"Quid est Veritas?" What is Truth?

"Pilate said to Him, "What is Truth?" (John 18:38)

     We have looked at a few methods in which our common enemy employ's in order to vanquish our union with our Father. We have shown how the prince of the powers of the air (Ephesians 2:2) will occupy our thoughts with doubt concerning our own place in this world by way of challenging us intellectually as to our authentic dignity as being children of the Most High. We have also written exclusively on how this "murderer" (John 8:44) so eloquently deceives us into believing that the Blessed Trinity is holding out on us and desires not our happiness but our misery. This, of course, he does by magnifying our own base, fallen and prideful desires above reason and,therefore, above God Himself. Being a superior being, Satan and the rest of the fallen angels (demons), often have success in advancing their agenda because of the mere ignorance of Gods chosen. Without knowing what hit them many Christians are overcome by his wicked advancements and are brought deeper into themselves instead of deeper into Jesus Christ, their savior. Satan's trickery is masterful and cunning. It is pleasing to the senses and, sadly, seems 'reasonable' whenever viewed outside of divine revelation. Take note, once again, and we stress this, that if not firmly rooted into your faith and in love with Jesus, you will be easily overwhelmed and whatever the devil suggests will seem truthful and innocent. It will appear to you as a light but in reality it's darkness. Without a complete distrust of self and full confidence in God we are like a ship without sails being tossed about at the winds command. We will have no direction and all will be an utter blur until we eventually capsize unto our our own ruin.
     In this blog we will discuss another unique means Satan uses to steer us away from God and lead us deeper into despair. This way is far more (if that's possible) demanding than what we've discussed previously and requires more focus at attention to detail. Something which, in today's world, no one seems to have the time for nor do few inquire about. We are referring to Truth.
     St. Peter, in his second epistle, tells us, "false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction." (2 Peter 2:1) This aspect of spiritual warfare plays on the very shoulders of what we discussed earlier. Once the deception unto 'self' has been accomplished our adversary builds upon his foul foundation another building block of ruin. This we have called the "Distorted Reflection". It is likened to looking into a fun-house mirror. The true mirror reflects the Truth, Jesus Christ, in His fullness. This distorted-fun house mirror does indeed reflect Truth, however,  but not truth in reality as God has established it. Or at best, the 'truth' it does contain it deforms and causes all who look into it to see a distorted reflection of self, truth and real reality.
     Distorted reflection teaches half-truths. It can appear at face value to be absolute but when examined closely it doesn't contain everything needed to be the full Truth. For instance, many world religions outside of Christianity have many "truth's". They speak of revealed truth but do not claim it as from the one true God. They except one truth and reject another making the truth they do except a real truth but half understood. Truth works like that, it is natural, it can bee seen and understood and in most cases without the aid of faith but by reason alone. By conscience as well. All of which has been established by God for the sake of men. All revealed truth made by God and revealed to men is interconnected in one form or another. Whether it be the natural law or the moral law, truth works and operates collectively as a whole. This is why our society accepts stealing and murder as wrong but rejects such things as abortion or euthanasia.
     Satan thrives in distorted reflections. Although he himself is foreign to truth (John 8:44) he can use truth to lead people to lies. This method in which the father of lies works is the most destructive and causes the most damage in the world. Things can appear right and just at surface level but once you dig deep you will begin to see missing pieces. So many people are led astray simply by acknowledging half truths based on what they've seen or heard but take it no further. The intellectual dullness of modern society is something that begins in childhood and evolves as we grow. Especially in western society with the teaching of relativism in the school system and the general synapses of modern media.
     Sadly, this distorted reflection appears on a grand scale in Christianity as well. Not only in the breaking off of Christianity that happened during the Protestant revolt in the 16th century but also within the very walls of our Catholic Church. Protestantism (I speak here namely on Protestantism and not the Eastern Church because the divide within Protestantism and Catholicism is wider and more dangerous) in it's many forms has indeed helped many in forming their conscience to real truth but has done such damage to not only the believer for failing to adhere to the fullness of the truth as established by Christ and found only in the Catholic Church but, also, for confusing secular society as to the truth about truth. How can so many "churches" claim to have the truth when they disagree on so many vital details of what that truth actually is? Perhaps another blog in itself for another time but the point we are trying to make here is that if reality, if truth is to be understood in the way in which God has shown us we need to look no further then the Catholic Church. Her teachings are established by Jesus, the Truth Himself, and are eternal and unchangeable.
     Within our very own walls we see division as well. The Catholic Church is in a dangerous point in human history. Many bishops, priests and laymen are opposed to the true teachings of Christ and His Church and adhere to whatever they personally feel is truth. A good majority our schools and universities are awful examples of Catholicism; corroded with secularism and treated as a business rather than a place to grow closer to God. However, as Jesus Christ promised, the gates of hell shall never prevail against it. (Matthew 16:18)We have been given the eyes to see this and the ears to hear this blatant disarray at work. It is a call for all of us, in love of God, to work even more diligently in the work of God and His divine kingdom.

