Private Revelation

Prologue, Foreword and Contents

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PROLOGUE

I wrote this book, “The Holy Catholic Church and Private Revelation”, in 1983 to offer help in a particular situation at Necedah, Wisconsin where there was a cult based on a false apparition. Over 500 copies of the book were handed out by an old Roman Catholic Bishop, Francis DiBenedetto, on May 31, 1983 in the Shrine Men's Home Chapel. This work, in a way, represents our attempt to help others not to fall into the same trap or pit that I and so many others fell into (see: http://necedah-cult.blogspot.com/).

Since then I have had the opportunity to study philosophy and theology in Rome and to understand better the gift of the Second Vatican Council. Thus, if I wrote this book today I would certainly write it differently. Perhaps this written work lacks in regard to the true spirit of ecumenism and Christian charity; the mentality and attitudes expressed in this book are mostly pre Vatican II (see: http://trueevangelization.blogspot.com/ as well as http://schis-trad.blogspot.com/). But I feel there is a certain advantage and need to offer this work (with its references mostly written before the Second Vatican Council) as it was written in 1983, precisely because there are many people who have not had the opportunity to study and appreciate the documents of the recent ecumenical council. Thus these people can perhaps better relate to such a book in its original form. For this reason, as well as due to lack of time, I have not re-edited the book.

Joseph Dwight

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The Holy Catholic Church and Private Revelation

FOREWARD

What is private revelation? What is the meaning and purpose of private revelation? How does private revelation fit into the overall divine plan of glorifying God and saving souls? What is the significance and role of private revelation within the entire Mystical Body of Christ. the Church? What should be our prudent attitude toward private revelation? Before the Church has had time to investigate a particular apparition, how can we prudently determine whether an apparition is probably true or probable false? What is the prudent use of private revelation? What are the dangers of the imprudent use of private revelation? The purpose of this work is to shed light on these and other pertinate questions regarding private revelation.

The apparitions of Our Lady in modern times have awakened the interest of laymen as well as theologians in the direct intervention of heaven in the affairs of men. Revelations are striking and extraordinary manifestations of the divine will. Although they sometimes shock or frighten the faithful, they are a form of God's pastoral activity, a way in which He continues to guide mankind.

But throughout history skeptics have been eager to deny the fact of God's personal communications with men. Others have been overenthusiastic in giving credence to reports to visions. How has our infallible guide on earth, the Holy Catholic Church, approached the question of revelations. In this work we will trace and analyze the guideposts in the history of the Church's attitude toward revelations.

Where the Apostles freely welcomed revelations, later Fathers were forced to exercise caution in confronting the extremist claims of the "new prophecy" of the ecstatic Montanists. Joachimism also provoked a reaction within the Church with its predictions of a new gospel.

But the dangers from pseudo-revelations did not - and should not - obscure the enrichment to be derived from true revelations. This work brings spiritual as well as psychological light to bear upon the question of discernment by showing how the findings of psychiatry supplement the wisdom of the clergy in distinguishing true from false revelations. We will draw upon the experiences of holy persons and the teachings of popes, saints and theologians.

But it cannot be emphasised enough that the greatest source of experience and wisdom as well as the supreme juridical authority on earth in regard to all spiritual matters, which includes private revelation, is our Holy Mother Church. We cannot go wrong if we humbly and confidently look to her and follow her counsels and judgments as given to us by her representatives on earth.

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Contents

INTRODUCTION
I.1: Creation
I.2: The Fall of Man
I.3: The Incarnation and Redemption
I.4: Christ's Bride Sent to Be our Guide
I.5: The Church, Full of Grace and Truth
I.6: Admonishment From God Through the Church
I.7: Private Revelation - A Charism of the Church

Chapter I: WHAT IS PRIVATE REVELATION?
1.1: Definition
1.2: Holy Scriptures -- Inspired by the Holy Spirit
1.3: Supernatural Revelation
1.4: "Apocryphal" Books
1.5: Private Revelations - One of the Charisms of the Church

Chapter II: BENEFITS OF PRIVATE REVELATION
2.1: An Edification
2.2: Enlightenment of the Mystical Body
2.3: Effects of Private Revelation On the Soul
2.4: Edifying Food for the Soul
2.5: Private Revelations Are Precious

Chapter III: EXAMPLES OF TRUE AND FALSE REVELATIONS
3.1: Why God Gives Private Revelation
3.2: Pseudo-Revelations
3.3: The Pouring Out of the Holy Spirit
3.4: Revelations To The Apostles
3.5: An Early Pseudo-Revelation
3.6: Revelations in the Age of the Fathers
3.7: The "New Prophecy"
3.8: Reaction in the Church To Montanism
3.9: In the African Church of the Third Century
3.10: Joachimism - Twelfth Century
3.11: Reaction Against Joachimism
3.12: The Revelations of St. Bridget
3.13: Among Theologians
3.14: Apparitions of Recent Centuries

Chapter IV: CRITERIA OF DISCERNMENT
4.1: Difficulty of True Discernment
4.2: The Manner In Which Revelations Are Made
4.3: Criteria For the Subject of Revelations
4.4: Criteria For the Content of Revelation
4.5: Criteria For the Effects of Revelation
4.6: Miracles As Criteria of Revelation
4.7: Psycho-Physiological Phenomena
4.8: The Authority of the Church as Criteria of Discernment
4.9: Discerning the True from the False Within Revelations Themselves (Illusions)
4.10: Hallucinations and Revelation
4.11: Difference Between Supernatural Phenomena & Psycho-neurosis
4.12: The Power of the Devil
4.13: Diabolical Phenomena

Chapter V: PROPHESY
5.1: What Is Prophesy
5.2: The Object of Prophesy
5.3: From God or From the Prophet or ...?
5.4: Kinds of Prophesy
5.5: Rules To Distinguish True From False Prophets

Chapter VI: SPIRITUAL DIRECTION
6.1: Moral Necessity of Spiritual Direction
6.2: Duties of the Spiritual Director
6.3: Duties of Penitents
6.4: Rules of Conduct Regarding Revelations

Chapter VII: THE ARC GUIDED BY THE DOVE
7.1: The Ark and the Dove
7.2: Christ Established a Church
7.3: The Authority of the Church
7.4: Why This Authority?
7.5: Why Church Laws?
7.6: Infallibility of the Church
7.7: The Necessity and the Fact of Infallibility
7.8: When Infallibility Is and Is Not Exercised
7.9: What Modernism Is and Is Not
7.10: The Greatest and Grandest Institution
7.11: The Four Marks of Our Greatest Treasure
7.12: Our Glorious Heritage
7.13: "The Gates of Hell Shall Not Prevail" - Indefectibility
7.14: Unconditional Surrender
7.15: Indefectibility
7.16: The Communion of Saints

Chapter VIII: THE LINK BETWEEN PRIVATE REVELATION AND THE CHURCH
8.1: Normal Tensions Between the Prophetic Function and the Hierarchical Church
8.2: Private Revelation - Direction In a Specific Way
8.3: The Attitude of the Church Toward Revelation Before the Nineteenth Century
8.4: Attitude of the Church Toward Certain Apparitions of the Last Two Centuries
8.5: Pastoral Ministry
8.6: Private Revelation Cannot Commit the Church
8.7: Church Recognition of Apparitions After Mature Reflection

Chapter IX: OBEDIENCE TO LAWFUL SUPERIORS
9.1: In All That Is Not Sin
9.2: Humility - the True Visionary
9.3: Obedience To the Church
9.4: Different Realms of Authority
9.5: The Pit of Cynical Self-Deception
9.6: Destructive Propaganda
9.7: Prudent Action of a Son
9.8: Fundamental Imprudence Within a Family
9.9: Authority Destroying Authority
9.10: St. Thomas and Fraternal Correction
9.11: Danger of (Extreme) Traditional Groups
9.12: False Notions of Modernism
9.13: Cause of Disunity
9.14: "Holier-Than-Thou" Movements
9.15: Earth - A Battle Ground
9.16: Prudently Separate the Office From the Man
9.17: Protestantism
9.18: Protestant Clergy
9.19: Protestant Son
9.20: Proper Procedures
9.21: "New Things and Old"
9.22: Disobedience - Our Great Moral Disease

Chapter X: PRUDENT AND IMPRUDENT ATTITUDE TOWARD PRIVATE REVELATION
10.1: Catholic Faith vs Human Faith
10.2: The Abuse of Revelations
10.3: The Pit of Self-Deception
10.4: Few Respond To the Whisperings of the Holy Spirit
10.5: Great Saints or Mediocre Sinners?
10.6: Revelations: A Problem of the Present Time
10.7: The Right Not To Make Use of Revelations
10.8: The Usefulness of Belief in Revelations
10.9: The Fruitful Use of Revelations

Chapter XI: THE DYNAMICS OF COMMUNITY
11.1: Social Structures
11.2: Constructive Community Life
11.3: Destructive Community Life
11.4: Discernment of Good or Bad Community Life
11.5: Natural Tendency Toward Cults and Mind Control
11.6: Partial Reason For Increase In Cultism
11.7: Totalistic Environment
11.8: The Deception of Destructive Cults
11.9: God Offers True Freedom

CONCLUSION

BIBLIOGRAPHY (referenced by number & page; i.e. #p#)

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Introduction

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INTRODUCTION

I.1: Creation

In the outpouring of God's infinite overflowing love, He created the angels and men in His own image and likeness. This not only means they will live forever with an immortal soul, but also that they are endowed with understanding and free will. In other words, with these two gifts, they have the ability to comprehend and the choice to accept and cooperate with or reject God's love and graces. Thus, by this gift of our free will, or rather tremendous (fearful) responsibility, each one of us is given the opportunity to choose our destiny of eternal happiness or eternal pain.

I.2: The Fall of Man

Although our first human parents, Adam and Eve, were given many wonderful gifts and privileges, they did not remain faithful to God and His commandment (Gen 3:6). Since their gifts and wonderful privileges were purely gratuitous favors, there was no injustice done when, upon their fall, they were deprived of them. As the whole human race is descended from Adam and Eve, we all enter the world deprived of the gifts, most especially sanctifying grace, which we would have inherited if they had remained faithful.

I.3: The Incarnation and Redemption

But God did not abandon mankind. After promising them a Redeemer (Gen 3:15), He continued to guide them and communicate with them through His prophets and other holy men. Finally, in the fullness of time, out of love and mercy, God the Father sent His only begotten Son. It was not enough that He should leave His home in heaven and stoop to take up our human nature. It was not enough that He should have spent thirty-three wearisome years on this earth, toiling and suffering in order not only to give us the means to divine life, but to show us how to live that life after the example of His own Son. No, all this was yet not enough. It was not enough that He should die the ignominious death of the Cross to open the gates of paradise and offer to mankind once more the first loving invitation of the Father, which was rejected by our first parents, namely, to enter on the highway of love which leads to the eternal bliss of the vision and possession of Him.

I.4: Christ's Bride Sent to Be Our Guide

His infinite love still impelled Him to send us His Bride, Our Holy Mother the Church, that you and I, at this moment, hundreds of years after His sojourn on earth might have a visible, infallible, and unchanging Guide to lead us on the way He had pointed out. That you and I today with the faithful of the nineteen hundred and some odd years that have passed, and those of the tomorrows to come, should know the ministrations of this wonderful and divinely ingenious Mother of ours.

She orders the holy household of her ministers beginning with the visible head, the pope, in descending degrees of variety. She takes care that the spreading network of her saving channels reaches all of us, her children, with a marvelous efficiency, and teaches us His very own doctrine by her living voice. Every year of her life she completes that golden circle of truths which make up the Drama of Divine Love; directing our halting and sometimes childishly willful footsteps, by the hand of her government, along the straight and narrow path of His virtues and commandments, and having our thirsting souls to drink of the waters of His living grace.

I.5: The Church, Full of Grace and Truth

Thus, Christ did not leave us orphans with only a memory of Him and His works. He left us His Church; an identifiable Church that is one, holy, catholic, and apostolic and also divinely endowed with the three attributes (or charisms) of authority, infallibility, and indefectibility along with many other lesser charisms from the Holy Spirit. If Christ would give us no more, we could easily make it to His heavenly kingdom of eternal bliss if we would merely reach out and take advantage of our motherly infallible guide filled with Christ's precious truths and graces.

I.6: Admonishment From God Through the Church

But just like the Jews of the Old Testament who frequently slipped away from doing God's will expressed by His commandments or like a prudently raised child who often disobeys his generous and God-loving parents, so too, the Christians of the New Testament frequently did not and still do not do as they should even though God's will has been clearly spelled out by the Church and ample graces are openly and freely available through the Church especially in the seven sacraments.

In mercy and love, God sent Prophets and Judges to the Jews to jolt them back to Him. Good parents lovingly admonish their child. So too, God the Holy Spirit inspires the Church, normally through the ecclesiastical body of the bishops, with the Pope as their head, to lovingly admonish straying Christians. The Church fulfils this important task of guidance at all levels of her divinely formed structure from the Pope down to the parish priest using a whole array of methods including encyclicals, ecclesiastical pronouncements as well as the Sunday sermons by the parish priest.

I.7: Private Revelation - A Charism of the Church

A more rare method by which the Holy Spirit communicates to the Mystical Body of Christ for a particular situation at a given time in history to guide our conduct is by the charism of prophesy or better know as private revelation.

Private revelations are not the foundation upon which the Church rests but rather an extra charism of the Church bestowed on the faithful through God's generosity and mercy. It is the Church which approves them (or condemns then) and it is in her that revelations find their aim and fruit, that being, the edification of souls.

This work follows the brief advise of St. Paul to the Thessalonians (5:19-29). The first part (chapters 1-3), which aims at the acceptance of the fact of revelations, follows St. Paul's precept "Extinguish not the Spirit. Despise not prophecies." The second part (chapters 4-6), which deals with the discernment of revelations and the qualifications of the Catholic Church, is an explanation of the continuation of our text: "but prove all things!" The third part (chapter 7) corresponds entirely with the final Pauline advice: "prudently hold fast that which is good." This deals with the finality and the fruit of these divine communications. Thus our study is presented as a theological interpretation of the scriptural data in regard to particular revelations which, moreover, have often been advanced by the Fathers and by theologians.

Also included in this work is a brief discussion about the necessity of obedience to lawful superiors, prudent and imprudent attitude toward private revelation, and the dynamics of community with a look at constructive and destructive cults.

Ch. I: What Is Private Revelation?

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Chapter I

WHAT IS PRIVATE REVELATION?

1.1: Definition

What is private revelation? Private revelations are heavenly and verbal manifestions of the divine will made to man in an extraordinary way in order to direct human activity in a particular situation of the life of private persons or of humanity in general. More striking because of their marvelous character, they provoke among certain people, and sometimes in the whole Christian people, a salutary shock which the sacramental signs, neglected and familiar, do not always produce.

St. Thomas Aquinas, the "angelic doctor' of the Church, tells us, in regards to private revelation that, "The prophets who foretold the coming of Christ could not continue further than John, who with his finger pointed to Christ actually present. Nevertheless as Jerome says on this passage, 'This does not mean that there were no more prophets after John. For we read in the Acts of the apostles that Agabus and the four maidens, daughters of Philip, prophesied. John, too, wrote a prophetic book about the end of the Church; and at all times there have not been lacking persons having the spirit of prophecy, not indeed for the declaration of any new doctrine of faith, but for the direction of human acts." (Sum. Theol.II-II, 174, 6).

This same concept and definition of private revelation was reiterated by Pope John XXIII in his message addressed "to all Christians" at the conclusion of the centenary of the apparitions at Lourdes: "`They (the Roman Pontiffs) also have a duty to recommend to the attention of the faithful - when after mature examination they consider it opportune for the general good - the supernatural lights which it has pleased God to dispense freely to certain privileged souls, not to propose new doctrines but to guide our conduct." The Holy Father made his own the essence of the doctrine of St. Thomas and cited the original text of the passage quoted above. (A.A.S. 51 (1959), 144, 147.)

Thomas Aquinas, in his commentary upon St. Matthew, also makes an observation which illustrates very well what we have just said. It concerns the text: "For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John" (Mt 11:13). The commentator asks: Does it follow this that after John there were no more prophets! Here is the reply: "The mission of prophecy is twofold: it is sent to establish the Faith and to correct morals; but (today) the Faith has already been founded, for the promises were fulfilled by Christ. But for that which is concerned with correcting morals, prophecy never has, never will be lacking." (Divi Thomae Aquinatis Expositio in. ..Matthaeum, chap. XI, 13. (Neapoli, 1858), p. 102.)

1.2: Holy Scriptures - Inspired by the Holy Spirit

The divine revelations contained in the Bible differ from private revelation in that the entire Bible is inspired by God. The Bible's principle author is God, though it was written by men whom God enlightened and moved to write all those things, and only those things, that He wished to be written.

Inspiration is a force that God puts into a man so that he can write what God wants him to write. Just as electricity gives light and power, so does inspiration give God's light and power, the light and power that come from the Holy Spirit.

This enables a writer to write just what God wants Him to, though he uses his own language, his own style and his own writing skill. The power of inspiration keeps the writer from making a mistake. There are no errors or mistakes in the Bible. All that is there is truth.

We have the guarantee from our infallible Church that the books in the Bible are inspired (Council of Hippo, 393, later confirmed by Council of Carthage, 397). The infallible guarantee does not hold for private revelation although the faithful are permitted to read the messages of a particular private revelation, for our edification, unless this particular private revelation is forbidden by the Church.

"The right and duty to prohibit books for a good reason rests with the Supreme Pontiff for the whole Church, with the particular councils for their territory, and with the individual Ordinary for his diocese. From the prohibition of inferior authorities recourse may be had to the Holy See, not however, 'insuspensivo' , which means that the prohibition must be obeyed until Rome has rescinded the orders of the inferior authority." 7p287

1.3: Supernatural Revelation

Supernatural revelation, the truths found in Sacred Scripture and in Tradition, is the communication of some truth by God to a creature through means that are beyond the ordinary course of nature. Some revealed truths, for example, the mystery of the Blessed Trinity, are strictly beyond the power of the human mind. We could never know such truths unless God revealed them. Other truths, for example, the immortality of the soul, while not beyond the power of the human mind, are objects of revelation because God has revealed them in a supernatural way. Although these latter truths could be known without revelation, they are grasped with greater ease and certainty once God has revealed them.

God's public revelation of truths to men began with Adam and Eve and ended at the death of Saint John the Apostle.

Divine revelation contained in the Old Testament is called pre-Christian. It can be divided into: first, Primitive revelation, made to Adam and Eve; second, Patriarchal revelation, made to the patriarchs, for example, to Abraham and Lot; third, Mosaic revelation, made to Moses and the prophets.

Christian revelation contains the truths revealed to us by Jesus Christ, either directly or through His Apostles.

The Church does not oblige the faithful to believe private revelations given, at certain times, to individuals. Those to whom private revelations are given are obliged to believe them when they are certain that the revelations are from God.

1.4: "Apocryphal” Books

An "apocryphal" book is a book which appears to arrogate to itself a divine authority, or one formerly held to be sacred, but which in fact has not been accepted in the list of Sacred Books. The description does not, therefore, according to another and fairly common acceptance of the word, mean books of uncertain origin containing many false items mixed up with some true elements.

1.5: Private Revelation - One of the Charisms of the Church

True private revelations are from God by their very definition. If former examples of faith and of divine grace were written down in books for the honor of God and the comfort of man, why should not the same be done, for the same ends, in regard to more recent happenings? Times change; but the strength of the Spirit remains the same. The prophets of Scripture, in regard to the latest times, teach us that the new deeds should surpass the old in the abundance of grace. That is why we recognize and honor the new prophecies and visions and we consider that they are at the service of the Church along with other resources of the Holy Spirit.

Private revelations are not the foundation upon which the Church rests, but they do exist and act within the Church. It is the Church which approves them and it is in her that revelations find their aim, for they form part of the charisms which are bestowed for the edification of the Church. Undoubtedly they do not possess the importance of the sacraments, but they are normal means willed by God to direct and strengthen the life of the Church.
Private revelations do not form a part of Catholic faith, which rests solely upon the deposit of truth contained in Scripture and Tradition, and which has been confided to the Church for interpretation. Hence, there is no obligation for the faithful to believe them. Even when the Church approves them she does not make them the object of Catholic faith, but as Benedict XIV states, she simply 'permits' them to be published for the instruction and the edification of the faithful. The assent to be given them is not therefore an act of Catholic faith, but one of human faith, based upon the fact that these revelations are 'probable' and ‘worthy of credence'. "Although an assent of Catholic faith may not and can not be given to revelations thus approved, still, an assent of human faith, made according to the rules of prudence, is due them; for according to these rules such revelations are probable and worthy of pious credence." (De Serv. Dei Beatif., 1. II, c. 32, n. II).

Ch. II: Benefits of Private Revelation

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Chapter II

BENEFITS OF PRIVATE REVELATION

2.1: An Edification

The most venerable and most traditional term by which to designate the aim and benefit of private revelation is "an edification." It is used in this sense in the Bible (1Cor 14:3-4), as also in the writings of the Fathers, and it has remained in use right up to our own day. Private revelation is always an impetus or a stimulus toward a more serious, more authentic spiritual life. The call to conversion, also, is the strongest expression of the aim of private revelations. The invitation to prayer and penance has been frequently expressed in revelations ever since the first centuries. These divine pressures have denoted something new in the sense that men in a particular situation have "forgotten" certain divine ideas. For them the matter has been new.

