we have multiple symbols representing a major demonic assault in the latter days.
“During that assault, the darkness of Satan’s oppression will encroach upon all aspects of life, dampening our optimism and joy until we restoke the fires of our faith. We will be living in a virtual darkness, a darkness of the spirit. The moon’s turning to blood symbolizes the incessant evil attacks and tragedies spawned by the devil’s armies
“Our children are going to need extra nighttime prayers during this tribulation, gestures of friendship, affection, and reassurance to defend against demonic incursions into their sleep. Spiritual darkness has come upon us unawares, and our children are not fully immune to it.
“It is like the story of the frog placed in a pot of water on the stove. If the heat is turned up gradually, the frog is not alerted to danger until he is paralyzed. The frog’s ‘goose’ is cooked, as it were, before he notices the threat. When he does notice it, paralysis prevents his jumping out.
“Satan’s goal with phase one of his assault on the Church over the past century has been much the same concept: produce a moral degradation in society so gradual that no one is alarmed, and so pervasive that we ultimately lose our sense of good and evil, and of sin itself.
“There’s no question. Modern society is suffering from boiled frog syndrome. We have become inured to the horrors occurring around us. Since we take no corrective action, the devil remains free to further sabotage our world, and with it our children’s future. Everywhere you turn the devil and his supporters parade moral obscenities in plain view unimpeded by a society so sick as to be incapable of moral outrage or compassion. The unfortunate trend is that we have allowed the devil to steal our faith in God, our self-confidence, our compassion, and our belief in ourselves.
“Although Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King may well be a saint, the world tends to view his charismatic passion and fervor as a gift unique to himself. The same gifts are available to anyone willing to apply them to the Lord’s work. We are all capable, and we are all called to express that same passion, the passion of Christ. Certainly Doctor King, himself, made inspired and eloquent pleas to us to do exactly that. In my own experience, no one so closely mirrored Christ’s own persona as Doctor King.
“Scriptural truth reveals the situation to be quite different from our current self-deprecating assumptions. ‘Jacob shall be a fire!’ We are Jacob, God’s people. We are God’s stately warhorse in the last battle! To our shame, we have permitted the devil to convince us that our personal spiritual artillery, meant by God to be definitive in this final confrontation with evil, only shoots blanks. This error must be corrected. We must raise our heads and march forward. We must stop compromising Christ’s victory. We must stop compromising the power and glory of God and shine the brilliant light of Christ in our lives. This is absolutely needed to offset the massive encroachment of darkness signified in Revelation 6:12-13.
“You begin to see how rich the scripture truly is. Trying to exposit only these two short verses of Revelation 6 has led us back to the Gospel of Christ and the kings, judges and prophets of the Old Testament. The old maxim ‘All roads lead to Rome’ very aptly applies to the Bible, with every verse intimately tied together with all the others. At a minimum, our discussion shows that we can speculate about the end of days in a manner respectful to God’s authority and the teachings of the Church and learn a great deal from the attempt.
“Combining our new provisional understanding of Revelation 6 with the Church’s position on a couple of related issues, we can construct a view that allows for, though not requiring, a great deal of time to expire prior to the end of this world.”
Father is beginning to loosen up a little as the targeted congestion breaks free.[xvii]
Pam sips a little slower, but dutifully responds.
“What are those two issues Father?”
“One, the Catholic Church considers science to be an essentially legitimate enterprise, that when properly performed,[xviii] yields bonafide truth, at least temporarily useful theories. That’s the first issue, the general reliability of science. Two, the book of Revelation is not one of the books written in an historically literal style, but rather a primarily mythological style: it was a vision.[xix] This allows, among other things, quote unquote ‘a thousand years’ to be interpreted to mean a very long time, as was the customary use of the phrase in the days of St. John, the author of the book. ‘A thousand years’ for St. John and the apocalyptic writers represented an indefinite period not restricted to specifically 1,000 calendar years.
“2 Peter, chapter 3, of course, opens up the opposite possibility that the ‘thousand years’ could turn out to be a relatively short time, by saying that ‘…with the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day.’[xx]
“Ultimately, when it comes to time considerations in end times prophecy we simply won’t know with precision. Add to this the current scientific cosmological theory of the physical collapse of the universe, anticipated to take place in nineteen to twenty billion years, and there is no longer a need to hold your breath after the lunar event tonight."[xxi]
Pam lets out a deep breath, partly in jest.
“Father, why don’t we know the prophetic timeline with certainty, why didn’t God just give the exact dates for these important events? If we knew Christ was returning in ten years, we could have that point of hope to help us through these most difficult times.”
“That’s a fair question,” Pam, “but I think you will be surprised at the answer.
“First of all, our hope should remain certain, whether we know the date or not. By pure logic we know God is going to do the absolute best thing at the best time. On the other hand, your point is well-taken in relation to human psychology. Having a certain end in view does help us hold on through a grueling experience, to tough it out knowing the hardship won’t last forever.
“Of course, God’s wisdom is greater than our own, and therefore somewhat mysterious to us. The strength of a person or of a situation can also be a weakness, however. In this case, knowing the dates and duration of important events like the tribulation, for example, Armageddon or our final deliverance by Christ’s return would not only enable us to hold out, it would tempt us to hold out, to do just enough to get by.
“God is trying to teach us to do more than that. He wants us to make a full and permanent choice for good. Doing just enough for a few years to get past judgment doesn’t work for God’s purpose of eternal purification of our souls. Our souls must be permanently changed, otherwise the purity of eternal paradise is itself placed at risk of contamination.
