Apr 27 – Homily – Fr. Angelo: “I Will Be With You Always”
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Homily #080427 (
23min) Play - How do we know that a spirit who is speaking to us is a holy spirit or and unholy spirit? How is it that we discern spirits? By our feelings? Divine Mysticism often starts in a mist, and ends in a schism!The link to the Margaret Sanger interview Fr. mentions in this homily can be found here.
Ave Maria! Mass readings
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True religion should lead us to deliverance from a life of sin. When a man and a woman are living in a NON sacramental union and one party received the grace to want to live for God alone then a schism (divorce) is a gift from God. Especially when such schism is granted an annulment at a later date which only confirms that doing one’s daily duties DOES NOT entail living in a sinful relationship that IS Not sanctioned by God. Moses left the pharoah’s court. Was that schism caused by a bad spirit? I think not!
How sad that in the name of God so many religious within the Church are the cause of such horrific suffering to those who desire nothing more than to live entirely for God. It is because they are puffed up with their own pride and jealousy. Some things just don’t change. All one has to do is look to the lives of the saints like Padre Pio and Bernadette to see how vile those bad spirits were that operated in the lives of superiors and religious to persecute these mystics; all in the name of the Church. Did these mystics really need to be tested or did the persecutors need to be identified for who they were? That’s the real question.
A schism is not a sign that a mystic is not real. Rather, endurance to the bitter end and not counting the cost or caring with whom one must battle is a more sure sign of a mystics true gifts!
You are right to say that He is with us always because He is the Great I AM Who is Forever!
Rachel,
Ave Maria!
I gather you have a disagreement with something I said, but I am not sure exactly what. I would be happy to clarify. I did not intend to denigrate mysticism, but to articulate correctly what must the principle of the discernment of spirits.
I think the final discernment regarding evil spirits should be left to trained people such as excorcist. Too many nuts running around thinking they know everything there is to know about discerning spirits who are doing more damage than good. Including well meaning Catholic souls both in the Charismatic movement as well as the traditionalist. This includes priests. You said that the bad spirits always lead to a schism. I disagree. Sometimes bad spirits disguise themselves as a united front, a union of minds coming together in unity only to be an underlying cult that controls the free thought of reason! If anyone disagrees with this unity of mind, they find themselves ostracized and persecuted. Would a member of Jim Jones’ group raising a voice in opposition thereby causing a schism within his group should be called a bad spirit?
All I was trying to indicate is that some of the bad spirits that need to be discerned are those bad spirits operating through religious and superiors who CLAIM to be doing God’s will in discerning bad spirits of those mystics. They often times couldn’t be further from the truth for they themselves are the devils advocates. Not the mystic.
Rachel,
I don’t think we disagree in substance. My point was to indicate that personal inspiration, private judgment and private revelation are subordinate to public revelation. The deposit of faith, the sacraments, the duties of one’s state of life, the sanctifying gifts of the Holy Spirit belong to the first and indispensable order of grace, and only that grace saves.
The first principle of discernment–and we all need to have some understanding of this–is to compare what is not certain (the secondary gifts) with what is (the primary).
In reference to schism, my phrase “mysticism begins in mist and ends in schism,” was partly rhetorical; however, while it might be inaccurate as a generalization, it is not inaccurate when private revelation or personal inspiration leads one to compromise his or her fidelity to the deposit of faith or the Vicar of Christ. It is that kind of primary schism that I intended to reference.
Thank you for your insightful and thorougly intellectual explanation. The clarification serves your homily well. God Bless!