When revelations contain facts, accounts, information or when they draw the attention of the faithful to certain aspects of doctrine, they always have for their aim action, edification: they are striving to make the faithful grow in their love for God or to urge them on to apostolic undertakings. They are first of all given for the salvation of souls. And what St. Thomas says about prophetic revelations holds good for all revelations. Their aim is to promote the salvation of the elect (Sum. Theol., II-II, 174, 6).

2.2: Enlightenment of the Mystical Body

God corresponds on His part to the boundless variety of talks which He asks of men by a boundless variety and wealth of gifts. Among the most important of these is the prophetic gift which often expresses itself under the form of particular revelations.

Private revelation, writes Mgr. Journet, "contribute to the orientation of the conduct of the faithful of the Mystical Body in innumerable ways. They may draw the attention of the jurisdictional power to this or that aspect of the Christian message and thus provoke speculative or practical decisions which will benefit the entire Church..." And although they cannot add new data to the Catholic Faith, "they retain, nevertheless, an immense role in the work of the enlightenment of the Mystical Body."

Even theological studies are influenced by private revelation. These revelations, by drawing attention to a doctrine which seems new, may draw the theologian into biblical research which justifies or condemns it. Revelations concerning the life of Christ may also stimulate biblical study by presenting details which serve at least as working hypotheses.

Although we use the term "private revelation', hardly any revelations are strictly private. It may happen that a revelation remains always the secret of one individual. The spiritual progress which it produces in that individual increases the sanctity of the Church. Every cell of the Mystical Body, by the very fact that it is itself expanding, augments the vigor of the whole Body.

The fruit of revelations, however, is not limited to this. The person who preserves the secret of his revelation inevitably communicates to others something of the fruit which he is receiving from God.

But there are revelations which are directly intended for many people. These revelations, called "social," bear the most abundant fruits and their influence upon the life of the Church is immense. The number of extremely beneficial movements which such revelations have inspired in specific groups of the faithful is incalculable. Countless foundations of convents, pilgrimages, and all sorts of institutions owe their origin to revelations. Powerful pious movements within the Church have been set in motion or nourished under the impulse of revelations. For example, one should read the bull of canonization of St. Bridget, proclaimed by Pope Boniface XI, to realize to what extent this saint's revelations regenerated the members of the Church.

Particular revelations were at the source of the movements of reparation of these latter centuries. We know that the devotions in honor of the Sacred Heart and of the Eucharist are due to revelations. The value and the abundance of their fruits are confirmed by the fact that they lead the faithful to the great sources of the life of the Church of the Word Incarnate, that is, toward the Faith and the sacraments.

It is a fact that the manifestations of Christian faith in the places of the great Marian apparitions of our epoch find their completion in the greatest of the sacraments. In these places God acts upon souls, not only through the sacrament of penance, which is greatly sought in them, but He is loved and glorified there in the Sacrament of Sacraments. The life of the pilgrims in these places is marked by the celebration of the Eucharist, by the procession of the Blessed Sacrament. So revelations bear the most wonderful fruits by intensifying the Church's life in places where Jesus, Mary and the faithful are most intimately united and where human activity receives the highest and most discerning direction.

Through these revelations God continues to guide and exhort His people just as He did in the Old Testament and in the time of Christ. Through them, God communicates His designs to the world and to us.

The revelations of St. Margaret Mary and the great Marian apparitions, gave expression to the devotions to the Sacred Heart and to the Blessed Virgin which they would not have received, at least at that moment of history, if these extraordinary manifestations had not taken place.

The Lord revealed His clearly specified wishes to St. Margaret Mary. They applied to her own life as well as that of the Church: "I will be your strength," He said to her, "fear nothing; but be attentive to My voice and to what I ask of you in order to dispose you for the accomplishment of My designs. First of all you will receive Me in the Blessed Sacrament as often as obedience will permit ... You will receive Communion in addition on the First Friday of each month ... I ask you that the First Friday after the Octave of Corpus Christi be dedicated to a particular feast in honor of My Heart ..." lp230

2.3: Effects of Private Revelation On The Soul

The grace of a particular revelation is not sanctifying grace which elevates the soul itself. Revelations stimulate the soul to live according to that grace or they predispose it, sometimes in an irresistible fashion, to receive it.

It is a matter of the awakening of a life or of the orientation of its activities. Revelations shake the soul; they turn its false peace, fill it with a holy fear in order to flood it with a delicious peace.

Referring to personal revelations, not approved, of mystics, St. John of the Cross tells us (Book II, ch. 17): "God sanctifies man according to his nature. He begins with what is the least elevated and the most exterior - the senses. He perfects them by supernatural communications. By this means the senses are greatly confirmed in virtue and withdrawn from their inclination to evil. The supernatural visions which God is accustomed to give afterward to a soul which is well disposed, enlighten the senses, spiritualize them and produce great fruits in the spirit.

Spiritual writers often distinguish humility (which manifests itself among other fruits) as one of the marks of true revelations. St. Teresa dilates upon this subject in chapters three and eight of the Eighth Book of Abodes: "God," she says, "has another method of awakening the soul ... this is by way of words which God addresses to the soul in many ways" (Moradas, VI, cap. 3, note 1). A few words such as, Do not be troubled, are enough to bring calm to a soul disturbed by trial and tribulation or plunged into darkness and dryness. A few words flood it with a divine light and remove all fear from it; a few words immediately give certitude on the outcome of an important matter with which it is concerned. Despite all the interior or exterior obstacles, the word of the Lord which promises success accomplishes it. And then "The soul apprehends from it so much joy and lightness that it wants to do nothing else but to praise His Majesty continuously" (Moradas, VI, cap. 3, note 8).

2.4: Edifying Food For the Soul

Private revelations are often characterized by the same doctrinal limpidity and penetrating unction which are to be found in the inspired books. Simple, good and intelligent persons, who are open-minded and entrenched neither in a hypercritical attitude nor in a taste for the miraculous, find in the reading of such revelations truly comforting and edifying food for the soul in the biblical sense of the term.

Who has spoken as glowingly as St. Gertrude of the delights hidden in the sacred Humanity of Christ? Who has written better of the action of God in the soul than St. Teresa of Avila? St. Francis de Sales, after quoting St. Paul, St. Thomas, Gerson, and the Carthusian, Denis, as the authors who have worthily written upon this most important of subjects, adds in the introduction to his Treatise on the Love of God: "But in order to make known that this kind of writing is more happily accomplished by the devotion of lovers than by the doctrine of scholars, the Holy Spirit has willed for certain women to achieve wonders in this field. Who has better expressed the heavenly passions of sacred love than St. Catherine of Genoa, St. Angela da Foligno, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Mathilda?" lp255

2.5: Private Revelations Are Precious

Private Revelations are very precious things for they help us to conform our lives to the plan which God has for us in a particular situation. They are equally precious because of the way in which they act upon men. They come as a surprise and engage man's feelings and his attention in such a way that they are effective in cases where other methods would not be.

The abundance of the fruits of these apparitions is not surprising if we think of the Incarnation. God wishes to accomplish His work of redemption through the Incarnation by which God adopted Himself to man in order to reach Him. And the apparitions, which by their nature make appeal to the senses, belong to the consequences of the Incarnation. Within this perspective we better understand why prophetic revelations have for their aim the good of the Church (Sum. Theol., 11-II, 172, 4).

Ch. III: Examples of True and False Revelations

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Chapter III

EXAMPLES OF TRUE AND FALSE REVELATIONS

3.1: Why God Gives Private Revelation

It has always been observed that at turning points of history, at periods of upheaval, God has shown Himself more visibly in the directing of human events. We are in one of these periods now. For the last hundred years we have been observing a social and religious upheaval of a scope never witnessed before in history. World wars have followed closely upon one another. Their disastrous repercussions have been immense, no less in the religious sphere than in the others. Many people have lost their way even in the most essential affairs of life.

In addition to this, Christians are mixing in a new way with pagans, with unbelievers or with the followers of other religions. A Christian society does not protect them as it did before. They have more need of divine guidance since they are exposed to danger.

And here is something no less important. Confidence in the laws of thought, the metaphysical mentality, has largely disappeared. Logical deductive thinking and even basic common sense or intuitiveness is becoming more and more scarce. An infinite number of doctrines are in circulation and being presented as the truth despite the fact that they contradict one another. Moreover, atheistic reasoning such as humanism or positivism or existentialism have penetrated everywhere in one form or another putting man and his experience into the center of our philosophical thought. The technological age, as Pope Plus XII has called our era, links us almost irresistibly to visible things. In short, our day has a particular need of facts, we are thirsty for experience, we want to see.

God adapts Himself to man in order to reach him. That is why He became Man; that is why He changes His methods of acting as the outlook and the situation of men change. It is not surprising, therefore, that in our day perhaps there should properly be more heavenly revelations than at other periods. But for the very reasons given above, we may also expect an extraordinary number of pseudo-revelations.

3.2: Pseudo-Revelations

While admitting revelations, the Church is fully conscious that there are imitations of them. Pseudo-revelations appear with such verisimilitude and frequency that anyone investigating them might end, if he has not taken the trouble to make a thorough study of some particular revelation which is authentic, by rejecting on principle all particular revelations.

It is a fact that each of the great Marian apparitions has been followed by a huge number of fraudulent imitations. False revelations are as old as the true ones; they are certainly considerably more numerous. Pseudo-prophets were the contemporaries of true prophets, and even while the Gospels were being spread, apocrypha were being diffused everywhere. Due to forgery and fakery, the weakness of human nature, and the influences of the devil, it is difficult to determine the true from the false.

Since the evidence of these revelations rests solely upon the sincerity of the person favored with them and upon the faith of persons who believes in them, it would be easy to counterfeit them. That is why false revelations are to he found beside genuine ones. In the days of the Old Testament, as in apostolic times, it was necessary to be on one's guard against " pseudo-prophets." St. John expressly warned his brethren: "Dearly beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits if they be of God: because many false prophets are gone into the world" (1John 4:1). And these latter would always be at work. Since the time of Christ, the defenders of the Church have had to struggle against false prophets and sometimes even against their prophetic movements.

Thus, we will briefly describe a few approved private revelations (or at least not condemned private revelations) and a few condemned private revelations before delving into the discernment of revelations as given to us from the experience and divine wisdom of the Church.

3.3: The Pouring Out of the Holy Spirit

God in His sovereignty reveals Himself when and to whom He wishes. Ever since Creation He has communicated with mankind. In various ways, first of all through the Prophets and later through His Son (Heb 1:1). Then God manifested Himself through the Apostles to the Church.

At the precise moment when the Church, and within the Church the Holy Spirit, were manifested to the world, the man upon whom Christ chose to build His Church began his first sermon by insisting upon the charism of prophecy.

After the strange scene of the Descent of the Holy Spirit, Peter felt obliged to explain the cause of the extraordinary phenomenon of the gift of tongues. And he did so in a very solemn manner. Peter "stood up" with the Eleven (Acts 2:14). Then, dominating the hubbub of the voices of the other Apostles, he raised his voice and began his discourse with a solemn formula: "Ye men of Judea, and all you that dwell in Jerusalem, be this known to you, and with your ears receive my words. For these are not drunk, as you suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day: But this is that which was spoken of by the prophet Joel: "And it shall come to pass in the last days. (says the Lord), I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. And upon my servants indeed, and upon my handmaids will I pour out in those days of my Spirit, and they shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in the heaven above, and signs on the earth beneath: ... that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved" (Acts 2:14-21).

This text indicates to us the pouring out of the Holy Spirit over all without distinction of race, sex or condition through prophecy communicated in different ways.

3.4: Revelations To The Apostles

Holy Scripture tells us that the Apostles received many visions and prophecies (Acts 19; 22; 28:9; 27:23-24; 2 Cor 12:1-6; Apoc 2:18-23; etc.). But revelations were not restricted to the Apostles. Certainly they were by right the beneficiaries of revelations. Given charge of the universal Revelation, they needed to possess all the charisms useful for their mission. But in the primitive Church many other people received revelations, as the book of the Acts tells us: "Now there were in the Church which was at Antioch, prophets and doctors, among whom was Barnabas, and Simon who was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manahen, who was the foster brother of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul" (Acts 13:1). Agabus was another important prophet (Acts 13:1; 11: 27-28; 21: 11).

Referring to the prophets of the New Testament, St. Paul tells us: "He that descended is the same also that ascended above all the heavens, that He might fill all things. And He Himself gave some men as apostles, and some as prophets, others again as evangelists, and others as pastors and teachers, in order to perfect the saints for a work of ministry, for building the body of Christ" (Eph 4:10-12).

3.5: An Early Pseudo-Revelation

Even in the young early Church, there were numerous false prophets. The Sacred Books denounce some of them. Christ Himself warned us against false prophets: "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in the clothing of sheep, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. By their fruits you shall know them. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree brings forth good fruit, and the evil tree brings forth evil fruit." Wt 7:15-17). "For there will rise up false christs and false prophets, and they shall show signs and wonders, to seduce (if it were possible) even the elect. Take you heed therefore; behold I have foretold you all things" (Mk 13:22-23). Here we shall transcribe the first detailed accounts of a pseudo-revelation which we find in Tradition.

Firmilian of Caesarea wrote to St. Cyprian: "I want to tell you a story of something which has happened here among us and which concerns our subject. About twenty-two years ago, at the time following the death of Alexander Severus, plagues and trials in dire profusion fell upon all the populations here, and in particular upon the Christians. Repeated earthquakes destroyed buildings in Cappadocia and Pontus. The very cities disappeared, swallowed up in the craters ... Now suddenly there arose a woman who, going into ecstasy, professed to be a prophetess and behaved as though under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. She received so compelling an influence from the leading demons that for a long time she attracted and duped our brethren as the result of the amazing prodigies she performed. She even announced that she was going to shake the earth or disturb one of the elements. Sometimes the evil spirit, understanding and foreseeing that an earthquake was going to occur, make it seem that he was the author of the thing he knew was going to take place. These lies and extravagant boasts had subjected many spirits to him: people obeyed him and followed him wherever he wished .... Due to him this woman, in the midst of the coldest winter, walked barefoot through snow and ice without suffering any harm." (Letter from Firmilian included in the collection of the letters of St. Cyprian, Ep. 75, C.S.E.L. 3, 816-817.)

3.6: Revelations in the Age of the Fathers

Two very early testimonies or revelations of post-apostolic times contained among the "apocrypha" were the "Didache" and "The Shepherd" of Hermas.

The contexts of the "Didache" may be divided into three parts; the first is the "Two Ways", the Way of Life and the Way of Death; the second part is a ritual dealing with Baptism, fasting, and Holy Communion; the third speaks of the ministry. Doctrinal teaching is presupposed and none is imparted. The "Didache" is mentioned by Eusebius after the books of Scripture.

It is interesting to note that due to the advantageous and creditable position which was given to the prophet of the early Church, intriguers were also attracted. The Didache puts Christians on their guard against these. Here were the rules which it laid down for the discernment of true and false prophets: From the fact that someone spoke in the Spirit - or that he seemed to do so - it did not follow that he must be an authentic prophet. Every prophet was false:

1. Whose way of life was not that of the Lord's.

2. Who profited from his position to eat according to his choice.

3. Who asked for money for his personal use.

4. Who taught without practicing what he preached.

5. Who professed some doctrine other than that of the Church (11:2-8).

These regulations imply the presence of a fairly considerable number of prophets in the communities and the existence of frequent revelations.

"The Shepherd" was written by a pious merchant. It is divided into three parts - visions, precepts, and parables - but the last two are scarcely more than an explanation of the visions. "The Shepherd" was basically a prophetic call to lukewarm Christians to prayer and penance. Although it was held in high esteem and recommended as good reading material by many early Fathers, it was explicitly not accepted as a canonical book. (Enchiridion Biblicum (Romae, 1954), n. 7).

3.7: The "New Prophecy"

At the moment when the "Shepherd" by Hermas was reaching the pinnacle of fame in the West, a powerful prophetic current was being released in the East. This occurred toward A.D. 172. Here is how a contemporary, the anonymous polemicist quoted by Eusebius, described its origin: "There is, it is said, in Mysia, on the frontier of Phrygia, a town called Ardabau. It is there, by all accounts, that first of all one of the new faithful, called Montanus, when Gratus was proconsul of Asia Minor, gave the enemy access to his soul through an immeasurable ambition for the highest places. Stirred by the spirit (of evil), he suddenly became as though possessed and seized by a false ecstasy, and he began, in these transports, to speak, to utter strange words and to prophecy in a manner wholly contrary to the traditional usage which is preserved by the old succession of the Church. Among those who at that time heard these spurious discourses, there were some who, importuned by him as by a frenzied demoniac and as one possessed by the spirit of error which agitated the masses, reproved him and hindered him from speaking, recalling the teaching of the Lord and His warning concerning the vigilance which must be maintained against the advent of false prophets. Others, on the contrary, as if exalted by the Holy Spirit and the charism of prophecy, and above all puffed up with pride and forgetful of the Lord's teaching, incited the frenzied spirit, the flatterer and seducer of the people, who were charmed and misled by him to the stage where they could no longer be compelled to be silent." (Eusebius of Caesarea, " Hist. Eccl.," v, 16, in: Sources chretiennes, vol. 41, pp. 47-48, n. 7-8.).

Among those who were in this state of exaltation were to be found women. Two of them, Priscilla and Maximilla, soon began to manifest the same symptoms as Montanus. The activities of all three of them were mainly centered in the plain of Pepuza in Phrygia. They called this place Jerusalem, meaning by this the new Jerusalem of the Apocalypse. They spoke with such persuasion that their listeners were completely captivated by them, and the ecstatic and convulsive agitation took on such dimensions that it could not fail to have tremendous repercussions.

The "new prophecy," as it was soon called, made followers everywhere. It penetrated all the provinces of Asia Minor; whole communities were carried away by it and all the churches suffered at its hands. The constant invitation of the Montanists to a more ascetic life is proof that the need for this was felt in the Church. The "Shepherd" of Hermas, around A.D. 150, complained of moral laxity, and the book showed the need for penance. The elegant Greeks, and the Romans, disciplined and full of themselves, readily sneered at the Phrygians as poor, awkward, timid and ignorant people. But on the testimony of the historian Socrates, these Phrygians abstained from the circus games and controlled their passions better than all other peoples, hiding beneath a rather somber manner an ardent mysticism.

But beneath this exaggerated asceticism were hidden more disquieting aims. The Cataphrygian prophets arrogated to themselves an authority higher than that of the bishops. The prophetesses assumed a large part in the government of the churches. All the doctrines of the Montanists, their organization and their tactics, were sustained by one conviction - the Trinity had opened Itself to humanity: this was now the great manifestation of the Holy Spirit! Didymus of Alexandria recounts this utterance by Montanus: "I am the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. " 1p43 And Eusebius of Caesarea relates that zealots had the temerity to boast of Montanus as the Paraclete (Hist. Eccl., v. 16-17).

3.8: Reaction in the Church to Montanism

This pseudo-prophetic trend was quickly stigmatized as "new prophecy." The term prophecy was used because the Cataphrygians spoke in the name of God. But this type of prophecy seemed new, that is to say, anti-traditional and therefore false in the eyes of the defenders of the orthodox Faith.

New, first of all, was the manner of prophesying. The traditional prophets did not prophesy, as did the Cataphrvgians, in a state of ecstasy comprising obnubilation, even an eclipse of reason. In their case the agitation, the convulsions, the unknown words uttered in a state of delirium such as one observes here were unknown; they kept the use of their reason and understood everything they were saying. This is often emphasized by the representatives of the Church who were fighting Montanism. One example is given by St. Jerome writing in the prologue to his commentary on the prophet Habacuc. P.L., 25, 1274.

This aforesaid prophecy was new as regards its content and its principles. New was the claim, says Hilgenfeld, that the fullness of the Spirit had not came through the Apostles, nor even through Christ, but solely through Montanus and his companions, and that with them alone the time of true charisms began. Neither is the origin of the Montanist schism to be sought in the disciplinary regulations issuing from the Paraclete, but in the fundamental conception of the Paraclete as the last and supreme source of Revelation, to which the whole Church is subject. 1p55.

The Montanists claimed to have the permanence of Charisms, but at the same time they denied it by saying that after them there would be no more prophets. St. Epiphanius clearly illustrates this when he said: "We also have a duty to welcome charisms. For the Holy Church of God welcomes them, too, but (in her case) there are truly charisms, authenticated for her by the Holy Spirit... (But) note that the very thesis which they defend convicts them of not being able to attain the object which their jealousy desires. For if we must welcome charisms, and if there be need of charisms in the Church, how does it come about that since Montanus, Priscilla and Maximilla they have no more prophets? Has grace then lost its force? It has not come to a standstill, however, in the Holy Church; God forbid. lp56

St. Epiphanius also stood up against the extreme anti-Montanists, the Alogi, who sought to demolish the "new prophecy" by doing away with the Gospel of St. John upon which the disciples of Montanus believed they could build their teaching.

"These people," he wrote, "not accepting the Holy Spirit, are judged from the pneumatic point of view as understanding nothing of the things of the Spirit. They want to speak in conformity with reason and they do not recognize the charisms which are at work in holy Church." (P. de Labriolle, La crise Montaniste (Paris, 1913), p. 195).