So what ought we to do?

To know the truth, the full truth and nothing but the truth means to know Jesus. The whole Jesus and nothing but Jesus! The fullness of Christ can only be found in the Catholic Church. Lead a life of constant communion with the Blessed Trinity through prayer, devotion and the sacraments. Establish a real relationship with Our Lady, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and she will help you more than you think in advancing to truth and wisdom. Everything here on earth is to be used as a means to arrive at our true home in heaven. If we do not see (or better yet adhere to) the truth we will not arrive at the very place which God desires for us and has paved the way for us to get there. There will be many crosses and many trials along the way but to be firmly rooted in the Truth of Jesus Christ means safety and security while we await our blessed hope!

Copyright 2011 A New Voice for Broken Souls

Amidst Combat: The Enemy's Weapons

"Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he afterward hungered. And the tempter came..."(Matthew 4:1)

     What can we learn from the temptation of Christ in the wilderness? Brothers and sisters, there could be volumes written about this subject. Everyone from the Church Fathers all throughout Christian history, right up until Pope Benedict XVI, have written extensively on the subject of Christ's temptation. What we plan to do here is not so much write an exhaustive explanation but, rather, a concise overview of how Satan attempted to skew the will of God the Father in Jesus' life and how that relates to us today. There is a reason why Sacred Scripture is called, "God's Living Word". Unlike any other book written in human history, the Bible is authored by God and written by man, (CCC #105) It speaks life into us, it is Divine Revelation and whenever read it goes far beyond mere intellectual understanding. This is the reason why Scripture is held in such reverence during Holy Mass. Like breathing air gives our physical bodies life, reading Sacred Scripture pours life into our souls. This is the reason why we chose to focus, first of all, on what has already been Divinely revealed concerning Satan and how he operates before moving toward the lives of the saints and then our own personal experiences. We, and our reader, will benefit the most from the example of Scripture before all others.
     The very first verse in Matthew's Gospel (Chapter 4) tells us a great deal. It says, "Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil." God the Father, as He does with each and every one of us, tests our faith and trust, thus, He did so with His Son as well. This verse shows us that this episode was preordained by the Father in cooperation with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit led Christ right into the devils domain on purpose. Here we see that God will allow for us (as He didn't spare His own Son) to be tempted by the devil. He will even lead us to it at times as He did here. Furthermore, despite Christ being fully God His humanity needed to be tried and found spotless. This incident, perhaps, ordained by the Father, could have been done for our own benefit and not for that of Christs. Christ Jesus, in order to better associate Himself with His Creatures, gives us the perfect example of complete obedience by willingly endured the assaults of our common adversary.While it is understood that God does and has allowed many to be tempted by the devil, it must also be understood that God is all good. God is love! The Father would never will a circumstance to occur to harm us in any way. Rather, He permits it in order to grow in deeper union with Him as was this example which Christ gives to us.

 We will not be commenting on the specific dialog between Christ and Satan but only highlight the ways in which Satan went about to temp and deceive Jesus.