“There is another obstacle to God’s telling us the specific dates: it defeats his purpose. This has to do with the fact that prophetic events are not just independent event goals that God has deemed to be good in their own right, events that would be just as good regardless of the time and place that they occur. The major events of prophecy are primarily rewards or punishments, and they are tools God uses to produce a specific result, instruments of both the harvest and purification.
“God has seen the future. He knows what we will do. But it simply does not work to tell us that our reward or punishment is set for a specific date when we have yet to do the things for which the reward or punishment is issued. We are radically free persons and if we were told of a certain reward being locked in twenty years down the road there is nothing preventing us from sitting down and resting twenty years, doing nothing, or worse, doing evil. The nature of rewards and punishments precludes them being announced in advance. If they are, the honest heartfelt effort they are intended to reward may never take place, or a true propensity for evil may never be disclosed out of fear of the consequences. The purposes of both the harvest and eternal purification are thwarted.
“Prophetic events occur as a result of a threshold of moral heartfelt prayer and effort having been passed, or of a threshold of evil having been exceeded. Announcing certain dates in advance can preclude those thresholds from being honestly satisfied. In a sense, it is morally impossible for God to tell us the dates of prophetic events in advance.
“Let’s imagine for a moment that he does tells us these things in advance. He computes what is needed, tells us what he has decided, but by telling us he causes a reaction on our part. Our reaction then introduces a new element into the equation of what is needed. God must then recompute what is best considering our reactions. This process could go on indefinitely. The surprising reason why prophecy is not specific is because the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle applies: announcing rewards and punishments in advance is a self defeating process.”
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[i] See http://www.fws.gov/laws/TESTIMONY/109th/2005/Dale_Hall_Tesitmony_Before_Senate_Regarding_Katrina_11-02-05.html.
[ii] John Cougar Mellencamp, “To Washington,” in Trouble No More, Columbia Records, June 3, 2003. Available at Amazon.com.
[iii] Northcom is not fictional. Corrective action was begun after the terrorist attacks on the Trade Towers in New York. See the recent AP news story on the creation of Northcom in 2002. However, we didn’t see the fast reaction needed in Katrina. We will have to watch to see the value of Northcom for hurricanes specifically. Being so heavily focused on the terrorist threat, it may (or may not) turn out to be a paper tiger for natural disasters. The good news is that “Northern Command will gain more flexibility on Oct. 1 [2008] when a specialized military unit designed to respond quickly to a catastrophe comes on line. It will have 4,000 troops in three groups: first responders, a second wave of medical and logistics forces and a final wave of aircraft units, engineers and other support forces.“
[iv] See footnote 2 to Isaiah 57 at the USCCB Website: http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/isaiah/isaiah57.htm, and Psalm 106:36-38. Also “Molech,” see Jeremiah 7:30-34; 32:34-35; Leviticus 18:21; Leviticus 20:1-5; and “Baal,” Jeremiah 19:5; Ezekiel 16:20-21; 20:26; 23:37-39. All citations from NAB.
[v] 2 Timothy 2:25-26 NAB.
[vi] For instances of saints being carried away in the Spirit to locations in the spiritual dimension see Revelation 17:3; 21:9-10; Ezekiel 8:3; 9:24; 11:1. Also see the excerpt from the diary of St. Maria Faustina Kowalska reprinted in the leaflet entitled Heaven, Hell & Purgatory. This leaflet is available at nominal cost from the Association of Marian Helpers Website at http://www.marian.org/.
[vii] Acts 2:1-21 NAB.
[viii] Joshua 10:11-15 NAB
[ix] For some additional interesting correlations along the same lines the Joe Kovacs article on the WorldNetDaily Web site at Blood Moon Eclipses.
[x] See the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) paragraphs 112-119; also see Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, xviii.
[xi] Luke 21:25; Wisdom 5:17-23 NAB
[xii] For a thorough and fascinating look at related developments in recent disasters and the connection to biblical prophecy see the Words of the Harvesters, Dec. 2005 issue, Vol. #124, a publication of Caritas of Birmingham, 100 Our Lady Queen of Peace Drive, Sterrett AL 35147-9987 (phone: 205-672-2000). A single copy of this pamphlet is free, and multiple copies can be requested in bulk at varying rates per copy (10=23 cents, 100=15 cents). I highly recommend this pamphlet. It is worth the time to request the free copy, and one could do worse than providing a box for the local church.
[xiii] Galatians 2:5-6 NAB; Colossians 2:12-15 .
[xiv] Benedict XVI. Way of the Cross (Boston: Pauline Books & Media, 2005), 113.
[xv] Matthew 10:36 NAB
[xvi] Fr. Gabriele Amorth, An Exorcist: More Stories, available from Ignatius Press, and all major booksellers.
[xvii] To be clear, Father Bernie is not inebriated, nor would he permit it. As the Psalmist says, wine gladdens the heart. Father has merely become a bit glib, this without losing his rational and moral faculties.
[xviii] (CCC 159) "Though faith is above reason, there can never be any real discrepancy between faith and reason. Since the same God who reveals mysteries and infuses faith has bestowed the light of reason on the human mind, God cannot deny himself, nor can truth ever contradict truth."37 "Consequently, methodical research in all branches of knowledge, provided it is carried out in a truly scientific manner and does not override moral laws, can never conflict with the faith, because the things of the world and the things of faith derive from the same God. The humble and persevering investigator of the secrets of nature is being led, as it were, by the hand of God in spite of himself, for it is God, the conserver of all things, who made them what they are."
[xix] See Pope Benedict XVI, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger’s theological commentary on the Message of Fatima at the bottom of the discussion of the three secrets of Fatima published on the Vatican’s Web site at http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20000626_message-fatima_en.html
[xx] 2 Peter 3:8 NAB
[xxi]See ABC News Australia at http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/space/SpaceRepublish_942245.htm.