St. Irenaeus also censured the Alogi in his work, "Against the Heresies", composed between A. D. 180 and A. D. 192:

"Others, in order to suppress the gift of the Spirit which "in latter times, according as it has pleased the Father" has been-poured out upon the human race, do not admit this form of the Gospel which is according to St. John and in which the Lord promised that He would send the Paraclete; but they reject both the Gospel and the prophetic Spirit. They are indeed unhappy spirits who, because they do not wish to admit false prophets, would drive out the grace of prophecy even from the Church. In that, they are like to those who, because of a few hypocrites to be found in the Church, refrain from even associating with the Brethren. It goes without saying that these same spirits no longer accept St. Paul. For in his first Epistle to the Corinthians he spoke in detail of the prophetic gifts and he knew men and women who "prophesied" within the Church... Thus, by their whole attitude they sin against the "Spirit" of God and fall into the "unforgivable" sin." ("contra Haer.," III, 11, 9, Sources chretiennes, vol. 34, p. 202. ).

And no one could testify more explicitly than St. Irenaeus that there still existed men of the type the Apostles called spiritual, "these just men who have received the Spirit of God." The Bishop of Lyons continues: "We have heard speaking in the Church many brethren who possess the prophetic charisms; they speak by the Spirit in all languages and they reveal men's secrets. Heretics, it is true, claim to do as much; they even think that they are surpassing the Master. But what they are performing is: Magic: through their tricks they delude the foolish... The true disciples of the Son of God perform their charisms in His name for the good of others: some of them drive away demons, others have knowledge of things of the future, see visions and hold prophetic discourses, others cure the sick by the imposition of hands...

"The Shepherd" was a prophetic call to penance; it sought to awaken lukewarm and skeptical souls by heavenly messages. The "Shepherd" was, after all, looked upon as a phenomenon parallel to Montanism yet compatible with orthodoxy. When the "new prophecy" reached Rome, then, it found a favorable atmosphere, at least for a while. Montanism was condemned by the Church although not solemnly. Regional synods, however, were organized to fight it. The different churches combated the error in proportion to the extent that it affected them, and all of them reacted in a wonderfully balanced Catholic manner. Now that the hierarchy was solidly established, it would have been easy to condemn all prophecy under the pretext of effectively fighting the "new prophecy", but the churches did not succumb to this temptation.

3.9: In the African Church of the Third Century

Despite the ravages of Montanism, in Carthage the majority of the faithful remained united to the great Church; they continued to believe in prophetic charisms, in visions and in revelations, without, however, adhering to Montanism. One of the best proofs of this is provided by the "Acts of the Martyrdom of Sts. Perpetua and Felicitas".

Although these five visions in the "Acts ... Felicitas" received some criticism, but the testimony of Tradition, by way of various bishops, doctors and saints of the Church, has proven favorable. From St. Augustine's writings we learn that these "Acts" were well known, commonly accepted and highly valued, to such an extent that the Bishop of Hippo felt obliged to state that the book was not canonical. He did so in replying to the monk Rene who was using the Passion of Perpetua as a theological argument. Augustine did not criticize him on this point; he himself made a long theological reflection on the theme of the struggle engaged in by Perpetua in her dream about the horrible Egyptian. He exalted the Passion and the "divine revelations" of these celebrated saints and he bore witness to the religious respect with which their exhortations were accepted in his time. lp63

St. Cyprian noted revelations in his entourage. In Epistle 16: 4, he wrote: "Amongst us, innocent boys receive from the Holy Spirit, not only nocturnal visions but others in the daytime, and in ecstasy see with the eyes and hear and utter things by which the Lord deigns to admonish and instruct us." Heavenly communications were received not only by the children in Cyprian's entourage, but also by Cyprian himself.

The numerous writings of St. Augustine and St. Cyprian along with a variety of other saints and early Christians demonstrate that the charism of revelations did not disappear with the apostolic age after the Montanist crisis, but that its permanence was subsequently affirmed even after the peace of Constantine. Among the Fathers, no one reflected so much upon revelations and apparitions as did St. Augustine, and his attitude toward them was generally adopted by the Fathers of the following centuries.

3.10: Joachimism - Twelfth Century

Joachimism was an apocalyptic movement which had been set in motion by a certain monk called Joachim, born in Calabria, Italy. After leaving his Cisterian Abbey around the year 1191, he founded a monastery near Cosenza where he soon gained the reputation of being a saint and a visionary, and in fact conducted himself in the manner of a prophet in attacking the abuses of his time. Due to his writings, his reputation spread beyond the limits of his own country. His errors on the subject of the Trinity straight away made his influence dangerous, but his theory regarding the periods of the world (status mundi) assured him, for all that, a lasting success.

He divided history into three periods. The first extends from the origin of the world to the coming of Christ; the second from Christ's coming to the year 1260; the third from then until the end of the world. The first period is that of the Father, the second that of the Son, and the third that of the Holy Spirit. On the ecclesiastical level the periods correspond respectively to that of the laity, of clerics, and of monks. In each period one draws from a certain source. In that of the Father this source is the writings of the Old Testament; in that of the Son it is Christ's Gospel; in that of the Holy Spirit it is the "eternal Gospel." Hence, after Joachim's death, his followers wrote the "eternal Gospel" with an "Introduction to the Eternal Gospel" (condemned by Alexander IV). The "eternal Gospel" was composed of three main works of Abbot Joachim - the 'New Apocalypse' , the 'Harmony of the New and Old Testament', and the 'Harp with Ten Strings'.

3.11: Reaction Against Joachimism

The reaction against Joachimism came quickly. The Church which condemned Joachim's teaching upon the Trinity refrained from doing the same with respect to his other teachings, and that the most competent doctors have emphasized the persistence of revelations in the history of the Church. The most authoritative theologians even among the mendicants were too clear-sighted to fall into Joachimism: the attitude of Alexander of Hales, of St. Bonaventure and of St. Albert plainly demonstrates this; but we shall confine ourselves chiefly to David of Augsburg and St. Thomas Aquinas.

David of Augsburg was a Franciscan. Totally dedicated to the to the formation of his friars and to the evangelization of the people, he reacted with vigor against the apocalyptic tendencies in the millieu in which he carried on his ministry: "The revelation of things which are hidden or are still to come," he wrote, "seems to be the achievement of many. But many are the victims of illusion - as in the visions which already have been questioned - and attribute to the Holy Spirit what they have invented in their own minds or under the influence of a spirit of error. That is why we are flooded to saturation point by all sorts of prophecies upon the coming of the Anti-christ, signs of the judgment to come, the destruction of religion, the persecution of the Church, the defection of Christians, the calamities which are bound to fall upon the world, etc. There is no shortage of serious and pious men who given an exaggerated adherence to all this; the same is true of the writings of Joachim and of others who prophesy by interpretations of all kind." 1p79

But while David of Augsburg was convinced that the majority of people were misled by revelations and visions, he equally declared that thanks to them others were turned toward the truth. And he wrote in his third book, 'On the Exterior and Interior Formation of Man’ ... some masterly pages on revelations and visions. He laid down a classification of revelations, emphasized that other charisms are superior to them, and indicated the reasons for illsions in this matter, etc.

St. Thomas, surely had nothing of the visionary about him, was familiar both with Joachimim and the excessive reaction it provoked, especially among the secular clergy. He stood out against this. He mentioned Joachim, who was not, in his eyes, a heretic. The Abbot of Fiore was neither a pseudo nor a genuine prophet: he spoke of mysteries and revelations, but lacked a solid theological training.

We again note that the traditional teaching regarding particular revelations was confirmed and made more explicit at the very time when a big prophetic movement deviated from orthodoxy and when an infatuation for revelations did considerable harm in the Church.

3.12: The Revelations of St. Bridget

In the middle ages to our own times. God raised up many great mystics including St. John of the Cross, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Catherine of Genoa, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Francis De Sales, St. Magdalen de Pazzi, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, St. Gertrude the Great and many other great saints. These saints became the counselors of great numbers of poor people and notables, a source of knowledge and wisdom to their contemporaries, the edification and the reform of Christian people. Each of these cited saints had a powerful influence on the intelligences and hearts of the faithful while receiving numerous visions and revelations from God. A well documented example which we will examine in particular are the revelations of St. Bridget.

After St. Bridget's husband died in 1340, she retired as an oblate into a guest house of the monastery of Alvastra where she began to receive the revelations which were to have such immense repercussions in the Church. These revelations were addressed to everyone: to the poor, to the noble, to kings and to princes of the Church. They had as their subject Swedish sovereignty, the indifference of Christians, the Church, the Blessed Virgin, etc. There were messages for Pope Clement VI at Avignon, urgings for the Pope's return to Rome, and quite often reproaches of the Lord.

Confronted by these revelations, Bridget was incredulous. She asked herself in great anguish if they might not have come from the devil. The Lord reassured her (Rev., I, 4; III,10) and told her to submit then to the judgment of her directors, which she faithfully did.

The revelations of St. Bridget exercised a great influence on Christians towards the end of the Middle Ages. The Council of Basle had to reject a proposal to assimilate then into Scripture. The saint's secretaries were, indeed, called evangelists (Bevel. extrav., cap. 49).

Obviously not everyone received these revelations with enthusiasm. They did not form part of public revelation, and they freely attacked abuses among Christians of every walk of life. In the circumstances of the period these attacks inevitably aroused political resentment. A great many ecclesiastics at that time were political figures. In addition to this, the revelations were published in a Latin translation made by theologians who undoubtedly interpreted the original text according to their own theological formation. Every translation involves an interpretation.

So these revelations provoked a debate, the most important and most solemn debate which had taken place in the Church on the subject of particular revelations. The most prominent theologians were to display their competence in the course of it.

The Council of Basle had put on its program the examination of the revelations of Bridget of Vadstena. In view of this examination Gerson composed his treatise 'On the Discernment of Spirits' (De probatione spiritum), as he said himself in his fifth Consideration. He wished to recommend prudence to the Fathers of the Council. Fifteen years previously he had composed a treatise, 'On the Distinction Between True and False Visions'. Therefore he knew his subject. "In this latest hour," he wrote, "at the coming of Antichrist, the world is in a delirium, like some old man. Imaginings and illusions are assailing it like dreams. All sorts of people are saying: I am Christ. Someone foretells who is going to be the future Pope, et cetera." lp85

Gerson pointed out five signs which distinguished true revelations: humility, discretion, patience on the part of the visionary, the truth of the revelations, and finally charity or love of God.

Now he was able to give good advice to the Fathers of the Council. “Try the spirits!" This, he said, is an order from St. John. Gerson insisted: "Expertis crede: believe those who have experience, especially St. Augustine and Bonaventure, for there is scarcely a more destructive, more pernicious pest than a yearning for revelations"

But the Swedish bishops and the preaching friars vigorously supported the revelations in question. John of Torquemada, Master of the Sacred Palace, became the champion of the defense. In his 'Defense of the Revelations of Blessed Bridget' he endeavored to prove that they proceeded from the Holy Spirit. As arguments he advanced also five characteristics (signa) which differ little from those of Gerson. These are:

1. The opinion of competent men, specialists in the matter.

2. The effects of the revelations - humility, the piety of the visionary and the glory of God.

3. In regard to the object of the revelations: truth.

4. In regard to their "Form": conformity with Scripture.

5. In regard to their subject: holiness. lp86

One can hardly exaggerate the importance of St. Bridget in the history of revelations. Her work occasioned the first. systematic expositions upon the discernment of revelations, formulated by Gerson and Torquemada.

3.13: Among Theologians

The theologians of the sixteenth century did not speak generally about revelations except in their treatises or commentaries upon faith and prophecy. Following them, the majority of theologians remained on the same level and reproduced their thought. Some, however, wrote upon revelations with the aim of discerning them. In 1638, the Dominican Gravina, consulter to the Holy Office, published his "Touchstones for Distinguishing True Visions and Revelations from the False.” This is an attempt to formulate a genuine and systematic treatise upon revelations: it is the most complete with respect to the scope of the aspects examined, and one of the best of its kind that has been written to the present day. It sketches an outline of the history of revelations, seeks to lay down a definition and establish distinctions, examines the object and the subject, the circumstances, etc.

3.14: Apparitions of Recent Centuries

Since the Ascension of Our lord, there has been an uninterrupted series of heavenly communications which, since the Ascension of Our Lord, God has addressed chiefly to the obscure and humble for the greater good of the Church. Many of the apparitions of recent centuries are well known throughout the Christian world.

Among these must be counted the apparitions of Parayse-Monial during the years 1673-1675. Here is the most important revelation, communicated in the last great apparition, during the Octave of Corpus Christi: 1. The heart of Jesus revealed His great love for men and demanded "the return of love". 2. He complained of receiving in recognition only coldness or scorn, and He was particularly sensitive to this ingratitude among individuals consecrated to Him. 3. He urged reparation for all these sins.

The apparitions of Jesus Christ to St. Margaret Mary were revelations in the most perfect sense. They comprised a dialogue between persons who saw one another (Sum. Theol., II-II, 174,3). Relative to faith, they showed the important role of particular revelations of which they were a typical example. A revelation, in fact, should teach us something which we did not know. It cannot establish a new doctrine but it should supply something new, whether in a domain other than faith or in the sense that it causes to be understood in a vital way some Christian teaching which has been somewhat forgotten or is vaguely known.

The apparitions of the Blessed Virgin to St. Catherine Laboure immediately bore abundant fruits. Even before the general public knew of them, the Miraculous Medal was arousing or increasing Marian devotion everywhere.

At LaSalette the Blessed Virgin not only foretold chastisements as a consequence of sins, but also blessings as the fruit of the conversion of Christians. She urged prayer and penance.

In 1858 at Lourdes, the Mother of God appeared to St. Bernadette and proclaimed to the world, "I am the Immaculate Conception". Fifty nine years later the Blessed Virgin appeared to three children in Fatima, Portugal pleading for prayer and penance to save souls and to avoid world catastrophes.

As in the past, these numerous apparitions have stimulated a greater degree of theological synthesis on revelations including principles of discernment and the meaning and purpose of private revelations. All of these studies and many others affirm the existence of particular revelations, but they always warn against pseudo-revelations.

Summing up, during the whole history of the Church there has been belief not only in the existence of revelations, but also in their permanence in the Church. Obviously they have not always happened in the same way. During the first centuries they were addressed most of the time to representatives of ecclesiastical authority who were often priests and prophets; throughout the long period of the union of throne and altar (state and Church) it was chiefly, it would seem upon religious, and especially women, that God conferred the charismatic gift of revelations; in the last few centuries, it has been chiefly the humble and the ignorant who have received them for the edification of the Church. In all that, there is nothing exclusive. God distributes His gifts when He wishes and as He wishes. But He is faithful to His own word which was revealed to us by the prophet Joel and which was repeated by the Prince of the Apostles on the day of the birth of the Church: your sons and your daughters shall prophesy... "

Ch. IV: Criteria of Discernment

2008-04-01T09:31:00.000-07:00

Chapter IV

CRITERIA OF DISCERNMENT

From all we have said, this much at least is clear: The Church while teaching that official Revelation concluded with the death of the last Apostle, believes that God continues to manifest Himself through revelations. But while she affirms in principle the existence of these revelations, she does not recognize, at least not solemnly, the authenticity of this or that revelation in particular. It is true that she has given guarantees for certain ones, and the magisterium has, on many occasions, declared in favor of the authenticity of this or that apparition. But we are dealing here with a "permissive" attitude. No one is obliged to believe in any particular revelation. If a Christian accepts it, he does so on his own initiative. He should ponder his reasons for belief. More often than he realizes, he is led to make some effort of discernment in the matter of the revelations he is considering. It is useful, therefore, to know what procedure the experts follow in this matter.

In this section, we shall try to give an analytical and structural insight, into the discernment of revelations as practiced by our infallible guide on earth, the Holy Catholic Church.

4.1: Difficulty of True Discernment

When one considers the wit and power of the devil, the natural human attraction to the miraculous, and especially the complicated psychology and natural ingenuity and intelligence, even without the devil, of a human being motivated by pious enthusiasm or pride or any other self motive, the faithful may be easily deceived if they do not apply the true criteria of discernment when confronted by pseudo-revelations. It is not easy to discern fake piety or humility especially if one doesn't know the "visionary" well or one has allowed himself to turn off his mind and turn off prudent critical analytical thinking and judgment due to peer pressure or due to the natural human tendency to avoid the hardship of prudent critical thinking. This type of thinking is one of the most basic crosses and paths to heaven. It is also to be noted that never in all her history has the Church explicitly rejected such a large number of false revelations as in our own twentieth century. In the last thirty years alone she has condemned at least fifteen of them.

A sure discernment of true revelations assumes a penetrating knowledge of pseudo-revelations.

Anyone who knows the structure and the sources of these is better enabled to estimate the value of the positive criteria of a revelation. Every revelation is a communication from one person to another. In our case it is a communication from God to man. That is why it is easy to understand the lapse from a revelation to its counterfeit: an individual is never completely knowable even when he is quite open and frank. This is all the more true when God is concerned in the matter. God remains always a mistery, even when He manifests Himself. Despite grace, He is never comprehensible to man in his earthly condition.

It is not surprising that the man who thinks that he has received a divine communication might be mistaken. For he has no evidence of the divine presence which spoke to him. Certainly God, in revealing Himself to man, may give the certainty of His presence. But this is a grace granted to the visionary who cannot transmit to others this personal guarantee. There must, then, be reliable criteria of discernment for everyone.

That is not all. God may speak to a man through an intermediary. This makes no difference to the nature of the revelation. He may address Himself to us by means of His creatures. As a matter of fact He has frequently chosen angels, His "messengers," as the instruments of His communications.

Finally, if God speaks to man personally, or through an intermediary, He is expressing Himself in a human manner and man can only grasp the divine communication through the means and the method of human knowledge. In such conditions the danger of confusing a revelation with its imitation is intrinsic in the event itself. The principle danger lies in man himself who in certain psychological states may believe that God is speaking to him whereas in reality he is speaking to himself. But, when a true communication is objectively received, it does not necessarily proceed from God; the creatures, in particular the fallen angels, are capable of giving it. There are, therefore, two sources of confusion which make discernment very difficult, namely, the human psyche and the interference of the demons in the life of man. In this matter, then, certain principles must be remembered before a study of the criteria for discernment is undertaken.

God likes to work through secondary causes. He is able to make use of imagination, of the realities of the subconscious projected into the tran subjective domain. This projection is a normal fact of psychology as hallucination also is. Why should not God make use of it as a means of communication? He may use it, just as the devil may abuse it.

There are religious, hallucinations, as there are diabolical hallucinations. There is no purpose in dwelling upon the clear consciousness of an objective perception which the visionary says he has had. Hallucination also carries an impression of perfect objectivity.

Certainly the visionary is not a mechanical transmitter of words which he may hear: he is not a parrot. But neither is that to say that God always makes use of all the layers of the psyche. On the contrary, there are many clear indications in favor of a restricted use of the psychic capacities of the visionary.

4.2: The Manner In Which Revelations Are Made

Before we present a detailed criteria of discernment, let us carefully define the nature and the various ways in which revelations are made.

The prophetic vision which gives the prophet his knowledge is not the vision of God in heaven. If a prophet were to see God in the beatific vision, he would be instantly glorified and confirmed in grace, and this is impossible to man while he is a wayfarer, that is, is living this earthly life. 3p293

The revelation made to a prophet by divine power is sometimes an infusing of new ideas: sometimes, a new arrangement of ideas the prophet already possesses; and sometimes, a light that shows hitherto unseen implications in old ideas in their old arrangement . 3p293

Private revelations are made in three different ways: through visions, supernatural words, and divine touches. 2p701. etc.

A) Visions are supernatural perceptions of some object naturally invisible to man. They are revelations only when they disclose hidden truths. They are of three kinds: sensible, imaginative, or purely intellectual.

1) Sensible or corporeal visions, also called apparitions, are those in which the senses perceive some real object that is naturally invisible to man. It is not necessary that the object be a real human body; it suffices that it be a sensible or luminous form.

The opinion of St. Thomas, which is generally held, is that after His Ascension, Our Lord rarely appeared in Person; He merely appeared in a visible form, but not in His real body. His apparitions in the Eucharist may be explained in two ways, says St. Thomas: either by a miraculous impression made on the sense of sight (which is the case when He manifests Himself to a single person) or by a form, that is real and visible, but distinct from His own body; for the Saint adds, the Body of Our Savior cannot be seen in it’s own proper form except in the one place which actually contains it. (Sum. Theol., III,q. 76,a. 8). The same conclusion is deduced from the testimony of St. Teresa, Relation XIII, where she says: "By some things which He told me, I understood that after He ascended into heaven He never descended on earth to converse with anyone, except, in the Holy Sacrament."

What has been said of Our Lord applies also to the Blessed Virgin. When she appeared at Lourdes for Instance, Her body remained in heaven, and at the spot of the apparition there was but a sensible form which represented Her. This explains how she could appear now under one aspect, now under another.

2) Imaginative visions are those produced in the imagination by God or by the Angels, either during sleep or while one is awake. Thus an Angel appeared several times to St.. Joseph in his sleep, and St. Teresa relates several imaginative visions she had of Our Lord while she was awake. These visions are frequently accompanied by an intellectual vision which explains their meaning. At times, one travels in vision through distant countries: such visions are for the most part imaginative.

3) Intellectual visions are those in which the mind perceives a spiritual truth without the aid of sensible impressions: such was St. Teresa's vision of the Holy Trinity (Interior Castle, VII Mansion, C. I.). These visions take place either through ideas already acquired, but which are coordinated or modified by God, or through infused ideas which represent divine things even better than do acquired ideas. Sometimes these visions are obscure and manifest only the presence of the object; at other times they are clear, but last only for a moment: they are like intuitions which leave a deep impression.