     The text in verse two tells us that Christ fasted for forty days and forty nights when the tempter came to Him. This is key because in this we see that Satan will assail us when he knows we are weak. Scripture tells us that Christ was hungry. This is obvious, but take note of what Satan says to Jesus just before tempting Him to turn stones into bread. He says, "If you are the Son of God..." Why, do you suppose, Satan questioned Christs' divinity? Satan knows what he is doing. He is an intelligent spirit. He understood that in Christs' weakened condition, after not having eaten in forty day and nights, In His humanity His mind might be somewhat delusional. He, therefore, tried to take advantage of the situation and attempt to kill two birds with one stone; to cause Christ to question who He is as Son of the Living God and to lose focus on why He was fasting in the first place. We, too, will be questioned as to our true identity as children of God. Satan will infiltrate our minds with confusion as to the reality that we really are heirs and adopted children of the Most High God. If this isn't enough to discourage us he will 'kick us while we're down,' so-to-speak and, like he did with Christ, take this opportunity to challenge our faith even further. Living an authentic life of faith in God is hard enough let alone having to muster the ability (by the grace of God) to withstand an ambush of doubt. Satan's motive in tempting Christ to turn stones into bread was not done simply to satisfy Jesus' hunger. Otherwise, Christ would not have responded as He did by saying, "It is written, `Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." We see here Satan's deceptivity at work. His intent was to have Christ, the Son of the Living God and the Redeemer of the world, yield to Satan's request rather than remain steadfast to His Fathers command and will despite His hunger pangs. Jesus fully understood Satan's nature as being the "father of lies" (John 8:44) and acted accordingly. Here is where most Christians fall. What makes playing mind games with Satan so difficult is because when Satan speaks (or tempts) he does so because there is no truth in him. It is in his very nature to lie. (John 8:44) As a result, his craftiness and deceitful ways of leading us into sin are very difficult to recognize. We must all understand this before doing battle or else we won't even stand a chance.
   We see in Christs' second temptation that Satan challenges God Himself. He asks Jesus to throw Himself down a cliff overlooking the Holy City simply to see whether or not the angels, as Scripture testifies, will protect Him. Normally such a temptation would seem laughable to Christ but in His weakened condition Satan gives it a try knowing Jesus is suffering greatly and may not be thinking straight. However, Christ quickly responds that we are not to tempt the Lord our God. Satan will do the same with us as well. He knows Sacred Scripture and we see in Scripture itself that he uses it to his own advantage by designating a different meaning to a certain passage than what the author originally intended. In his deceit and because of this, he causes us to doubt God and to turn away from Him. This is why, like a previous blog pointed out (Know Your Faith), we have to know the Word of God so well that we can, like Jesus did, recognize when it is being used falsely. Therefore, once again, KNOW YOUR FAITH and fight back!
   The third and final temptation is one in which most people, I believe, would fall. It culminates the chiefest of all sin, pride. "The devil took him to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them;" (Matthew 4:8) This temptation is interesting. We can see that Satan has the ability to transfer images or bi-locate. Whatever the case may be we know that Satan will make sin appear pleasurable and pleasing to the senses. He tickles our fallen nature to yearn for dominion in that which is not ours; to look inside of us and feed the hunger of greed and power. Hence, he challenges Jesus and says, "All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me." It wasn't Satan's attempt to give Jesus that which is rightfully His, for He created them, but it's Satan's desire to have Christ forsake His Father. Worldly dominion, at least from a temporal standpoint, wasn't what was really at stake. Can you see the trickery of the devil? He takes something which is seemingly harmless and tries to bring about destruction. Jesus is fed-up by now and proclaims with authority, "Begone, Satan!" The devil, as St. Teresa of Avila used to say, is like a fly. We swat pesky flies whenever they bother us and here Jesus is "swatting" Satan. "You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve." Simple enough, Satan could not muster the "greed" n Christs' humanity (O' the irony) to cause Him to fall.

There is a prayer in the Tridentine Holy Mass that states, "Laetantibus vobis humana natura mire ["You (God) have exulted man's nature most wonderfully.."] Indeed He has! This is why Satan takes advantage of deceiving us by way of our intellect more-so than through "hauntings" or any other paranormal activity. After all, hauntings and the paranormal probably won't convince the 'hauntee' to fly away from God but toward Him. Therefore, I encourage all readers to consider their every thought, every action and "take every thought captive to obey Christ" (2 Corinthians 10:5) May Almighty God richly bless you!

Copyright 2011 A New Voice for Broken Souls


 