Same visions are at once sensible, imaginative and intellectual. Such was St. Paul's vision on the road to Damascus. He beheld with his eyes blinding light; he saw with his imagination the personal traits of Ananias; and his mind understood God's will.

B) Supernatural words are manifestations of the divine thought conveyed to the exterior or to the interior senses, or directly to the intelligence. They are called auricular when they come to the ear in the form of sound waves, miraculously produced; imaginative when such manifestations are directed to the imagination; intellectual when addressed directly to the intellect. (St. John of the Cross treats at length of these three different kinds of supernatural words, successive, formal and substantial - 'Ascent of Carmel', Bk. II, C. XXVI-XXIX).

C) Divine touches are spiritual sentiments full of sweetness, impressed upon the will by a kind of divine contact and accompanied by a vivid intellectual light.

We may distinguish two kinds of such touches: ordinary divine touches, and substantial divine touches; the latter, though they affect but the will, make such a deep impression that they seem to take place within the very substance of the soul.

Hence the expressions of mystics describing their experiences as a contact of substance with substance. In reality these touches take place in the superior part of the will and the intellect, and according to St. Thomas, it is the faculties, and not the substance, which receive these impressions.

4.3: Criteria For the Subject of Revelations

By subject we do not mean the object of the revelations but the person who receives them.

Revelation is true if its content comes from God. But this content is not given to us directly by God; it passes through the visionary - the person who receives it. Now there is a universally recognized law which says: "Everything which a subject receives, he receives according to his dispositions." Everything transmitted by human means undergoes some change by the subject who transmits it. To arrive at discernment one must know in a concrete case the extent of the change made in transmitting the message. Has the substance of the content been retained intact? Have we all the content? Is it false or rather a simple imitation of a transmitted message? Has the visionary kept his open-mindedness as a witness or not? Here arises the problem of all testimony, the dialectics of which were expressed in the clearest possible way by Christ Himself. "We testify what we have seen and you receive not our testimony” (John 3:11). "My doctrine is not Mine, but His that sent Me" (John 7:16): "for I have not spoken of Myself; but the Father who sent Me, He gave Me command what I should say, and what I should speak. And 1 know that His commandment is life everlasting. The things therefore that I speak, even as the Father said unto Me, so do I speak” (John 12:49-50).

Bit we must not forget this: Christ is the ideal witness because He has the same nature as His Father and is His perfect image. The human witness or "prophet" is not in the same position; in every stratum of his being obstacles may arise which could disturb the pervious ness which would allow him to transmit perfectly what he has received from heaven, obstacles which may belong to his physiological constitution, to his psychic make-up or development, to his moral or religious attitudes.

In judging of revelations or visions we may proceed in this manner: (a) get detailed information about the person who believes himself thus favored; (b) also about the fact of the revelation and the circumstances attending it. To prove that a revelation is Divine (at least in its general outlines), the method of exclusion is sometimes employed. It consists in proving that neither the demon nor the ecstatic's own ideas have interfered (at least on important points) with God's action, and that no one has retouched the revelation after its occurrence. To judge revelations or visions, we must be acquainted with the character of the person favored with them from a triple point of view: natural, ascetical, and mystical. (For those who have been beatified or canonized, this inquiry has been already made by the Church.). llp5

God can no doubt make revelations to whomsoever He pleases, even to sinners; but almost always, He makes them only to persons who are not only fervent, but already raised to the mystic state. Moreover, even for the interpretation of true revelations, it is necessary to know the qualities and the defects of those who think themselves favored with revelations. Hence, we must study their natural and supernatural qualities 2p704

A) :Natural Qualities:

Concerning the one who believes he has "visions”, what are his natural qualities or defects, from a physical, intellectual, and especially moral standpoint? If the information is favorable (if the person is of sound judgement, calm imagination; if his acts are dictated by reason and not by enthusiasm, etc.), many causes of illusion are thereby excluded. However, a momentary aberration i s still possible. 11p6

Is the person well-balanced or affected by psycho-neurosis or hysteria; for it is evident, that in the latter case, there is ground for suspecting the alleged revelations, such temperaments being subject to hallucinations. 2p704

Other physiological factors may affect discernment, such as the illness or age of the visionary. Obviously, the visionary need not be in perfect health. An illness, even a psychic illness, is not necessarily a proof against the authenticity of a revelation. But there are illnesses which exclude authenticity, such as Parkinson's disease or cerebral lesions which predispose the sufferer to auditory hallucinations.

It is not pointless to consider the age of the visionary. In the case of a child, for instance, the question of split personality could not be assumed: but it would be important to investigate whether or not there are eidetic dispositions.

Outside of physical impairments, the conscious or subconscious motive for a hallucination can range from nonculpable, naive and imprudent piety (pious hallucination) to willful and vain deceit (deceitful hallucination). But usually, as in most circumstances and situations of life, some combination of these two extremes along with other personal motives and outside influences enter into the underlying cause of each hallucination. Hallucinations will be treated in greater detail later.

Is the person in question possessed of common sense, of sound Judgment, or rather of a vivid imagination together with excessive emotionalism; whether their mind has been weakened by disease or long fasts. 2p704 How has the person been educated? Can the knowledge of the visionary have been derived from books or from conversations with theologians? 11p6

Is the person thoroughly sincere or does he have the habit of exaggerating and drawing on his imagination; is he self-possessed or passionate. If the subject has a high intelligence or a fierce determination to draw attention to himself, one should consider the possibility of a clever simulation of the circumstances of the "revelation" in question.

The mere verification of these particulars will not of itself prove the existence or non-existence of a revelation, but it will aid greatly in judging the value of the testimony profferred by those who claim to have received them. 2p704

B) Supernatural Qualities:

Is the person endowed with solid and tried virtue, or merely with a more or less sensible fervor. 2p704

Is the person sincerely and deeply humble, or whether on the contrary, they delight in being noticed and in telling everybody about their spiritual favors; true humility is the touchstone of sanctity and the lack of it argues against a revelation. 2p704 Has he made progress in holiness and especially in humility? The tree can be judged by its fruits. 11p6

Does he make the revelations known to his spiritual director instead of communicating them to other persons and does he readily follow his advice? Does he practice the following rules of basic prudence: fear deception; be open with your spiritual director; do not desire to have revelations? 11p6

Has the person already passed through the passive trials and the first stages of contemplation (purgation)?

What extraordinary graces of union with God have been received? The greater they are the greater the probability in favor of the revelation, at least in the main. 11p6

Has he been subjected to heavy trials? It is almost impossible for extraordinary favors to be conferred without heavy crosses; for both are marks of God's friendship, and each is a preparation for the other. 11p6

Has the person practiced the virtues in a heroic degree; for God generally reserves these visions for perfect souls? 2p704

The presence of these qualities does not prove the existence of a revelation, but simply renders more worthy of credence the word of those who claim to have received it; their absence does not disprove the fact of revelation, but makes it quite unlikely. 2p705

The information thus obtained will enable us to discover more easily the lies or the illusions of the alleged seers. There are some persons who, through pride or through the desire for recognition, voluntarily simulate ecstasies and visions. A notable instance was that of Magdalen of the Cross, a Franciscan Nun of Cordove, of the XVI Century, who after having given herself to the devil from her infancy, entered the convent at the age of seventeen and was three times Abbess of her monastery. Aided by the demon, she simulated all the mystical phenomena of ecstasy, levitation, stigmata, revelations and prophecies repeatedly fulfilled. Thinking herself at the point of death, she made a confession which she later retracted, was exorcised and moved to another Convent of her order. 2p705

There are others, more numerous, who owing to a lively imagination are the victims of illusions, and mistake their own thoughts for visions or for interior words. St. Teresa in several places speaks of such persons. "It, happens that some persons (and I know this to be true, for not three or four, but many persons have spoken with me on the subject ) are of so weak an imagination, that what ever they think upon, they say they see it clearly, as it indeed seems to them; they have also so vigorous an understanding or whatever else it may be, for I know not, that they become quite certain of everything in their imagination." (Interior Castle, VI Mansion, C. IX). 2p705

More on illusions will be covered later.

4.4: Criteria For the Content of Revelation

The content of private revelation also provides a certain measure of judgment to be reached. If it is a matter, for instance, of things which men could not know, but which have no religious value, at least in their purpose, then one should give up the idea of seeing a particular revelation in them. A certain religious content is obviously not sufficient to prove the existence of a particular revelation. But this content may be so profound and so much in the context of religious events and circumstances that it gives at least a favorable indication of the authenticity of a revelation.

The criterion based upon the content of the revelations is chiefly of a negative character. It is used above all to establish that a revelation is not supernatural. But. it may have a positive value. Certainly the fact that a text put before us as a revelation contains nothing opposed to the teaching of Scripture and Tradition does not constitute an argument for the authenticity of that revelation. So too, the 'imprimatur' given by ecclesiastical authority for the publication of texts presented as revelation is not an approbation. It is simply an official statement that there is nothing in them contrary to faith and morals. However, the criterion of content may have more than a purely negative effectiveness. When the content in question is not merely correct but of a depth and doctrinal balance which surpasses the capacity of the subject who is presenting it, and when it is, furthermore, simple and original, then one may see in these qualities a criterion which has a positive value for discernment. Obviously, however, this criterion is not sufficient alone to prove the divine origin of the content of the revelation.

It is particularly important that our attention must be directed to rules concerning the content (or object) of revelation. For all revelations contrary to faith or morals must be absolutely rejected, according to the unanimous teaching of the Doctors of the Church based on these words of St. Paul: "But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach a gospel to you besides that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema." (Gal 1:8) God cannot contradict Himself, nor can He reveal things opposed to what He teaches through His Church. From this fact, follow a number of rules which we shall now recall.

A) Opposition To Truth:

We must consider as false every private revelation in opposition to any truth of faith: such are for example the alleged revelations of spiritualists which deny several of our dognas, particularly eternal punishment. The same holds true if revelations are opposed to the unanimous teaching of the Fathers and Theologians, for this forms part of the ordinary teaching of the Church. 2p705

Any revelation pretending to solve a problem freely discussed among theologians must be suspected, for example, one claimed to settle the controversy between the Thomists and the Molinists. God is not wont to pronounce on such questions. 2p705

More specifically, the following questions should be considered: (1) Does the revelation agree with the teaching of the Church or with the recognized facts of history or natural science? (2) Is the teaching helpful towards the obtaining of eternal salvation? In the fakery of Spiritism we find the spirits evoked (?) treat only of trifles. They reply to idle questions, or descend to providing amusement for an assembly (e.g., by moving furniture about); deceased relatives or the great philosophers are interrogated and their replies are woefully commonplace. A revelation is also suspect if its aim is to decide a disputed question in theology, history, astronomy, etc. Eternal salvation is the only thing of importance in the eyes of God. "In all other matters", says St. John of the Cross, "He wishes men to have recourse to human means" (Montee, II, xxii). Finally, a revelation is suspect if it is commonplace, telling only what is to be found in every book. It is then probable that the visionary is unconsciously repeating what he has learnt by reading. (3) Have the revelations been subjected to the tests of time and discussion? 11p6

B) Opposition To Morality or Decency

We must likewise reject visions opposed to morality or decency, for instance, apparitions of nude human forms, vulgar and immodest language, detailed or meticulous descriptions of shameful vices which cannot but offend against modesty. God, Who makes revelations only for the good of souls, cannot, it is evident, be the author of such visions which leads by their very nature to vice.

For the same reason we must suspect such apparitions which lack dignity or proper reserve, above all, such as are ridiculous. This last characteristic is a mark of human or diabolical machination. 2p706

More specifically, (1) Does it teach nothing contrary to good morals, and is it unaccompanied by any indecent action? The commandments of God are addressed to everyone without exception. More than once the demon has persuaded false visionaries that they were chosen souls, and that God loved them so much as to dispense them from the burdensome restrictions imposed on ordinary mortals. On the contrary, the effect of divine visitations is to remove us more and more from the life of sense, and make us more rigorous towards ourselves. (2) After examining all the circumstances accompanying the vision (the attitudes, acts, words, etc.), do we find that dignity and seriousness which become the Divine Majesty? The (fake or demonic) spirits evoked by Spiritists often speak in a trivial manner. Spiritists try to explain this by pretending that the spirits are not demons, but the souls of the departed who have retained all their vices; absurd or unbecoming replies are given by deceased persons who are still liars, or libertines, frivolous or mystifiers, etc. In Protestant ‘revivals’ assembled crowds bewail their sins, but in a strange. exaggerated way, as if frenzied or intoxicated. It must be admitted that they are inspired by a good principle: a very ardent sentiment of the love of God and of repentance. But to this is added another element that cannot be regarded as divine: a neuropathic enthusiasm, which is contagious and sometimes develops so far as to produce convulsions or repugnant contortions. Sometimes a kind of unknown language is spoken, but it consists in reality of a succession of meaningless sounds. (3) It often happens that the revelation inspires an exterior work - for instance, the establishment of a new devotion, the foundation of a new religious congregation or association, the revision of the constitutions of a congregation, etc., the building of a church or the creation of a pilgrimage, the reformation of the lax spirit in a certain body, the preaching of a new spirituality, etc. In these cases the value of the proposed work must be carefully examined: is it good in itself, useful, filling a need, not infurious to other works, etc.? 11p6

C) Opposition To Possibility

Nor are we, considering the laws of Providence and the miracles which God is accustomed to work, to admit as coming from God commands impossible of realization, for God does not demand the impossible.

In the life of St. Catherine of Bologna it is related that the devil sometimes appeared to her in the form of the crucified Christ and demanded of her, under the appearance of perfection, the most impossible things, in order to drive her to despair. 2p706

4.5: Criteria For the Effects of Revelation

A tree is judged by its fruits: hence, we can judge revelations by the effects they produce in the soul.

A) According to St. Ignatius and St. Teresa, a divine vision causes at first a sense of wonderment and of fear, soon to be followed by a sense of deep and lasting peace, of joy and of security. The contrary is true with regard to diabolical visions; if at the outset they produce joy, they soon cause uneasiness, sadness and discouragement. It is thus that the devil brings about the downfall of souls. 2p706

Here is the rule as formulated by St. Catherine of Sierra and St. Ignatius: "With persons of good will (it is only of such that we are here treating) the action of the good spirit (God or His Angels or Saints) is characterized by the production of peace, joy, security, courage; except perhaps at the first moment." Note the restriction. The Bible often mentions this disturbance at the first moment of the revelation: the Blessed Virgin experienced it when the Angel Gabriel appeared to her. The action of the demon produces quite the contrary effect: "With persons of good will he produces, except perhaps at the first moment, disturbance, sorrow, discouragement, perturbation, gloom. " In a word the action of Satan encounters a mysterious resistance of the soul.

B) True revelations strengthen the soul in humility, obedience, patience and conformity to the divine will: false ones beget pride, presumption and disobedience,

St . Teresa says: “This is a favor of Our Lord, which brings great confusion of oneself and humility; but, were it from the devil, the effect would be quite the opposite. Since, then, it clearly proves itself to be given by God ... It is attended with immense gain and interior effects, which would not be, were melancholy the cause; much less could the devil effect so much good, nor would the soul enjoy such great peace, or such continual desires of pleasing God, or such contempt for whatever does not conduce to unite us with Him." 2p706

Also the reaction of the visionary with regard to the revelation should be noted. If the visionary is disinterested, if he seeks only to carry out what the requirements of the revelation ask of him, going contrary to his own tendencies and not, allowing himself to be too impressed by sufferings and disappointments, we have a favorable sign in support of the authenticity of the revelation, but not a criterion. But the opposite would be the case if the visionary profited by his 'revelation' and sought his own glory, a situation in society, or even material advantages.

4.6: Miracles As Criteria of Revelation

A miracle is a fact apparent to the senses, performed by God and beyond the forces of nature.. It is, indeed, essentially a work of God which surpasses the entire power of the creature. But if the miracle consisted only in that, the whole dynamism of grace would have to be called a miracle. It is, besides, a fact apparent to the senses, and this is a secondary but essential aspect of the miracle.

Miracles are really extrinsic criteria of a revelation. We may even say that they are the best positive criteria. Besides, no other criterion is supported more explicitly or with more authority in the Church.

Her Founder, our Savior, has already laid down the principles touching this matter. His will is that all may be saved. But in order to be saved men must believe in the love of the heavenly Father revealed in His Person: "Whosoever believes in Him shall be saved." To arrive at this faith, we receive two kinds of help: First, interior attraction through grace: "No man can came to Me, except the Father, who has sent Me, draw him" (John 6:44). There are some who have no need of other aids for belief: "Blessed are they who have riot seen, and have believed" (John 20:29).

Christ, with visible regret but because of the poor dispositions of certain people, points out another help, this an exterior one: works and signs, that is to say, miracles. "If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do, though you will not believe Me, believe the works: that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father" (John 10:37-38). The two forms of help do not exclude each other: "The work which the Father hath given Me to perfect, the works themselves which I do, give testimony of Me, that the Father Himself who has sent Me, has given testimony of Me ..." (John 5: 36-37).

This pattern established by the Lord is visibly fulfilled in the history of the Church. This constituted a proof for the primitive Church: for the faithful, the Eleven, "going forth preached everywhere: the Lord working withal, and confirming the word with signs that followed" (Mark 16:20).

The Church has spoken in the same terms. In the constitution on the Faith at the Vatican Council, Session III, chapter III, she declared: "God has chosen to add to the interior aids of the Holy Spirit certain exterior proofs of His revelation, that is to say, divine occurrences, and notably miracles and prophecies. These are signs which are very sure and suited to the understanding of all because they manifest excellently the omnipotence of God and His infinite knowledge" (Denz., note 1790). lp177

St. Thomas sums up the basic reason for a miracle: "Miracles are the sensible signs given to manifest a truth" (Sum. Theol. , III, 55, 5).

Two conditions are required in order that a miracle may be a criterion: the miracle must be genuine and it must be performed in testimony to the revelation. In other words, the matter is one of the authentication of the miracle itself and of its connection with the revelation.

The first condition, the authentication of the miracle, assumes that the miracle can be discerned as such. In our days we are particularly sensitive to the difficulties surrounding the discernibility of miracles. They can be resolved, however, when the criteria of discernment are faithfully applied and follow the example of the ecclesiastical authority. Miracles are by their very nature more easily discernible than revelations; for they are designated, according to the teaching of the Vatican Council, as "very sure and adapted to the understanding of all" (Denz.,1790). If in our days the difficulties have become subtler, the methods of authentication are also more delicate. Moreover, the Church authenticates miracles with the assistance of the most highly qualified specialists. She does this particularly in the matter of the canonization of saints, but also through her magisterium in the confirmation of an apparition or of a revelation.

The second condition, the connection of the miracle with the revelation, must be quite clear. It is not sufficient for a miracle to occur at the scene of an apparition for it to be considered as a proof of this apparition. The lesson which St. Bernadine draws from the anecdote "San Beinforte" is very genuine. Beinforte, he relates, was a dog so named because he had heroically defended his master's baby against a serpent. The dog was honorably buried and his master erected a little monument in commemoration and gratitude. The faithful began to think of this heroic Beinforte as a saint, and to pray to him. Miracles occurred at the place where he was buried. The miracles could have been geuuitie, concludes St. Bernardine, despite the error of those who requested them. God wanted to reward the trust of His faithful. 1p180

There are cases in which we can be certain that a revelation is divine. (1) God can give this certainty to the person who receives the revelation (at least during it), by granting an insight and an evidence so compelling as to exclude all possibility of doubt. We can find an analogy in the natural order: our senses are subject to many illusions, and yet we frequently perceive clearly that we have not been deceived. (2) At times others can be equally certain of the revelation thus vouchsafed. For instance, the Prophets of the Old Testament gave indubitable signs of their mission; otherwise the would not have been believed. There were always false prophets, who deceived some of the people, but inasmuch as the faithful were counselled by Holy Writ to distinguish the false from the true, it was possible so to distinguish. One incontrovertible proof is the working of a miracle, if it be wrought for this purpose and circumstances show this to be so. A prophecy realized is equally convincing, when it is precise and cannot be the result of chance or conjecture of the evil spirit. 11p5

Here the question arises whether one may ask for signs in confirmation of private revelations especially if the seer is impelled to certain undertakings or if he whishes that his prediction should be firmly believed. If the thing is of importance, one may do so, but humbly and conditionally; for God is not bound to perform miracles in order to prove the truth of these visions. If signs are asked for, it is well to leave their choice to God. The parish priest of Lourdes requested Our Lady in the apparition to make a sweetbrier to bloom in the midst of winter: the sign was not granted but she did cause a miraculous spring to well forth which was destined to heal both body and soul. The careful verification of the requested miracle and its relation to the apparition affords a convincing proof. 2p707

With regards to miracles, the statement sent to the Holy See issued by the local ordinary at La Salette was: "Considering in the second place that the wonderful consequences of the fact of La Salette are the testimony of God Himself, manifesting Himself through miracles, and that this testimony is superior to that of men and to their objections ..." The respective statement by the local ordinary at Lourdes was: "We remain convinced that the apparition is supernatural and divine ... Our conviction is based upon the testimony of Bernadette, but especially upon the facts of the occurrence which cannot be explained except as a divine intervention... The testimony of Bernadette, already important in itself, assumes a wholly new power from, we would even say is complemented by, the wonderful facts which were accomplished after the first event..:" 1p186

4.7: Psycho-Physiological Phenomena

Another type or class of miracles are the psycho-physiological phenomena which affect both the soul and the body, and which are more or less related to ecstasy. The principle phenomena of this kind are: levitation; luminous rays; fragrant odors; prolonged fasting; stigmatization. 2p711

In each of these different phenomena, Pope Benedict XIV teaches that the facts must first be thoroughly investigated in all its circumstances in order to ascertain whether a particular phenomena can be ascribed to a natural cause including psycho-neurosis, or to the power of angels or demons, or to God.

Levitation is a phenomenon whereby the body is raised above the ground and sustained in midair without any natural support. Sometimes the body rises to great heights; at other times it seems to glide rapidly over the ground.2p711

Ecstasy is at times accompanied by luminous phenomena: it may be a halo about the head, or a glow enveloping the whole body. 2p712

At times God permits the bodies of the Saints to give forth during their lifetime or after their death a fragrant odor, a symbol, so to speak, of the perfume of the virtues they have practiced. 2p712

There have been Saints, especially among those bearing the stigmata, who have lived many years without taking any other food other than Holy Communion. 1p713

We must mention here another phenomenon of a somewhat similar nature, that of protracted vigils. St. Peter of Alcantara slept but one hour and a half a night for forty years; St. Catherine of Ricci slept but one hour a week.

The phenomenon of stigmatization consists in a kind of impression of Our Lord's Wounds make upon the feet, hands, side and brow. These wounds appear spontaneously, from no exterior hurt, and periodically there is a flow of fresh blood.

A more detailed outline of investigation of these phenomenon can be found in Pope Benedicts XIV's work, "On the Beatification and Canonization of Saints"; the basic tenets of this work regarding these phenomenon can be found in the "The Spiritual Life" by A. Tanquerey.

We will give here the basic signs by which to discern the stigmata. To be able to better discern stigmatization from the artificial phenomena provoked in some individuals, attention must be paid to all the circumstances which characterize true stigmatization.

1) The stigmata are localized in the very spots where Our Lord received the five wounds, a fact, which is not true of the bloody sweat produced by hypnotism.

2) Generally, the wounds bleed afresh and the pains recur on the days or during the seasons which recall the Savior's Passion, such as Fridays or the feast days of Our Lord.

3) The wounds do not become infected, and the blood which flows from then is pure, while the slightest natural lesion in some other part of the body develops pus. The wounds do not yield to the usual medical treatment, and remains at times thirty or forty years.

4) The wounds bleed freely and produce a veritable hemorrhage. That this should occur at the moment when they first appear is quite conceivable, but that it should take place again and again is inexplicable. The extent of the hemorrhages remains likewise unexplained; the stigmata generally lie on the surface, removed from the great blood-vessels, yet the blood literally streams from them.

5) Lastly, and above all, the stigmata are not met with except in persons who practice the most heroic virtues and possess a special love for the cross.

A study of all these circumstances proves indeed that we are dealing here not with some ordinary, pathological case, but with a free, intelligent cause which exerts its influence in order to make these persons bearing the stigmata more like the Crucified Christ.

When St. Thomas treats of the role of miracles in the life of Christ, he first of all expounds a general principle which he then applies to Christ. Here is his thought: Every miracle is a testimony. Sometimes it is a testimony for the truth which is being enunciated; at other times, however, it is a testimony for the person who performs the miracle. Now no miracle is performed except through God. But God cannot be a witness to a lie. Therefore, every time that a miracle is performed in testimony to an enunciated doctrine, it is clear that this doctrine must be true, even if the person who enunciates it does not present morally good qualities. However, these qualities are required if the miracle is performed not in testimony to the doctrine but to the person. lp178

St. Thomas speaks not only of the miracles of Christ or of the Apostles but of every miracle, even those which might be performed by sinners. According to him the miracle is above all a guarantee of the truth rather than of' the holiness of the person who enunciates the truth. "God," he writes, "grants to man the power to work miracles for two reasons: the first, which is the chief one, is to confirm the truth which someone is teaching. Everything which comes within the realm of faith is beyond the reason of man; it cannot be demonstrated by human proofs; it is necessary, therefore, to have recourse to proofs derived from divine power, so that, confronted by works which God alone can perform, men may believe that what is being said comes from God" (Sum. Theol., III, 43, 1).

4.8: The Authority of the Church as Criteria of Discernment

The authority of the Church cannot he ranked among the criteria for discernment, if by this we mean that this authority imposes full acceptance upon the faithful. In that case it is a criterion of the Faith, ‘regula fidei’, but when the Church pronounces upon revelations she does not commit the faithful. If the magisterium of the Church declares, for instance, that the faithful have good grounds for believing that such and such an apparition is authentic, there is no obligation to believe in it. However, such a declaration is undoubtedly a very solid guarantee of authenticity. It may have a tremendous value as a criterion of discernment. The value of this criterion depends upon the attitude of the Church in regard to revelations in general and to such and such a revelation in particular.

The great Marian apparitions of La Salette and Lourdes were carefully investigated by the local ordinaries using the principles taught by Pope Benedict XIV, and following the way outlined by him in his immortal work "On the Beatification and Canonization of Saints." The essential decision of the local ordinary at La Salette was that the apparition "bears in itself all the characteristics of truth, and that the faithful have good grounds for believing it to be indubitable and certain." lp186 At Lourdes, the local ordinary declared "this apparition bore all the marks of truth and that the faithful have good reason to believe it certain." 1p187

In 1877, three bishops addressed themselves to the Congregation of Rites inquiring what attitude the Holy See was adopting in regard to the apparitions of La Salette and of Lourdes. The reply was clear and restrained: "These apparitions or revelations have been neither approved nor condemned by the Holy See which has simply allowed them to be believed on purely human faith, on the tradition which they relate, corroborated by testimony and documents worthy of credence." Therefore neither approval nor condemnation was forthcoming, but simply a permissive attitude from the Holy See. This text was literally repeated thirty years later in the encyclical of St. Pius X against Modernism. (Actes de Pie X (Paris, 1938), t. III, p. 175) 1p187

Due to the authority of the Church given to her by Christ along with her hundreds of years of experience and highly developed principles and techniques in the area of discernment of revelations, the Church's attitude is a very Important criterion and, in a certain sense, a decisive criterion for discernment. 1p191

4.9: Discerning the True From the False Within Revelations Themselves (Illusions)

A revelation may be true in the main and yet contain some incidental errors. God does not right the prejudices or errors that they may lodge in the minds of the seers; He has in view their spiritual welfare, not their intellectual formation.

It is not usually easy to extract the true meaning of revelation which is basically what we want. All the details of content are not of equal importance, yet each should not be considered separately. The point is to apply, to a certain extent at least, the method by which one interprets the parables. The details are to be interpreted within the context of the whole.

It is certain that many saints were deceived and that their revelations contradict one another. What follows will explain the reason of this. Revelations and visions are subject to many illusions which shall be briefly set forth.

FIRST, like Jonas at Ninive, the seer may regard as absolute a perdition that was only conditional, or commit some other error in interpreting it. 8p327

SECOND, when the vision represents a scene from the life or Passion of Christ, historic accuracy is often only approximate; otherwise God would lower Himself to the rank of a professor of history and archaeology. He wishes to sanctify the soul, not to satisfy our curiosity. The seer, however may believe that the reproduction is exact; hence the want of agreement between revelations concerning the life of Jesus Christ. 8p327 This error is quite natural, being based on the assumption that, if the vision comes from God, all details (the landscape, dress, words, actions, etc.) should be a faithful reproduction of the historic past. This assumption is not justified, for accuracy in secondary details is not necessary; the main point is that the fact, event, or communication revealed be strictly true. It may be objected that the Bible contains historical books, and that thus God may sometimes wish to reveal certain facts in religious history to us exactly. That doubtless is true, when there is question of facts which are necessary or useful as a basis for religion, in which case the revelation is accompanied by proofs that guarantee its accuracy. A vision need not guarantee its accuracy in every detail. One should thus beware of concluding without examination that revelations are to be rejected; the prudent course is neither to believe nor to deny them unless there is sufficient reason for so doing. The Church does not oblige us to believe in them, but it is prudent not to reject them lightly when they are affirmed by saints. 11p5

Concerning the revelations of Marie de Agreda and Anne Catherine Emmerich, for example, contradictory opinions have been expressed: some believe unhesitatingly everything they contain, and are annoyed when anyone does not share their confidence; others give the revelations no credence whatsoever (generally on a priori grounds); finally there are many who are sympathetic, but do not know what to reply when asked what degree of credibility is to be attributed to the writings of these two ecstatics. The truth seems to be between the two extreme opinions indicated first. If there is question of a particular fact related in these books and not mentioned elsewhere, we cannot be certain that it is true, especially in minor details. In particular instances, these visionaries have been mistaken: thus Marie de Agreda teaches, like her contemporaries, the existence of crystal heavens, and declares that one must believe everything she say, although such an obligation exists only in the case of the Holy Scriptures. In 1771 Clement XIV forbade the continuation of her process of beatification "on account of the book". Catherine Emmerich has likewise given expression to false or unlikely opinions: she regards the writings of the pseudo-Dionysius as due to the Areopagite, and says strange things about the terrestrial Paradise which according to her, exists on an inaccessible mountain towards Tibet. If there be question of the general statement of facts given in these works, we can admit with probability that many of them are true. For these two visionaries led lives that were regarded as very holy. Competent authorities have judged their ecstasies divine. It is therefore prudent to admit that they received a special assistance from God, preserving them not absolutely, but in the main, from error. 11p5

God is not wont to reveal the precise details of the life of Our Lord or of our Blessed Lady, when these have but little bearing on piety. Now, many seers, intertwining their own devout meditations with the revelations they receive, give details, numbers, dates, which contradict historical documents or other revelations. Thus, among the various accounts of the Passion, many little details related in visions, are either contradictory (for example, details regarding the number of strokes Christ, received in His flagellation) or in opposition to the best historical authorities. 2p707 The will may so ardently desire what the intellect considers, that it contributes to the state of rapture. 3p295

THIRD, during the vision personal activity may be so mingled with the Divine action that answers in the sense desired seem to be received. In fact, during prayer vivid imaginations may go so far as to produce revelations and visions out of whole cloth without any evil intent. 8p328

Eusebius Amort believes that in visions of the saints - he speaks in particular of St. Gertrude - the forces of fantasy intervene. And he is wholly convinced that it is with pleasure that God sees these forces at work in the souls of the just. In his opinion God mingles holy insights and spiritual movements with these forces. And it is not solely the forces which please Him; He Himself encourages the fantasy so that it may exercise its activity and enable Him to introduce His lights and manifestations in the soul. It is Amort's conclusion that in such visions of the saints "one must examine and correct what is human." 1p154

FOURTH, sometimes, in his desire to explain it, the seer afterwards unconsciously alters a genuine revelation.

St. Bridget realized herself that at times she retouched her revelations, the better to explain them; (Supplementary Revelations, C. XLIX.) these added explanations are not always free from errors. 2p708

FIFTH, secretaries and editors take deplorable liberties in revising, so that the text is not always authentic. Some revelations are even absolutely false because: first, in describing their prayer, certain persons lie most audaciously; second, amongst those afflicted with neuropathy there are inventors who, in perfectly good faith, imagine to be real facts things that have never occurred; third, the devil may to a certain degree, counterfeit divine visions; fourth, amongst writers there are genuine forgers who are responsible for political prophecies, hence the profusion of absurd predictions. 8p328

It is acknowledged today that the scribes who wrote the revelations of Mary of Agreda, of Catherine Emmerich, and of Marie Lataste modified them to an extent difficult to determine. In the 'Works of Marie Lataste' we find among her revelations passages translated from the Summa of St. Thomas. 2p708

SIXTH, a divine revelation may be wrongly interpreted. For example, St. Joan of Arc having asked of her "voices" whether she would be burnt, received the reply that she should trust in Our Lord, Who would assist her, and that she would be delivered through a great victory. In reality, her deliverance an victory were her martyrdom and her entrance into heaven. St. Norbert affirmed that he knew through revelation and with certainty that the Antichrist would come in his generation (XII Century). Questioned closely by St. Bernard, he said that as least he would not die before seeing a general persecution of the Church. St. Vincent Ferrer announced the 'Last Judgment as nigh', and seemed to confirm this prediction by miracles. Father Fages, O.P., in the 'Histoire de S.V. Ferrier', explains that this was a conditional prophesy, like that of Jonas against Niniveh, and that the world was saved precisely on account of the many conversions the Saint brought about. 2p708

SEVENTH, in private revelation we find the errors of the times in what relates to the physical or historical sciences. St. Frances of Rome asserts that she had beheld a heaven of crystal between the empyreal and the starry heavens and attributed the blueness of the sky to the starry heaven. Mary of Agreda thought she knew through revelation that this crystal heaven was divided into eleven parts at the moment of the Incarnation. ('The Mystic City', Part II, n. 128; Part. I, n. 122.) 2p707

EIGHTH, at times we also meet with the prejudices and the systems of the spiritual directors of the seers. Relying upon her directors, St. Colletta thought she had seen in visions that St. Anne had been thrice married and was coming to visit her with her numerous family. Sometimes Dominican and Franciscan Saints speak in their visions according to the systems peculiar to their Orders. 2p707

For all these reasons we cannot be too prudent when examining private revelations.

4.10: Hallucinations and Revelation

One of the major sources of pseudo-revelations is hallucinations. Here we are considering in particular "corporal" and imaginative revelations. These, in fact., play a fairly important part in the devotion of the faithful and therefore in the pastoral work of the Church. But they are very much more exposed to fraudulent imitations than are purely spiritual revelations. In a thousand ways elements may deceive or falsify the transmission from spirit to spirit. It is easy, too, to take for revelations phenomena which are purely psychic, or even communications which come simply from man or the devil. There are such things as occultism and spiritism; there are all sorts of metaphysical phenomena such as telepathy, clairvoyance, etc., which may resemble revelations to such an extent that despite the best criteria their discernment becomes difficult. But the most perfect imitation of revelations is achieved in hallucination. Depth psychology has done nothing to change this fact; it enables us only to understand hallucination very much better and especially to discover its sources and the reasons that lead up to it. One must endeavor to define the nature of hallucination before trying to resolve the problem which it raises with respect to revelations.

Hallucination is "perception of objects with no reality." Taken literally it seems to express an impossibility: if there is no object there is no perception. But if properly understood, it indicates the two essential characteristics of hallucination. The first, expressed in the definition by the word "perception," is exteriority. Hallucination causes the subject to feel all the characteristics of true perception which has its source in objective space. It is in this sense that Frobes can say of true hallucinations - as distinct from pseudo-hallucinations - that they are physical perceptions. 1p123

They cause the subject who is undergoing them to experience all the characteristics of true perception: the feeling of presence and of immediate reality, the impression of complete objectivity, a vivid, precise, and spontaneous representation. This is the mark of the exteriority of the perception.

The second mark of hallucination is the absence of the real object which the sensory perception presents to the subject in an incoercible manner. This perception obviously has an object, but it is a subjective phenomenon; it is not to be found where the perception places it, namely, in spatial objectivity. In principle, it has not even its source in the trans-subjective world. Hallucination is really a perception without an object, just as is understood by the definition. One can define it in a more positive way by saying that it is a sensory representation containing an apparent objectivity and reality. It is not surprising that psychologists place hallucinations among the pseudo-perceptions. lpl24

Another source or type of hallucination is a simple metes thesis; a sensory perception appearing after the presence or the action of the real object. The time of this appearance is of little importance, so long as the real perception has ended. One may likewise count among hallucinations the eidetic phenomena. These phenomena are visual hallucinations set in motion by true perceptions; one finds these chiefly in children, and in particular children from the country. lp125

Here is a type of eidetic hallucination encountered in a psychological clinic. A little boy is looking very attentively at a vividly colored picture projected in a dark room. The picture represents a small cat prowling around a jar full of marmalade. The cat dare not lick it because, let us suppose, it is too hot. The picture is then removed from the little boy. A short while later he bursts out laughing. When he is asked why he is laughing he relates that the cat has just knocked over the jar and that the marmalade is spilling out over the floor. In vain he is told that this is not true. He protests: "But it is. I see it." And he relates in detail how the cat overturned the jar. There was nothing at all of this in the picture. This was a hallucination provoked by a true perception which preceded it. lp125

Thus we can see that it is very difficult to discern between revelations and hallucinations. The compelling sensation of a present reality may be as strong in hallucination as in external sensation. The most developed and complete hallucination, the hysterical hallucination, proceeds in a very autonomous way. It may fabricate something out of nothing and succeed in giving a certain unity to the whole invention. This achievement is greatly facilitated by depersonalization, or by a split in the personality which allows an imaginary personality to take possession of the psychological faculties. Everything may then seem normal and every invention appear as real. Hysterical hallucination has, indeed, and quite rightly, been called "the great simulator." Hysteria has all the hallucinatory range at its disposal: visual and auditory hallucinations, hallucinations of touch, of smell, diabolical hallucinations and mystical hallucinations. Hysterical hallucination gives a personal character to everything and if under its inspiration imagination freely enters into play, visions are also clothed with a charm and a dazzling beauty which surpasses everything one can see in a normal state. 1p130

It might seem, therefore, that we must accept the following conclusion: even the most beautiful apparitions and the most detailed revelations can be naturally explained. But such a conclusion is imposed upon only a superficial observer. We do not claim that discernment is easy or that one may reach it through purely psychological means, but impartial and detailed psychological observations are sufficient to prove the contrary to those who maintain that discernment is impossible. 1p131

The most carefully studied data demonstrates that auditory-verbal hallucinations reproduce the thoughts and feelings of a sufferer whose mental powers of expression have been deranged by illness, and have become a kind of autonomous activity alien to the personality of the subject. It remains to be estimated to what extent these hallucinations reveal a deep disturbance of the personality and how easily they may be accompanied by psychic disintegration and the dissolution of the links by which the unity of the ego is ensured.

Auditory-verbal hallucinations are also the most complicated. Animals do not seem to have them; they do, however, suffer from visual hallucinations of every kind. Hallucinations of language imply an intellectual activity conditioned by the illness; it seems that there is an intellectual transformation of psycho-sensory phantasms. The word is made in the likeness of its efficient cause, namely, man. It is perfectly material; it extends in the dimensions of space and time. But it is also immaterial, being the likeness and the emanation of the mind. lpl32

In this context it is easier to understand that verbal hallucination assumes a splitting of that which makes the unity and the greatness of man, namely, the person. The simulation reveals itself as such to a thorough medical examination.

This is the case, in particular, of the hysteric who allows a hallucination to run its maximum course. But from the fact that the hysterical hallucination is capable of simulating everything, or almost everything, one cannot conclude that revelations are not discernible. A simulation is, by definition, different from the reality simulated, and this difference renders discernment possible in principle. But in practice the method of discerning simulation from reality comes to us from the very nature of the hysterical hallucination: it is accompanied by pathological symptoms. These are not only of a psychological kind; cerebral lesions may, according to the statement of doctors, explain the supervening of auditory-verbal hallucinations. All this belongs to the domain of debate. Discernment, therefore, remains in principle possible. 1p133

In the quest for discernment the believer and the theologian, for whom God and the saints of heaven are persons as real and present as the men who surround them, are naturally inclined to see revelations in manifestations which are presented as such. But the psychiatrist, who is dealing only with persons whose extraordinary manifestations are of a pathological kind, has a tendency to resolve the case of a revelation as if it were also pathological, since his experience of similar or "identical" cases is so great. There are the addicts of miracles and there are the addicts of psychology. In the field of revelations the inflation of hysteria is a fact. Every time that there is a question of discernment, a serious diagnosis must prove that symptoms of hysteria are not present and a study must be made of the whole behavior of the subject. In order to discern the true from the false in our sphere one must be free from all prejudice for or against psychological or supernatural solutions. 1p134

4.11: Difference Between Supernatural Phenomena and Psycho-neurosis

The phenomena connected with ecstasy and psycho-neurosis have been well established. No doubt, the saints are subject to illness just as other human beings are, but the question is whether in spite of their ailments they appear to be sane and well-balanced. On this point the differences between mystical and psycho-neurotic phenomena are so essential that no honest observer can fail to note them. This difference is even brought out by unbelievers such as M. de Montmorand, 'Psychologie des Mystiques', 1920, although the later attributes these phenomena to hallucination. For the refutation of these theories our readers are referred to A. Huc, 'Nevrose et Mysticism,' Rev. de Philosophie (P. Peillaube), juil., aout, 1912, pp. 5, 128; Mgr. Farges, op. cit,. P. 322-585. 2p715

These differences are found: 1) in the persons themselves; 2) in the diversity of the phenomena; 3) in the results.

1) DIFFERENCES IN THE PERSONS THEMSELVES

If we compare those affected with psycho-neurosis with persons favored with ecstasies, we find that the former are unbalanced physically and mentally, whilst the latter are at least mentally sound.

A) The former lack mental and physical soundness.