Know Your Enemy

     One of the most interesting facets of our Catholic faith is how many "mysteries" we have. Sometimes trying to figure out what God is up to is certainty enough to make one feel truly ignorant. The old adage, "The more you know, the more you realize you don't know!" rears its honest head and has us dumbfounded just when we thought we finally "Got it". I honestly believe one single lifetime is still not enough to learn the entire Catholic faith and rightfully so. It's not possible for our finite minds to wrap themselves around nearly 2000 years of rich Catholic history. Nevertheless, our Father has provided a way for us to understand just enough in order for us to live the life He has called each of us to. Since, therefore, every one of us is unique in our own way God works within each of us differently. The same Holy Spirit is at work and guiding us toward the same goal but the means are different for each of us. (1 Corinthians 12:7-11) Once we have freely chosen to, "be transformed by the renewing of our minds" (Romans 12:2) and willfully allow God to form us as to reflect of His Son, Jesus Christ, we will be ready to distinguish the now illumined narrow path that leads to life.
     Along this beaten path many obstacles present themselves in an effort to buffet our progress. Sadly, many souls who encounter such adversity get discouraged and relapse into their old ways. (Matthew 13:19) If not deeply rooted in the Faith and in love with Jesus Christ one doesn't stand a chance once the seed is sown within their hearts. Satan knows this all too well so he goes to extreme lengths (so far as God permits him to) to thwart the initial sincerity of the newborn child of God. His methods are unique in themselves and take on many forms. We will discuss each form at length in blogs to comes but we will begin with his most used (at least in my own experience) tactic and make our way to the more lesser known.
      Satan will most often use a false pretense of normality to quickly deceive the vulnerable soul. In his craftiness he will convince us that the thought, inspiration or idea we are having is of our own origin. It is disguised, oftentimes, as a "good idea" or something that appears to be normal and harmless. Case in point, after Jesus hands the keys of the kingdom to Peter in Matthew 16 Peter approaches Jesus to rebuke Him for when He had told them that "He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things...and be killed" (Matthew 16:21) Peter exclaims, "God forbid! Lord! This shall never happen to you!" (Matthew 16:22) To this Jesus hastily responds, "Get behind me Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not on the side of God but of men." (Matthew 16:23)
     At face value Peter's rebuke seemed reasonable. Peter, perhaps, probably thought he was showing his loyalty to our Lord. Satan, desiring to deter Christ and His mission, uses Peter as an unsuspecting host to cleverly (more appropriately foolishly) infiltrate the will of God the Father. He will do the same thing with us. Had not Christ known His mission He may have heeded Peter's rebuke. Satan knew Peters simplicity and took advantage of it.
     Also, it's important to underscore that Jesus said, "You are not on the side of God but of man". This seems obvious to us but some Bibles translate this passage to read, "You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do." (see New American Bible) This clearly shows us that man's will by itself is contrary to the Divine will. As a result, by ourselves we cannot see the end in which God has for us until we see things from His perspective first. Then the things that happen to us begin to make sense. Once we know what God has planned for us personally and as a whole together as His Church, we will, as Christ demonstrated, be able to discern how God thinks and be able to recognize the sly deceits of the devil as he has shown us here in the Holy Gospel. Thinking "as humans do" is rooted in pride and must be countered by humility which can only be achieved through shouldering ones cross as Christ has.
     Another means Satan employs to orchestrate his wretched will is by the justification of selfishness. Namely, the Seven Capital (or deadly) Sins. He will utilize pride, greed, envy, wrath, sloth, gluttony and lust in order to insinuate the need to satisfy an otherwise insatiable disorder urge. The occult of Satanism holds to vices much like Catholics hold to virtues. Since, therefore, the fallen human condition (our flesh) desires these vices by nature, Satan utilizes them to his advantage and an unsuspecting heart can turn black by no fault of it's own. We will be having a series on each Capital Sin individually in the future but for now let it suffice to mention the very thing they all hold in common which the evil one uses to drive souls away from God.
     Take, for example, the account in the book of the Acts of the Apostles where the early church is growing rapidly and all the new followers of "The Way" were selling their property and giving the proceeds to the poor. (Acts 4:34-35) A man named Annanias and his wife Sapphira sold a portion of their land in order to help the poor. However, Scripture tells us that they contrived together and kept back a portion of the proceeds. St. Peter, full of the Holy Spirit, knew immediately what they had done when they arrived to hand him the money. He exclaimed, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back part of the proceeds of the land?" (Acts 5:3) Upon hearing these words Annanias and his wife Sapphira dropped dead instantly! Satan used what he knew to be the selfish nature of man and exploited the Capital Sin of greed in order to separate Annanias and his wife from God. This account not only shows us how Satan works but it also is a great reminder of how serious sin is. This is why self discipline is vital in the spiritual life. Had Annanias and his wife recognized their own weaknesses in the sin of covetousness they would have quickly been able to see that it was Satan trying to fill their hearts. Perhaps, Annanias and his wife even had good intentions with the money they kept for themselves but the deed was already done. One cannot use evil in order to bring about a good from it.
     A sad reality is that Satan (and demons) know us all to well. They know our evil tendencies and latch onto them and use them against us. This is why we stress the absolute importance of knowing ones self and our own tendencies before attempting to thwart Satan's schemes. Otherwise, the powerful force of "self" will overwhelm reason and truth and plunge your soul further into darkness. We need to acquire the ability to see clearly our own hearts in light of the Divine will before we can even think about conquering the evil one. He is a mastermind of how human nature operates and manipulates in such a way that can have uis questioning what we know with absolute certainty to be true. He feeds off our wants and desires that do not parallel the law of God and crushes us if we don't know what we're doing.
     We will be discussing the three temptations of Christ in the desert in our next blog and picking apart how the devil's tactics affected Jesus and what we can learn from them in our own lives. While this topic may be scary, the good news is God has already won! However, the battle still exists in temporal form and as we have discussed proceeds from the fall of man and fall of the angels. One thing is for certain, just know amongst all the confusion that sin bestows, all stands still in Christ!

May the peace and love of God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, in union with the Holy Spirit, rest upon you and your loved ones!


Copyright 2011 A New Voice for Broken Souls All Rights Reserved.