We notice in them a decrease of intellectual and volitional power: consciousness is altered or temporarily suspended, attention is-relaxed, intelligence deteriorates, memory disintegrates to such an extent that one is led to believe they have a double personality, and before long their mind is depleted save for a few fixed ideas the final result of which is monomania bordering on insanity. Their will likewise becomes weaker and weaker, their emotions gain control, and they become the playthings of their own whims or of some stronger will. This means a disintegration of personality and a lessening of intellectual and moral power. This is a summary of the characteristics noted by P. Janet, 'L'Automatisme psychologique, P. II, ch. III-IV. 2p715

B) It is very different with the mystics. Their mind develops, their will grows stronger, and they become capable of conceiving and realizing the greatest undertakings. We have seen how they acquire a new knowledge of God, of His attributes, of the dogmas of faith, of self. Doubtless, they are unable to express all they see, but they sincerely declare that they learned more during a few moments of contemplation than by long and extensive readings. That they are right in their conviction is proved by the real progress made in the exercise of the most heroic virtues. We see that they become more humble, more charitable, more submissive to the Divine Will even in the midst of very intense suffering, and that they enjoy a sweet calm and peace which nothing can disturb. How utterly different all this from the spasms and the passionate commotions of hysteria! 2p715

2) DIFFERENCES IN THE PHENOMENA

Differences just as marked as the foregoing are likewise discernible in the manner in which the two kinds of phenomena occur.

A) Nothing is sadder and more heartrending than to witness the fits of hysteria.

i) The first stage of hysteria resembles a slight attack of epilepsy. It can be distinguished however from the latter by the sensation of a lump rising in the throat. In reality, there is a swelling of the throat which produces a feeling of suffocation accompanied by a sort of hissing sound perceptible to the ears. ii) The second stage is marked by uncontrolled gestures and contortions of the entire body. iii) The third stage gives rise to attitudes of fright, of jealousy, of lust, according to the nature of the obsessing idea or image. iv) The fit ends in a paroxysm of tears or laughter. After the crisis has passed, the patient is left weary and exhausted, and suffers from various indispositions. 2p716 These various indispositions can be controlled at least superficially for a time for whatever motive, if the person has a strong enough will and if these fits of hysteria do not occur too frequently.

B) Note once more the difference between this and ecstasy. In the latter there are no convulsions, no violent spasms, but only the peace and the rapture of a soul intimately united with its God. So true is this that those who have witnessed a person in ecstasy, those for example who saw Blessed Bernadette during her visions at the Grotto of Lourdes, could not withhold their admiration. As St. Teresa remarks ('Life by Herself', C. XVIII and XX), the body, instead of becoming exhausted, gathers new energies during the time of ecstasy. 2p716

3) DIFFERENCES IN THE EFFECTS

Here again hysteria differs widely from ecstasy.

A) With hysterical persons the disintegration of the faculties increases in proportion to the frequency of the crisis. Dissimulation, lying, stupor, brutality and lewdness follow in the wake of this disease. 2p716

B) In the case of the mystics, on the contrary, there is a steady mental growth, an increase of the love of God and of devoted service to the neighbor. When they have the opportunity of engaging in some public enterprise, they give evidence of common sense, of an open and strong mind, of a determined will, and success crowns their efforts. 2p716

St. Teresa, in spite of the frequent opposition she encountered, founded sixteen convents for women and fourteen monasteries for men. St. Colletta established thirteen monasteries and restored discipline in a great number of others. Madame Acarie, who had been favored with ecstasies from her sixteenth year, was happily married for thirty years, reared a family of six children, restored her family's fortunes, which had been imperiled by her husband's imprudences, and after the latter's death, was instrumental in the establishment of the Carmelite Order in France. St. Catherine of Siena, who died at the age of thirty-two and who for a long time did not know how to read or write, played an important part in the stirring events of her times, and particularly in the return of the Popes of Avignon to Rome. A recent historian has called her a statesman, and a great statesman. (Em. Gebhart, Rev. Hebdom., 16 mars, 1907) 2p717

It is evident then that the differences existing between the phenomena of hysteria and ecstasy are such that to attempt to place them in the same category is to violate all the canons of scientific investigation. 2p717

4.12: The Power of the Devil

Satan is the fallen angel who labors in souls against God's reign on earth. The Hebrew word "Satan" signifies adversary. Satan is the supreme adversary of Christ and of Christians. Why should he not struggle against revelations, since these are methods used by God to animate the Christian faith and to strengthen Christ's reign?

His destructive activity is very dangerous because as an angel he still has his penetrating intelligence. He knows how to make the best use of it. What is more, he is a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44). As an individual, he knows how to deceive people. He very cunningly discredits true revelations and raises up the false ones. His power enables him to deceive. Christ called him the "prince of this world" (John 12 :32), and as such Satan has his co-operators among the men who do not submit to God. The Council of Trent held that man became the prisoner of the devil through original sin (Denz., 788). Certainly Christ conquered the prince of this world; but the latter still retains a certain domination over the world. "He that commits sin is of the devil" (1 John 3:8). The devil continues to exercise a certain domination over the world inasmuch as sin persists in the world. 1p142

The fallen angels retain their noble angelic nature-and thus superiority of action, as the result of the superior quality of their being. Since through their nature they are superior to men, their domination over matter surpasses that possessed by men to such a point that their actions seem to be miracles. The man who is without knowledge and experience does not succeed in distinguishing these actions from miracles properly so called, that is, the works of forces surpassing those belonging to any creature. So Satan has been called "the amazing wonder-worker." His power is surprising, when he makes use of created means, and surprising too is the power of the people who rely upon him. St. Thomas wrote: "All the facts which in this world come under the experience of the senses may be produced by the demons acting not only through their own energies, but also making use of the forces of nature." (De Malo, 26, a. 11). It is, in fact, thanks to Satan that Antichrist is capable of achieving "all power, and signs, and lying wonders" (2Thess. 2 :9). So too the coming of Antichrist will be marked by the "working of Satan, in all power, and signs, and lying wonders, and in all seduction of inquity.." (2Thess 2:9-19).

The dominion of the devil may even extend to the mind of man. It is true that he cannot directly touch the intelligence or move the will, but he can act strongly upon these spiritual faculties by way of the senses. Through the interior senses, for instance, he can arouse such perturbation in the human spirit that all intellectual knowledge becomes practically impossible. Besides, through the tremendous means at his disposal and through his penetrating knowledge of signs, he can divine secrets and future events. 1p144

4.13: Diabolical Phenomena

The devil, jealous of God's influence on the souls of the saints, strives to exercise his own dominion, or rather his tyranny, over men. At times he, so to speak, besieges the soul from without by assailing it with horrible temptations; at other times, he takes up his abode in the human body, which he moves at will as if he were its master, in order thus to afflict the soul itself. In the former case we have obsession, in the latter, possession.

A) OBSESSION

Obsession consists in a series of unusually violent and persistent temptations. It is called external when the temptations affect the exterior senses by means of apparitions, and internal when they stir up sensations or emotions. It is rare that obsession is purely external, for the devil acts upon the senses in order the more easily to disturb the soul. However, there have been saints who, though obsessed from without by all sorts of phantoms, preserved an unruffled peace of soul. 2p718

B) POSSESSION

There are two elements which constitute possession: the presence of the devil in the body of the possessed, and the dominion exercised by the devil over that body, and through it, over the soul. This latter point needs to be explained. The devil does not unite with the body in the same manner as the soul does, nor does he enter into the soul itself; it is only by acting upon the body in which he dwells that he can affect the soul. He can indeed act directly on the bodily members and cause them to perform all sorts of motions, and indirectly he can move the faculties of the soul in so far as they depend for their operations upon the body.

We can distinguish two distinct states in possessed persons: the crisis and the period of calm. The crisis is like a violent attack in which the devil manifests his tyrannical sway by imparting to the body a feverish agitation which finds expression in contortions, outbursts of fury, and impious and blasphemous utterances. There upon the victims seem to lose all sense of what takes place within them, and they retain no memory of what they say or do, or rather, of what the devil does through them. It is only at the beginning of the crisis that they are aware of the invasion of the Evil One, and after that they apparently lose consciousness. 2p720

During the intervals of quiet and calm there is nothing to disclose the presence of the evil spirit; it is as though he had departed. Sometimes however his presence manifests itself by a sort of chronic infirmity which baffles all the efforts of physicians. 2p721

According to the Roman Ritual (De Exorcizandis Obsessis a Daemonio) there are three principle signs by which possession may be recognized: "Speaking an unknown tongue or understanding it when spoken by another; making known distant and hidden things; exhibiting a strength out of all proportion with one's age and circumstances. These and other like signs, when they concur in great number, are the surest indications of possession" 2p721

One might add here another sign pointing to the fact of possession to be found in the reactions produced by the use of exorcisms or of holy objects, especially if they are employed without the knowledge of the supposedly possessed persons. At times, the mere contact with a pious object or the recitation over them of the liturgical prayers drives them into a fury and provokes horrible blasphemies. However, this is not a sure sign of possession unless the experiment just described is made unknown to the patients, for if they realize what is about to be done, they may purposely work themselves into a state of frenzy, either because they have a horror of all things religious, or because they wish to deceive. 2p722

It is not easy therefore to recognize a case of real possession, and one cannot be too careful before making a decision.

GENERAL REMEDIES

A) One-of the most efficacious of all is the purification of the soul by a worthy confession, particularly a general confession, which by humiliating and sanctifying the penitent puts to flight the proud and impure spirit. The Ritual counsels the addition of fasting, prayer and the reception of Holy Communion. The more pure and the more mortified one becomes, the weaker becomes the influence of the devil, and in Holy Communion one receives Him who conquered Satan. It need hardly be said that Communion should not be given except in moments of calm. 2p724 etc.

B). The Sacramentals and blessed objects are also efficacious remedies because of the prayers said by the Church when blessing them. St. Teresa had great confidence in holy water, and rightly so, since the Church imparts to it the power of putting the devil to flight. But such objects are to be used in a spirit of faith, of humility and of confidence.

C) The Crucifix, the Sign of the Cross, and especially genuine relics of the True Cross are terrifying to the devil who was vanquished by the Cross: "That the one who conquered by a tree should himself be likewise conquered by the Tree." (Preface for the Feast of the Holy Cross). For the same reason the Evil Spirit dreads the invocation of the Holy Name of Jesus, which, on the Master's own promise, possesses a wondrous power for putting the devil to flight.

An EXORCISM is a rite preformed by an Exorcist who is usually a priest expressly deputed for that purpose by the Ordinary. The power of exorcism to expel devils comes from the Church having received this power from Christ. 2p724

It is clear that we now find ourselves confronting the richest and most subtle source of illusions and frauds. "Evident proofs and experiences show us that the devils may make things appear to men in sensible fashion” (De Malo, q. 16, a. 11). When the most beautiful guise is not sufficient to deceive, the devil even propounds truths to attain his ends; he can thus at least create confusion. Jesus Himself spoke of false christs and false prophets who would produce signs and prodigies so considerable as to be able to deceive if possible even the elect (Mt 24:24). There is no situation more difficult for discernment than this. And still it is not impossible. That is not to say, indeed, that one will always arrive at a satisfactory result, but actually one may succeed in discerning the true from the false by making use of the appropriate criteria. It would be difficult to admit that God would not give to His own, to the Church, the means of distinguishing His activity from that of the devil. In fact, God does give such means abundantly here where human means are even less efficacious than in other domains. The appropriate means from Christ which the Church places at the disposal of her ministers for withdrawing from the devil his domination over men and things in particular cases is exorcism. 1p146

In the presence of extraordinary events which are presented as revelations, one first should use the method of elimination. Before assuming the devil to be at work, one should inquire about the presence of human forces or weaknesses such as clairvoyance, hysterical manifestations, split consciousness, etc. A subject suffering from denonomania could perfectly play the part of a possessed person. Violent impulses in opposition to the habitual temperament, the feeling of being a victim of a strange force, convulsive attacks, and so on are not necessarily symptoms of possession, but they may be the effects of demonomania. A subject who manifests them, however, cannot be considered as the bearer of a particular revelation. 1p146

If the visionary does not show signs of obsession or possession as described above, we cannot conclude that the revelation is true. But all of the criteria taken together make it possible to discern with certitude the false revelations from the true.

Ch. V: Prophesy

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Chapter V

PROPHESY

5.1: What Is Prophesy

Prophesy is the certain foretelling of a future event by a person supernaturally informed of it, and supernaturally moved to announce it. Prophesy consists primarily in the knowledge of future events; this knowledge is beyond the natural power of creatures to acquire, and is imparted by God to the prophet. 3p291

Natural knowledge can be used at the knower's will. But the prophet's knowledge is not something he can use at will. It is knowledge specially given, by a special divine light, and given in the measure that God wills, for utterance as a divine help, guide, or warning to mankind.

The prophetic light, according to St. Thomas, is in the soul of the prophet not as a permanent form or habit, but after the manner of a passion or passing impression (Sum. Theol. II-II, Q. 171, a. 2). Hence the ancient prophets by their prayers petitioned for this divine light (Kg 8:6; Jer 32:16; 23:2; 42:4), and they were liable to error if they gave an answer before invoking God (2Kg 7:2-3).

Prophetic knowledge includes more than future free events. The prophet may announce timeless things, as Isaiah announced what was divinely revealed to him of the eternal perfections of God. Sometimes, indeed, a man is called a prophet when he tells of the past; so Moses prophesied when he wrote, under divine inspiration, of the creation of the world. In this way a prophecy is the certain knowledge and pronouncement of what is "remote from human knowledge." However, in its strict sense, prophecy is knowing and foretelling what is to come, that is, what is remote in time from human experience.

5.2: The Object of Prophecy

The objects of prophecy may also be viewed in respect to human knowledge: (1) when an event may be beyond the possible natural knowledge of the prophet, but may be within the range of human knowledge and known to others who witness the occurrence, as, for instance, the result of the battle of Lepanto revealed to St. Pius V; (2) when the object surpasses the knowledge of all men, not that it is unknowable but that the human mind cannot naturally receive the knowledge, such as the mystery of the Holy Trinity, or the mystery of predestination; (3) when the things that are beyond the power of the human mind to know are not in themselves knowable because their truth is not yet determined, such as future contingent things which depend upon free will. This is regarded as the most perfect object of prophecy, because it is the most general and embraces all events that are in themselves unknowable.10p474

A prophet is not in possession of the whole field of prophecy; he does not know all that can possibly be prophesied. He knows what God gives him to know and moves him to make known to others. 3p292

5.3: From God or From the Prophet or …?

The prophet may not always be clear in his own mind about the precise line which divides the divinely revealed message from his own knowledge. St. Gregory says in regard to Biblical prophets (Hom. i, super Ezech): "It must be observed that sometimes the holy prophets, when consulted, utter certain things by their own spirit, through being much accustomed to prophesying, and think they are speaking by the prophetic spirit." 4p1894

St. Thomas answers that, "The prophet's mind is instructed by God in two ways: in one way by an express revelation, in another way by a most mysterious instance to which the human mind is subjected without knowing it, as Augustine says. Accordingly the prophet has the greatest certitude about those things which he knows by an express revelation, and he has it for certain that they are revealed to him by God; wherefore it is written (Jer 26:15): 'In truth the Lord sent me to you, to speak all these words in your hearing'. Else, were he not certain about this, the faith which relies on the utterances of the prophet would not be certain. A sign of the prophet's certitude may be gathered from the fact that Abraham being admonished in a prophetic vision, prepared to sacrifice his only begotten Son, which he nowise would have done had he not been most certain of the divine revelation". 4p1894

On the other hand, his position with regard to the things he knows by instinct is sometimes such that he is unable to distinguish fully whether his thoughts are conceived of divine instinct or of his own spirit. And those things which we know by divine instinct are not all manifested with prophetic certitude, for this instinct is something imperfect in the genus of prophecy. 4p1894

But for that which God wishes to be inspired and pronounced, St. Gregory says that the Holy Spirit takes care that no erroneous human elements are mixed with the prophecy which God wills to have pronounced (e.g. 2Kg 7:3).

In other words, by reason of the illumination of the mind, prophecy may be either perfect or imperfect. It is called perfect when not only the thing revealed, but the revelation itself is made known, that is, when the prophet knows that it is God who speaks. The prophecy is imperfect when the recipient does not know clearly or sufficiently from whom the revelation proceeds, or whether it is the prophetic or individual spirit that speaks. This is called the prophetic instinct, wherein it is possible that a man be deceived, as it happened in the case of Nathan who said to David when he was thinking of building the Temple of God: "Go, do all that is in thy heart, because the Lord is with thee” (2Kg 7:3). But that very night the Lord commanded the Prophet to return to the king and say that the glory of the building of the temple was reserved, not for him, but for his son. 10p473

When God so wills He can impart to him who receives a revelation the full certainty that it is real and wholly divine. Otherwise one would not have had the right to believe the Prophets of the Old Testament. Scripture ordained that they be distinguished from false prophets. For instance, the envoys of God performed miracles or uttered prophecies the realization of which was verified. 8p328

The knowledge of the genuine prophet cannot be accounted for by any natural power in himself. This knowledge is from God. It is revealed knowledge, not acquired knowledge, and God is its cause. St. Peter says (2Pet 1:21): "Prophecy came not by the Will of man ... but the holy men of God spoke, inspired by the Holy Spirit." 4p292

It cannot be said that God selects as prophets men of a suitable disposition for the office of prophet. God chooses as prophets whom He will, regardless of natural abilities and dispositions. The infinite Creator can instantly produce in any man the qualifications naturally needed (as, for instance, the power to speak, or the ability to use an unfamiliar language), just as he produces the supernatural knowledge and the authority of the prophet. 4p292

Indeed, if God choose, the office of prophet may be exercised by a person who is not even in the state of grace. For prophesy is primarily a matter of knowledge, which pertains to the intellect, whereas grace or charity pertains primarily to the will. Yet it is most unlikely that a man of sinful and passionate life should be made a prophet. 4p293

The evil spirits are fallen angels; by their angelic intellect they know things that man cannot naturally know, and, they can reveal these things to man. But this revelation is neither divine nor supernatural. One who proclaims knowledge acquired from demons is not, in a strict sense, a prophet; at best he is to be called "a false prophet." 4p293

Even such "a false prophet" may speak truth; indeed, he must offer some truth, or he would quickly be discredited, and could win no one to believe the essential falsity he wishes to propagate. 4p293

God can enlighten the human mind in any way He pleases. He often makes use of angelic ministry in prophetic communications, or He Himself may speak to the prophet and illuminate his mind. Again the supernatural light of prophesy may be conveyed to the intellect directly or through the senses or the imagination. Prophesy may take place even when the senses are suspended as in ecstasy, but this in mystical terminology is called rapture. 10p474

It is possible that the prophet himself should not understand what the Holy Spirit means by the prophetic utterance. David understood that he had prophesied when he said (2Kg 23: 2): "The spirit of the Lord hath spoken by me." But Caiphas did not understand when he prophesied (John 11:51): "And this he spoke, not of himself, but being the high-priest of that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for the nation." 3p293

5.4: Kinds of Prophesy

By reason of the object, there are three kinds of prophesy according to St. Thomas (Sum. Theol. II-II, Q 174, a.1): prophesy of denunciation, of foreknowledge, and of predestination. In the FIRST KIND God reveals future events according to the order of secondary causes, which may be hindered from taking effect by other causes which would require a miraculous power to prevent, and these may or may not happen, though the prophets do not express it but seem to speak absolutely. Isaiah spoke thus when he said to Ezechias: "Take order with thy house, for thou shalt die, and not live" (Is 38:1). To this kind belongs the prophesy of promise, as that mentioned in Kings 2:30: "I said indeed that thy house, and the house of thy father should minister in my sight forever", which was not fulfilled. It was a conditional promise made to Hell which was dependent upon other causes which prevented its fulfillment. The SECOND KIND, that of foreknowledge, takes place when God reveals future events which depend upon created free will and which He sees present from eternity. They have reference to life and death, to wars and dynasties, to the affairs of Church and State, as well as to the affairs of individual life. The THIRD KIND, the prophesy of predestination, takes place when God reveals what He alone will do, and what He sees present in eternity and in His absolute decree. This includes not only the secret of predestination to grace and to glory, but also those things which God has absolutely decreed to do by His own supreme power, and which will infallibly come to pass. 10p474

That the gift of private prophesy exists in the Church is clear from Scripture and the acts of canonization of the saints in every age. To the question, what credence is to be given to these private prophecies, Cardinal Cajetan answers, as stated by Benedict XIV: "Human actions are of two kinds, one of which relates to public duties, and especially to ecclesiastical affairs, such as preaching, celebrating Mass, pronouncing judicial decision, and the like; with respect to these the question is settled in the canon law, where it is said that no credence is to be publicly given to him who says he has privately received a mission from God, unless he confirms it by a miracle or a special testimony of Holy Scripture. The other class of human actions consists of those of private persons, and speaking of these, he distinguishes between a prophet who enjoins or advises them, according to the universal laws of the Church, and a prophet who does the same without reference to those laws. In the first case every man may abound in his own sense whether or not to direct his actions according to the will of the prophet; in the second case the prophet is not to be listened to" (Heroic Virtue, III, 192). 10p474

5.5: Rules To Distinguish True From False Prophets

It is also important that those who have to teach and direct others should have rules for their guidance to enable then to distinguish true from false prophets. A summary of those prescribed by theologians for our guidance may be useful to show practically how the doctrine is to be applied to devout souls in order to save them from errors or diabolical delusion. 10p475

1) The recipient of the gift of prophecy should, as a rule, be good and virtuous, for all mystical writers agree that for the most part this gift is granted by God to holy persons. The disposition or temperament of the person should also be considered, as well as the state of health and of the brain.

2) The prophecy must be conformable to Christian truth and piety, because if it proposes anything against faith or morals it cannot proceed from the Spirit of Truth.

3) The prediction should concern things outside the reach of all natural knowledge, and have for its object future contingent things or those things which God only knows.

4) It should also concern something of a grave and important nature, that is something for the good of the Church or the good of souls. This and the preceding rule will help to distinguish true prophecies from the childish, senseless, and useless predictions of fortunetellers, crystal-gazers, spiritualists, and charlatans. These may tell things beyond human knowledge and yet within the scope of the natural knowledge of demons, but not those things that are strictly speaking the objects of prophecy.

5) Prophecies or revelations which make known the sins of others, or which announce the predestination or reprobation of souls are to be suspected. Three special secrets of God have always to be deeply respected as they are very rarely revealed, namely: the state of conscience in this life, the state of souls after death unless canonized by the Church, and the mystery of predestination. The secret of predestination has been revealed only in exceptional cases, but that of reprobation has never been revealed, because so long as the soul is in this life, its salvation is possible. The day of General Judgment is also a secret which has never been revealed.

6) We have afterwards to ascertain whether the prophecy has been fulfilled in the way foretold. There are some limitations to this rule: (a) if the prophecy was not absolute, but containing threats only, and tampered by conditions expressed or understood, as exemplified in the prophecy of Jonas to the Ninivites, and that of Isaiah to King Ezechias. (b) It may sometimes happen that the prophecy is true and from God, and the human interpretation of it false, as men may interpret it otherwise than God intended. It is by these limitations we have to explain the prophecy of St. Bernard regarding the success of the Second Crusade, and that of St. Vincent Ferrer regarding the near approach of the General Judgment in his day. 10p475

Ch. VI: Spiritual Direction

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Chapter VI

SPIRITUAL DIRECTION

6.1: Moral Necessity of Spiritual Direction

Direction, although not absolutely necessary for the sanctification of souls, is one of the normal means of spiritual progress. Authority, and reason based on experience, demonstrate this. 2p257

I) Proof From Authority

A) God, who established His Church as a hierarchical society, has willed that souls be sanctified through submission to the Sovereign Pontiff and to the Bishops in things external, and to confessors in things internal. When Saul was converted, Our Lord, instead of directly manifesting to him His designs, sent him to Ananias to learn from this man's lips what he was to do. Cassian, St. Francis de Sales and Leo XIII argue from this fact to show the necessity of direction. "God," says Leo XIII, "in His infinite Providence has decreed that men for the most part should be saved by men; hence He has appointed that those whom He calls to a loftier degree of holiness should be led thereto by men, 'in order that,' as Chrysostom says, 'we should be taught by God through men.' We have an illustrious example of this put before us in the very beginning of the Church, for although Saul, who was 'breathing threatening and slaughter', heard the voice of Christ Himself, and asked from Him, 'Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?' he was nevertheless sent to Ananias at Damascus: 'Arise and go into the city, and there it shall be told thee what thou must do', This manner of acting has invariably continued in the Church. All without exception who in the course of ages have been remarkable for science and holiness have taught this doctrine. Those who reject it, assuredly do so rashly and at their peril." (Leo XIII, 1899)

B) In the early Church, there were many authorities who stressed the need of a spiritual director for devout and eager souls. Cassian, who had spent long years among the monks of Palestine, of Syria, and of Egypt, has set down their teachings together with his own in two works. In the first, the 'Book of Institutions,' he urgently exhorts the young cenobites to open their heart to the elder charged with the direction of their life; to disclose to him without false shame their most secret thoughts, and to submit themselves entirely to his decision as to what is good and what is evil. He treats this point again in his 'Conferences', and, after showing the dangers to which those who do not seek counsel from their elders expose themselves, he affirms that the best means to overcome temptations even the most dangerous, is to disclose them to a wise counselor. This he says on the authority of St. Anthony and the Abbot Serapion. 2p260 etc.

What Cassian teaches to the Monks of the West, St. John Climacus instills into those of the East by his 'Ladder of Paradise.'

For the period of the Middle Ages, two authorities will suffice. St. Bernard wants the novices to have a guide, a foster-father to enlighten them, direct them, console then, and encourage then. To more advance souls, like Ogier, the Canon Regular, he declares that whoever constitutes himself his own guide, becomes a disciple of a fool. He adds: "I know not what others think about themselves on this matter; for myself, I speak from experience and I hesitate not to say that I find it easier and safer to direct many others than I do to guide myself." In the Fourteenth Century, the eloquent Dominican, St. Vincent Ferrer, stated that spiritual direction had ever been the practice of souls that wished to make progress, and he gave the following reason: "He who has an adviser whom he absolutely obeys in all things, will succeed much more easily and quickly than he could if left to himself, even if endowed with quick intellect and possessed of learned spiritual books."

It was not only in communities that this need of a spiritual guide was felt, but likewise in the world. The letters of St. Jerome, of St. Augustine, and of other Fathers, to widows, virgins, and other persons living in the world, are ample proof of it. It is therefore with good reason that St. Alphonsus in explaining the duties of a confessor declares that one of the most important of these duties is that of directing devout souls. 2p261

Besides, reason itself, enlightened by faith and by experience, shows us the necessity of a spiritual director in order to advance in the way of perfection.

II) Proof From Reason Based On the Nature of Spiritual Progress

A) Progress in holiness is a long and painful ascent over a steep path bordered by perilous cliffs. To venture thereon without an experienced guide is highly imprudent. It is extremely easy to deceive oneself as regards one's own condition. We are unable to gaze eye to eye upon ourselves, says St. Francis de Sales; we cannot be impartial judges in our own case, by reason of a certain complacency, "so veiled, so unsuspected that the keenest insight alone can discover its existence; those who suffer from it are not aware of it unless some one points it out to them." Hence, he concludes that we need a spiritual physician to make a sound diagnosis of our state of soul and to prescribe the most effective remedies.

6.2: Duties of the Spiritual Director

St. Francis de Sales declares that a spiritual director must have three principal qualities: "He must be full of charity, of knowledge and of prudence: if he lacks one of these, there is danger." 2p264

A) The charity wherewith he must be filled is a supernatural and paternal affection that makes him see in his penitents so many spiritual children confided to his care by God Himself so that he may cause Jesus Christ and His virtues to grow in them: "My little children of whom I am in labor again until Christ be formed in you." 2p264

If one is going to help in discerning a way out of difficulty for others, one must be able to listen to the others' stories, to listen to their imaginings, their dreams, their fantasies. This takes time and steadfastness. There is nothing worse we can do to those whom we would like to help than to listen to them for a while and then cut them off. Nothing is more destructive. 5p102

In order to listen without pushing our story on another, it is necessary that we know our own story consciously and realize that others have different stories, different variations of the same myth. I must know my own inner imaginings if I am to offer wise discernment to another who has sought me out. My task is to help others live their stories, not to push mine upon them. 5pl02

Kindness on the part of the spiritual director must not mean weakness. It must, on the contrary, be coupled with firmness and frankness. The director must have the courage to give sound, fatherly warnings, to point out to his penitents their defects, and not allow himself to be directed by them. There are persons very demure, yet very clever, who want to have a spiritual director, but on condition that he accommodate himself to their tastes and fancies. Such seek after approbation rather than guidance. To be on guard against this abuse that might involve his own conscience, the spiritual director must not let himself be swayed by the schemes and maneuvers of such penitents; he must remember that he represents Our Lord Himself, and resolutely render his decisions according to the rules of perfection and not according to the wishes of his penitents. 2p264

B) In the spiritual director, devotedness must be accompanied by the knowledge of ascetical theology so necessary to confessors, n. 36. He will, therefore, never tire of reading and re-reading spiritual authors, correcting his judgments by their standards, and comparing his own method with that of the saints. 2p265

C) Above all, prudence and a sound judgment are needed in order to direct souls not according to one's own ideas, but according to the motions if grace, the temperament and character of the penitents, and their supernatural attractions. 2p265

6.3: Duties of Penitents

Penitents will see in their spiritual director the person of Our Lord Himself. If it is true that all authority comes from God, it is more so of the authority the priest exercises over consciences in the confessional. The power of binding and loosing, of opening and closing the gates of Heaven, of guiding souls in the paths of perfection, is a divine power and cannot reside outside of him who is the lawful representative, the ambassador of Christ. "For Christ's therefore we are ambassadors, God as it were exhorting by us" (2Cor 5:20). This is the principle from which all duties toward a spiritual director flow - respect, trust, docility.

A) The director must be respected as the representative of God, clothed as he is with God's authority in what regards our most intimate and most sacred relations with God. Hence, if he has his shortcomings, let us not dwell on them, but simply regard his authority and his mission. A penitent will thus carefully avoid any criticism whereby the filial respect due his director is lost or lessened. He should likewise avoid excessive familiarity, hardly compatible with true respect. This respect will be tempered by an affection that is frank and genuine, but full of reverence, an affection of a child for his father, an affection that excludes the desire of being singularly loved, and the petty jealousies issuing from such desire. "In a word, this friendship should be strong and sweet, holy, all sacred, wholly divine and entirely spiritual."(St. Francis de Sales, `Introduction to a Devout Life', Part. I, C. IV)

B) A second duty toward the spiritual director is filial trust and perfect openness of heart. "Open your heart to him with all sincerity and fidelity, manifesting clearly the state of your conscience without fiction or dissimulation; by this means your good actions will be examined and approved, and your evil ones corrected and remedied... Place great confidence in him, but let it be united with a holy reverence, so that the reverence may not diminish the confidence, nor the confidence the reverence." (St. Francis de Sales, 'Introduction to a Devout Life', P.I., C. IV) We are to open our heart to him, then, with full confidence, making known to him our temptations and our weaknesses, that he may help us conquer the former and heal the latter; we must submit to his approbation our desires and resolutions; we must tell him of the good we strive to accomplish, that he may help us to do even more; of our good purposes that he may examine them, and suggest the means of realizing them; in a word of whatever has a bearing on the spiritual welfare of our soul. The better he knows us, the more will he be able to counsel us wisely, to encourage, comfort and fortify us, in such ways, that after taking leave of him, we can repeat the words of the disciples at Emmaus: "Was not our heart burning within us, whilst he spoke... ?" (Lk 24:32) 2p268 etc.

There are persons who, though willing enough to be thus perfectly open, through a sort of timidity or reserve do not know how to make known their state of soul. Let them speak of this to their spiritual director, who will help them with pertinent questions and, if need be, have them read some book or other that will enable them to come to a better knowledge of themselves and to analyze the state of their souls. Once the ice is broken, such intimate communications will be made with greater ease.

Others there are who, on the contrary, are liable to talk overmuch and to turn spiritual direction into pious prattle. These must remember that a priest's time is limited, that others wait their turn and may grow impatient of delay. They should, therefore, set a limit and leave less important matters for some future meeting.

C) Docility in listening to and carrying out of a director's advice must accompany this frankness. There is nothing less supernatural than to wish him to enter into our views, nothing more hurtful to the welfare of our souls for then it is not the will of God we seek, but our own, with this aggravating circumstance, that we abuse a God-given means in order to attain our selfish purposes. Our only desire must be to know God's will through the agency of our spiritual director and not to extort his approval through more or less clever devices. One may deceive a spiritual director, but not Him whom he represents. 2p268

Doubtless, it is our duty to make known to him our likes and our dislikes, and if we foresee serious difficulties in carrying out his advice, we must candidly mention them to him. Once this has been done, we must submit to his decision, or if we think it unwise, seek another director. Strictly speaking, our spiritual director may be mistaken, but we make no mistake in obeying him, except, of course, were he to give counsel opposed to faith or morals. "This obedience to our director is a stumbling-block to many of us. I cannot think it would be so if we had a clear idea of it or, which is the same thing, an unexaggerated idea of it... A spiritual director is not a monastic superior... The superior's jurisdiction is universal, the director's only where we invite it or he asks it and we accord it... If we disobey a superior, we sin; it would require very peculiar and unusual circumstances to make disobedience to our director any sin at all." (Faber, 'Growth in Holiness’, C. XVIII) 2p269

D) Only a grave reason and mature reflection should determine us to seek another spiritual guide. There should be in direction a certain continuity that cannot exist if changes be frequently made

a) Some persons tired of listening to the same counsels, especially if these bear upon things disagreeable to nature, or led through curiosity, change confessors in order to see what the attitude of another will be. Others do the same through inconstancy finding it impossible to hold for any length of time to the same practices. Others are inspired by vanity, wishing to go to one who enjoys a greater reputation, or who is more in vogue, or to one who will probably flatter them. Some change through a kind of restlessness that causes them to be ever dissatisfied with what they have and to dream of an imaginary perfection. Again, some do so, through an ill-regulated desire of opening their soul to different confessors, so as to engage their interest or to be reassured. Lastly, some change through a false shame, to hide from their regular confessor some humiliating weaknesses. Evidently, these motives are not sufficient, and one must learn to brush them aside, if one wishes to make consistent progress in the spiritual life. 2p269

b) On the other hand we must remember the growing insistence wherewith the Church safeguards the freedom individuals must enjoy in the choice of a confessor; hence, if there be good reasons to have recourse to another, one must not hesitate to do so. What are the chief reasons? 1) If in spite of all our efforts we cannot have towards our director the respect, the confidence, and the openness above-mentioned, even if there be little or no grounds for such state of mind; for in such a case, we could derive no profit from his counsels. 2) Should we have any grounded fears that our director would deter us from perfection, because of his too natural views, or because of a too strong and too sentimental affection he has shown on some occasions. 3) If we should detect in him a lack of the necessary knowledge, prudence or discretion.

Such cases are generally in the minority, it is true; but should they occur, we must remember that spiritual direction is productive of good only if there exist between director and penitent real co-operation and mutual trust. 2p269

6.4: Rules of Conduct Regarding Revelations

When a spiritual director is told by a penitent of his supposed revelations, he should carefully refrain from showing any admiration, for this would lead the seer at once to consider these visions as true, and perhaps to take pride in them. He must rather explain that such things are of far less importance than the practice of virtue. 2p709 He must be very careful to urge the soul to make progress in the way of sanctity. He will point out that the only value of the visions is the spiritual fruit that they produce.

The spiritual director should pray fervently and have the subject he is directing pray, that the necessary light may be granted. God cannot fail to make known the true path to those who ask Him humbly. If on the contrary a person confided solely in his natural prudence, he would expose himself to punishment for his self-sufficiency. 11p6

In the beginning at least, he is gently to do his utmost to repulse the revelations and to turn his thoughts away from them, otherwise he will be exposing himself to the risk of being deceived. 8p328

He is to accept them only after a prudent director will have decided that he may place a certain amount of confidence in them. This doctrine, which seems severe, is nevertheless taught forcibly by many saints, such as St. Ignatius (Acta SS., 31 July, Preliminaries, no. 614), St. Philip Neri (ibid., 26 May, 2nd life, no. 375), St. John of the Cross (Assent, Bk. II, ch. xi, xvi, xvii, and xxiv), St. Teresa, and St. Alphonsus Liguori (Homo Apost., Appendix I, no. 23), for the reason that there is danger of illusions. With even greater reason, revelations and visions (of created objects) should be neither desired nor requested. On the other hand many passages in St. Teresa and other mystics prove that mystical union may be desired and asked for, provided it be done humbly and with resignation to God's will. The reason is that this union has no disadvantages but presents great advantages for sanctification. 8p328

The spiritual director, however, should treat kindly those who think they have received revelations. He will thus succeed in gaining their confidence and he will obtain more easily the details which will enable him, after mature reflection, to pass judgment. Then, should he find the visions to be illusory, his decision will be more readily accepted. 2p709

This is the advice of St. John of the Cross, severe as he is with regard to visions: "But remember, though I say that these communications are to be set aside, and that confessors should be careful not to discuss them with their penitents, it is not right for spiritual directors to show themselves severe in the matter, or to betray any contempt or aversion; lest their penitents should shrink within themselves, and be afraid to reveal their condition, and so fall into many inconveniences, which would be the case if the door were thus shut against them." (Ascent of Carmel, Bk. II, C. XXIII) 2p710

If the revelation or the vision has for its sole effect the augmenting of the love of the seer for God, Christ, or the saints, nothing prevents these facts from being provisionally considered divine. 8p328 But if it be a question of initiating some public enterprise, the director should carefully refrain from encouraging the venture without having previously well examined in the light of supernatural prudence the reasons for and against. 2p710

This is what the saints did. St. Teresa, who was favored with so many revelations, did not want her directors to be guided in their decision solely by her visions. When Our lord bade her to found the reformed monastery of Avila, she humbly submitted her plan to her director, and when the latter hesitated, she consulted St. Peter of Alcantare, St. Francis Borgia and St. Louis Bertrand. 2p710

The visionary should be perfectly calm and patient if his superiors do not allow him to carry out the enterprises that he deems inspired by Heaven or revealed. One who, when confronted with this opposition, becomes impatient or discouraged, shows that he has very little confidence in the power of God and is but little conformed to His will. If God wishes the project to succeed, He can make the obstacles suddenly disappear at the time appointed by Him. A very striking example of this divine delay is to be found in the life of St. Juliana, the Cistercian prioress of Montcormillon, near liege (1192-1258). It is to her that the institution of the feast of the Blessed Sacrament is due. All her life was passed in awaiting the hour of God, which she was never to see, for it came only more than the century after the beginning of the revelations. 11p6

As regards inspirations ordinarily, those who have not passed the period of tranquility or a complete union, must beware of the idea that they hear supernatural words; unless the evidence is irresistible, they should attribute them to the activity of their own imaginations. But they may at least experience inspirations or impulses more or less strong, which seem to point out to them how to act in difficult circumstances. This is a minor form of revelation. We must not accept them blindly and against the dictates of reason, but weigh the reasons for and against, consult a prudent director, and decide only after applying the rules for the discernment of spirits. The attitude of reserve that has just been laid down does not apply to simple sudden and illuminating views of faith, which enable one to understand in a higher manner not novelties, but the truths admitted by the Church. Such enlightenment cannot have any evil result. It is on the contrary a very precious grace, which should be carefully welcomed and utilized, 11p7

Ch. VII: The Ark Guided by the Dove

2008-04-01T09:28:00.000-07:00

Chapter VII

THE ARK GUIDED BY THE DOVE

7.1: The Ark and the Dove

We are about to take a brief look at the finest ship sailing the sea of life. She is a very old ship but eminently sea-worthy, and as she never deviates from her course, she has a genuine guarantee to make port, all colors flying. This ship is the mystical barque of the Church, the ark of the New Testament, guided by the Holy Spirit, the Dove, riding in safety the flood tide of the deluge of sin. She is the Ark of Salvation, carrying the souls which have been saved from the waters. 6p129

This incomparable barque, launched by the Holy Spirit, the Dove, at Pentecost, is sailing the high seas of life today, still captained by Christ. He, in the person of His visible representative and Peter's successor, the Pope, stands at the helm. The chief mates are the successors of the Apostles, the bishops, who in union with their helmsman, teach, govern, and sanctify all those on board, and seek in every way to bring aboard those adrift in the perilous waters below. 6p235

Above the ship, under the figure of a dove hovers the Holy Spirit. He it is who keeps the ship intact as Christ built it; He it is who infallibly guides it unswervingly along the narrow course of Christ's teaching, to the harbor of eternity and the City of Eternal Happiness.

The power and strength of the Church along with all her charisms comes from the Holy Spirit. Christ revealed this divine plan to us when He said: "It is expedient to you that I go" (Jn 16:7). Jesus had to disappear so that His Spirit might continue His work invisibly from the moment when the Apostles took charge of the Church, which by this very fact commenced its life as the Mystical Body of Christ.

The action of the Holy Spirit and the exercise of the apostolic power penetrate one another in such a way that Pope Leo XIII could teach that the Holy Spirit is the Soul of the Church just as Christ is its Head: what the soul is to the body, the Holy Spirit is to the Mystical Body which is the Church. (Leo XIII, 1897) 1p21

In fact the Holy Spirit and the Apostles were at work together; it is sufficient to read the history of the primitive Church to be convinced of this. This unity of action was solemnly affirmed by Peter and the Apostles. They declared before the Sanhedrin: ".... and we are witnesses of these things and the Holy Spirit" (Acts 5: 32) and they announced the grave decision of the Council of Jerusalem to all the faithful in this way: "For it hath seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us..." (Acts 15:28).

7.2: Christ Established a Church

Christ truly established a Church which all are obliged to join, because: 1) He gathered about Him a group of disciples, and called it His Church (Mt 16:18); 2) He promised that this Church would last until the end of time (Mt 28:20); 3). He declared that all men must believe and be baptized, that is, join His Church, in order to be saved (Mk 16:16). Persons who are not members of the Catholic Church can be saved if, through no fault of their own they do not know that the Catholic Church is the true Church, but they love God and try to do His will, for in this way they are connected with the Church by desire. These are really members of the Church in desire and receive grace through the Church. But we should pray that they actually enter the Church in the full sense (full incorporation in the Mystical Body - the visible Church) because there are more helps to be saved within the full incorporation in the Mystical Body. 16

7.3: The Authority of the Church

Unlike all human creeds and sects, the Catholic Church was founded by Jesus Christ and commissioned by Him to teach, to sanctify, and to rule all mankind unto the end of time in order to attain her purpose of giving honor and glory to God and thereby effecting the salvation of souls. This authority of the Church was centered in Peter, whom Christ appointed the chief of His Apostles and the visible head of His Church on earth (Mt 16:17-19). Every validly consecrated bishop (or priest) receives his authority and power (Jn 20:21-23; Lk 22:19-20) through an apostolic succession of bishops that can be traced all the way back to the twelve Apostles who received their authority and power from Christ Himself (2Cor 5:20; Acts 1:24-26; 14:22; 20:28; lTim 3:1; Titus 1:5; Mk 16:15-16). (See also in 16:13-14; 20:21-23; 14:16,17,26; Mt 18:17; 28:18-20; Acts 1:8; 3:7; Is 22:22; Lk 10:16; Eph 4:11-12; Heb 13:7; lJn 4:6)

According to God's plan, the birth and the whole life of the Church depended of necessity on both the Holy Spirit and the Apostles. The union of the spiritual and the jurisdictional character is essential to the whole life of the Church. St. Peter, or his successor, governs the Church, it is true: but it is ruled equally by the Holy Spirit. In accomplishing this work the Spirit heaps charisms upon the Church. Now, amid these charisms is to be found prophecy, which is, by definition, one method of communication from God to men; it presumes a revelation. 1p22

7.4: Why This Authority?

Jesus Christ established an organization to continue His work on earth. It was not His plan to carry on His work on earth personally for all time. He was to return to His Father in heaven. That is why He gave His Church the power to take care of the spiritual welfare of His followers, the right and power to make laws relating to their spiritual care. It was to His Church that Christ spoke the words: "Whatever you declare bound on earth shall be held bound in heaven" (Mt 18:18). Of the Church's power to make laws, enforce them and correct, or punish if necessary, there can be no doubt. 12p113 etc.

Remember the occasion when Christ had appointed a group of seventy-two men to aid in the work of the twelve Apostles. Before sending them out in His name, He assured them of their spiritual power in His Church, the power which continues today: "He who hears you, hears Me. He who rejects you, rejects Me. And he who rejects Me, rejects Him who sent Me" (Lk 10:16).

And again, Christ's own assurance to the Catholic Church: "If he ignores them, refer it to the Church. If he ignores even the Church, then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector" (Mt 18:17).

Any large society needs laws. The Church, the world-wide spiritual society of Christ, must have laws for her members. These laws are made under the guidance of the Holy Spirit whom Christ promised would abide in His organization for all time.

7.5: Why Church Laws?

The Church is the divinely appointed organization entrusted with the task of leading her members to salvation. Such an organization must make spiritual norms and regulations to aid in the accomplishment of her task.

The task of getting to heaven is not easy; it requires effort and discipline. The Church by her laws aims at cultivating this spirit of discipline, helping the individual to do what he knows must be done to gain the kingdom of God.

The Catholic Church makes laws as an extra precaution to keep her members from the occasion of sin. Human nature is weak and sometimes an extra "push" in the form of a precept is needed.

Christ has told us of the need of self-denial in our life: "You will all come to the same end unless you reform" (Lk 13:3). The Church makes regulations to guide our daily life in the practice of self-denial. For instance, the Catholic Church has norms of fast and abstinence for her members.

The Church makes more specific applications of the general laws of God. So, for instance, she spells out norms for keeping holy the Lord's Day.

The sacraments of confession and Eucharist given us by Christ are a ready and ordinary means of needed graces. Some need a stimulus, a reminder to utilize these sacraments. The Church proposes minimum standards for her members concerning the reception of these sacraments.

Christ has given to the world certain norms concerning marriage. These the Church cannot change. But in addition, in order to preserve the institution and ideals of marriage and the family, the Church has established norms. She has done this in virtue of the general commission of Christ to His Church.

Church laws and regulations are meant to help Catholics attain the goal of their life.

One writer has said: "In order to submit ourselves completely to Christ, we must be masters of ourselves." The Laws of the Church help us to accomplish this task. 12p115

7.6: Infallibility of the Church

By the infallibility of the Catholic Church is meant that the Church, by the special assistance of the Holy Spirit, cannot err when it teaches or believes a doctrine of faith or morals. No other organization or group of people on the face of the earth has been given this promise by the Son of God Himself. (See: Jn 14:16, 26; 16:13-14; Lk 22:31-32; Mt 16:18; 28:19-20; lTim 3:14-15; Is 35:8)

7.7: The Necessity and the Fact of Infallibility

The necessity and the fact of infallibility can be proved from the words of Christ and from reason.

Christ established a Church. He commissioned this Church to teach what He had commanded. He ordered all men down through the ages to accept what this Church teaches, for He said: "He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be condemned." (Mk 16:16) 6p169 etc.

It is therefore of tremendous importance that we know, without error, just what Christ taught. It follows from this that Christ, Who never demands the impossible, saw to it that we could learn His doctrines without fear that they had been changed and without addition or subtraction.

The alternative is not only unthinkable but blasphemous as well. It would insinuate that Christ commanded His teachers to teach His truths and then was unable to assist them or was unwilling to preserve them from error. It would mean that in time the Church would lose the original teaching of Christ and men would be as bad off as before He came, for they would be obliged in peril of their salvation to believe, and yet would be unable to find out what to believe.

We can also give a good argument for infallibility from reason alone. Man wants certainty, in religion above all things, He cannot arrive at certainty by himself, and he feels the need of a Church which can tell him absolutely and positively what he must believe and what he must do in order to be saved. He has no need for a fallible Church - a Church which can teach errors. Of what use would be a Church which is not infallible? We can make enough mistakes by ourselves without having a fallible Church to help us make more mistakes. No, what man needs and wants is an infallible guide, an infallible teaching authority, a Church which cannot possibly make an error when teaching faith or morals. If God created this urge and need in men, He must have provided a way to fulfill it. He must have given men an infallible guide.

7.8: When Infallibility Is and Is Not Exercised

This infallibility resides in those who have been appointed by Christ as the teachers in His Church, that is, the bishops, the head of whom is the Pope, the successor of St. Peter in the see of Rome. Individual bishops are not infallible, as many past heresies as Arianism or Nestorianism have shown; but the entire body of bishops is infallible. They exercise this infallibility: 1) through the decrees of Ecumenical Councils which have been sanctioned and approved by the Pope: 2) through the Pope alone when he speaks ‘excathedra’ that is, in his official capacity as head of the Church, on doctrines of faith or morals - papal infallibility; 3) through the unanimous voice of the bishops and priests scattered throughout the world, teaching faith or morals, in communion with the Pope; 4) through the Church's ordinary, uniform preaching - her universal belief. 6p175

According to Catholic doctrine, the infallibility of the Church's Magisterium extends not only to the deposit of faith but also to those matters without which that deposit cannot be rightly preserved or expounded. 13

As numerous past popes have declared, Jesus Christ, when communicating to Peter and to the Apostles His divine authority and sending them to teach all nations His commandments (Mt 28:18-19), constituted them as guardians and authentic interpreters of all the moral law, not only, that is, of the law of the Gospel, but also of the natural law, which is also an expression of the will of God, the faithful fulfillment of which is equally necessary for salvation (Mt 7:21). 14

This fourth way listed above by which the Church speaks infallibly refers to what is known as the Ordinary Magisterium of the Church. A doctrine concerning faith or morals can achieve infallible status without ever being formally defined, simply because it has been taught constantly and universally (with moral unanimity) by the Pope and all the bishops of the world. The words "constantly and universally" are of considerable importance. Papal encyclicals might almost appear tedious in their continual quotations from, and references to, previous pronouncements of the Magisterium on the same topic. The more frequently a teaching has been repeated by the Ordinary Magisterium the more authoritative it becomes, until eventually it must be regarded as infallible. A pertinent example of such teaching is the intrinsic sinfulness of contraception. It has been taught by the Popes so frequently, and endorsed by the bishops so widely, and with such moral unanimity, that we have every justification for considering it to be infallible. This infallible status is in no way affected by the widespread dissent among theologians, condoned by so many bishops, which followed the encyclical 'Humanae Vitae'. An infallible teaching can never lose its status, no matter how great the extent of subsequent dissent." 13

In order to protect the faithful or to sterm the danger or damage from related heresies or evil customs, the Church could at some time in the future, more explicitly (see numbers 1 & 2 above) define her doctrine on contraception. There are many examples of this throughout the history of the Church including the dogma of the Immaculate Conception (1854) and the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary body and soul into heaven (1950). These truths which are formalized by the Church are not new truths, or "new revelations", or any type of liberal Protestant and Modernistic doctrine of the evolution of religion. "The Revelation, which is the object of Catholic Faith, was terminated with the Apostles" (sent. certa - Pope St. Pius X). Truths are formalized to facilitate general understanding, and to avoid misunderstandings and distortions of the ancient truths which were always believed, e. g., the Hypostatic Union, Transubstantiation, etc., are formulated in new, sharply defined concepts. Truths which formerly were only implicitly believed are expressly proposed for belief. Also questions formerly disputed are explained and decided, and heretical propositions are condemned (theological censures). 15p7

Infallibility does not mean: 1) freedom from error in merely natural science (The Church can, however, forbid her members to discuss a matter if it seriously affects their service of God.); 2) sinless ness (impeccability) on the part of the Pope, bishops, etc.; 3) the impossibility of the Pope's erring on matters of faith or morals, in his private capacity (private opinions or utterances). 6p176

Also with regard to doctrinal teaching of the Church it must be noted that not all the assertions of the Teaching Authority of the Church on questions of Faith and morals are infallible and consequently irrevocable. Under this category would fall theological opinions of lesser grades of certainty called probable, more probable, well-founded (sententia probabilis, probabilior, bene fundata). Those which are regarded as being in agreement with the consciousness of the Faith of the Church are called pious opinions (sententia pia). The least degree of certainty is possessed by the tolerated opinion (opinio tolerata), which is only weakly founded, but which is tolerated by the Church. 15p10

Infallibility is not a personal prerogative, nor a reward for virtue, but rather a result of the assistance of the Holy Spirit as promised by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. "And I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Paraclete, that He may abide with you forever, the Spirit of truth ... He will teach you all things, and bring all things to your mind, whatsoever I shall have said to you." (Jn 14:16,26).

7.9: What Modernism Is and Is Not

The clear teaching of Holy Writ and Tradition is that after Christ, and the Apostles who proclaimed the message of Christ, no further Revelation containing new truths will be made. Christ was the fulfillment of the Law of the Old Testament (Mt 5:17,21), and the absolute teacher of humanity (Mt 23:10: "One is your master, Christ"; cf. Mt 28:20). The Apostles saw in Christ: "the coming of the fullness of time" (Gal 4:4) and regarded as their task the preservation, integral and unfalsified, of the heritage of Faith entrusted to them by Christ (1Tim 6:14; 6:20; 2Tim 1:14; 2:2; 3: 14). The Fathers indignantly repudiated the claim of the heretics to possess secret doctrines or new Revelations of the Holy Spirit. St. Irenaeus (Adv. haer III, I; IV 35, 8), and Tertullian (De praesc. 21) stress, against the Gnostics, that the full truth of Revelation is contained in the doctrine of the Apostles which is preserved unfalsified through the uninterrupted succession of the bishops. 15p7

The tenets and numerous followers of Modernism and Neo-Modernism promote the fallacy that the Church must conform to the norms of the world as they change with the whims of the masses of people through time. Whereas Christ and His divinely guided Church have always told us that the world must conform to the Church and be guided on faith and morals by the Church (Mt 16:17-19; 18:17; Mk 16:15-16; Lk 10:16; Acts 20:28; 2Cor 5:20).

It is important to note and realize the difference between doctrines of faith and morals of our religion and moral application laws, disciplinary laws, and rubrical laws of the Church. The doctrines of faith and morals cannot change since they are the fundamental laws of the one immutable infinite God either from the laws of nature or His revealed laws. Thus, even the Church cannot change the laws of God themselves. The Church can never change them to make it all right, for example, to steal, or to lie. 16pl33 But all of God's laws and revealed truths have been turned over by Christ to His Church that He left us to guard and protect and infallibly interpret for us and all souls till the end of time. The Church is not only the guardian and teacher of the commandments, but also fulfilling its commission given by Christ, makes rules and precepts to guide its members, helping them to live this present life in such a way that it will best prepare them for the next.

But the application of the doctrines of faith and morals can and should be changed by the Church due to the different circumstances of place and time. These applications of immutable doctrines are Church laws which the Church has the full right and power from Christ to change and bind under pain of sin. Jesus Christ said to the Apostles, the first bishops of His Church: "Whatsoever you shall bind upon earth, shall be bound also in heaven; and whatsoever you shall loose upon earth, shall be loosed also in heaven." (Mt 18:18). Examples of these changeable Church laws include the Canon laws, the six Precepts of the Church, etc.

Two other basic categories of the changeable Church laws are those concerning discipline and rubrics. Examples of these would not only include many laws from canon law and the precepts of the Church but also laws regarding how the sacraments are to be administered etc. Thus, the Church has the full right, power, and obligation from Christ to change the external ceremonies which have been added by the Church in administering the sacraments when she sees fit due to changing times and circumstances. The Church also has the power to enforce all of these laws under pain of sin or even excommunication or theological censures as well as by using her hierarchical structure.

Thus it is most important to realize that changes by the Holy Catholic Church of her Church laws is not modernism but rather the prudent use of her powers as Christ's visible Church on earth. Therefore it is not modernism for the Church to change from the Tridentine Latin Mass to the Novis Ordo or to change the external ceremonies of the rites of Baptism, Reconciliation, Sacrament of the Sick, or any of the other external ceremonies of the other sacraments which have been added by the Church since these ceremonies are not essential to the sacrament but are for our edification. It is also not modernism (although it may be imprudent) for an individual priest to remove the statues from his church or to promote Holy Communion in the hand.

It is modernism though to believe or promote the idea that religion or doctrine evolve to new truths as pointed out above. Pope St. Plus X was the great Pope among others who courageously and steadfastly fought against this subtle but very powerful satanic disease within the Church especially today in our modernistic rebellious age. He termed it as the basis and "synthesis of all heresies" (See the decree 'Lamentabili' (1907) and the encyclical 'Pascendi' (1907) as well as the 'Oath Against Modernism’ (1910) for all clergy to be advanced to major orders. 18p36

7.10: The Greatest and Grandest Institution

Thus, every Catholic, either from birth or by conversion, should be very thankful for such a precious treasure, their faith, bought and paid for by the Son of God Himself. Jesus had on one occasion compared the Church to a mustard seed - the smallest of seeds that grows into a large herb (Mt 13:31-32). The Church has, in truth, grown in the course of the ages into an immense organization. It embraces over 500,000,000 members and is constantly growing. It is the greatest and grandest institution the world has ever known.

7.11: The Four Marks of Our Greatest Treasure

Christ imprinted upon His Church certain marks by which it could be recognized by all men. These marks are four: ONE (1Cor 10:17; Eph 4:4-6; Jn 17:11; 10:16; Rom 12:4-5; Cant 6:8; always visible: Mt 5:14; Mich 4:1-2; Is 2:2-3), HOLY (Mt 7:15-20; Titus 2:13-14; lJn 3:5; Jn 17:17-21), CATHOLIC (Mk 16:15-16; Mt 28:19-20; 24:14; Acts 1:8; Rom 10:17-18; Ps 21:28; Is 49:6) and APOSTOLIC (Eph 2: 19-20; Mt 16:17-19; 2Cor 5:20) which belong to the Catholic Church alone. They are God's fingerprints distinguishing His Church from all the churches founded by men. No truth seeker with an open mind can fail to see these marks which will guide him safely into the Mother Church of Christendom.

7.12: Our Glorious Heritage

We should be very proud to be a member of the only Church that is one in its doctrine, its Baptism, its Sacrifice (the Mass), its sacraments, and its government under one visible head, the Pope. We should rejoice that we are members of the Church whose Founder is all-holy - a Church whose doctrines are holy and lead to a holy life. Many thousands of its members, by the practice of self-denial and self-mastery, have attained great sanctity and holiness. Their example is worthy of our imitation. We should be grateful, indeed, that the Church of which we are members teaches all nations all revealed truths at all times, and is therefore universal. Her priests and bishops have gone to all parts of the earth to teach, to offer the Holy unbloody Sacrifice of Christ on Calvary (the Mass), and to administer the sacraments. And we should also be thankful that the Church to which we belong can trace its origin back to the times of the Apostles. No other church can boast of this. The Catholic Church is governed by the lawful successors of St. Peter who can claim an unbroken succession from the first to the present Pope. The Catholic Church, guided by the Holy Spirit, teaches the same truths that were taught to the Apostles by Christ Himself. Therefore, nothing should keep us from being a true and faithful member of this glorious heritage - the Catholic Church!

7.13: "The Gates of Hell Shall Not Prevail" - Indefectibility

The Church has not been without her enemies: nor shall she ever be. Therefore be on your guard against false propaganda that is so common in the world today. Emperors, kings, princes, heretics, and dictators have also in the past risen up against her and her teachings. These have in turn changed to dust from whence they came, but the Church still marches on. Many historians have not given a true picture of the history of the Church. No institution should be judged by some of its traitorous members. The Church is a divine organization. Her doctrines, sacraments, morality, and Founder are beyond the criticisms of the human mind and tongue.

At various times in Church history, many powerful groups have tried to subjugate and control the Episcopal sees and even the Papacy and the entire Church herself. The Roman emperors tried, the barbarians tried, ambitious princes and opposing Roman families tried during the "Iron Age of the Papacy" (886-1046), the Moslems tried, Napoleon tried, King Victor Emmanuel II tried, Hitler tried, and the Communists and other anti-God groups are still trying. Numerous other groups who were not able to subjugate or control the Church as they would have like to, broke away from the Church either through heresy by obstinately denying one or more truths of divine revelation or by schism which signifies a separation from the Catholic Church, or a division of the outward Unity of the Church, without affecting the interior Unity of faith and doctrine. Schism, however, as history shows, commonly leads to heresy. 17p93 As Christ said of Himself which can be so admirably applied to His Mystical Body the Church, "I am the Vine; you the branches: he that abides in Me, and I in him, the same bears much fruit: for without Me you can do nothing. If any one abide not in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither, and they shall gather him up, and cast him into the fire, and he burns." (Jn 15: 5-6)

Thus, even a small but proud or ignorant group of people who put themselves above the Church by picking and choosing what they will believe or follow from the Catholic Church according to their subjective 'infallible' or 'heavenly' norms will wither and die just as a branch separated from the vine if they do not repent and amend their ways and thinking and then reunite themselves to the source of all truths and graces from God - the Mystical Bride of Christ, the Church.

It is a sad fact that usually intellectual pride hardens the heart as well as the head. An example of this is that the heresiarch Berengarius who attacked the Real Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist (condemned 1050) is the only known heretical bishop who returned to the true Faith and spent his last years doing penance. 6p314

7.14: Unconditional Surrender

It is good to note that heresies and schisms in Church history did not come about all of a sudden. There were always various factors involved that developed in time. Besides the unwillingness to follow the teachings and guidance of Holy Mother Church, one of the major reasons for schism and heresy was ignorance, both culpable and non-culpable, about the Catholic faith, especially about what the Church is. The schismatics generally did not know what the three attributes and the four marks of the Church were or meant. Thus, when they left the Church, the Vine and source of all life, they did not miss her too much because they never developed a prudent appreciation of the Church based on solid reasonable truth from their catechisms. The leaders of some of the schismatic groups, which attempted to reunify with the Church, often would only go as far as they were willing to as the negotiations progressed. In other words, these lukewarm or stubborn schismatic leaders desired to reunite to the Vine due to their weak but bothered consciences but only under their terms and not the terms presented to them by the Church through her representatives which was normally the seated local ordinary who then corresponded with Rome. The leaders and followers of the schismatic or heretical groups who remained outside of the Church did not possess enough love or knowledge of Holy Mother Church and the importance of being united to her. Thus, they were unwilling to give up what ever was holding them back from unconditional surrender to our gentle but firm mother on earth, the Church.

It is also interesting to note that many schismatic or heretical branches which broke away from the Vine understood the meaning, at least for a while of the word apostolic. Thus, many such renegade branches who had a valid bishop within their group (usually the leader), carefully maintained their valid and documented apostolic succession in order to retain valid orders and thus valid sacraments. These types of groups, while admitting the validity and necessity of valid orders obtained from an apostolic succession all the way back to the apostles, who received their sacramental powers from Christ, denied one of the three major divine attributes of Christ's Church, authority. Christ gave the Apostles, and thus the Church, the power and authority to infallibly teach, to rule, and to sanctify all willing men to the end of time. Almost invariably, a reform movement within a heretical group did not result in bringing most of the group into the Church but at least it brought the many of good will who were willing to accept truth when it was shown to them. A good example of this was the Oxford Movement in England, lead by John Henry, later Cardinal Newnan, within the heretical group called Anglicanism which began as a schism under Henry VIII (1534) but became a heresy under his successor Edward VI.

7.15: Indefectibility

The attribute of the church of perpetuity or indefectibility means that the Church, as Christ established it, will last until the end of time.

We can prove the perpetuity of the Church from Scripture. Christ promised, you remember, that He would build His Church upon a rock and that the gates of hell should not prevail against it (Mt 16: 18). Then there are those other words which Jesus spoke, after His Resurrection, when He bade His Apostles to go forth and preach, adding: "Behold, I am with you all days, even unto the consummation of the world." (Mt 28:20)

The Church then is indefectible. As Pope Pius IX said in August of 1870, when the troops of the Italian King were at the walls of Rome, sixty thousand strong, and the Papacy was on the eve of being stripped of its temporal power: "Remember, the Catholic Church is immortal!" Yes, she is immortal. The ship of the Church will sail steadfastly, without shipwreck to herself, no matter what storms may rage or rocks and reefs lie in wait. She may loose her temporal power and even have to hide in subterranean catacombs but she will last until the end of time as Christ established her. Without losing sight of her purpose and goal, down through the ages will she go, until having passed through her militant career, she shall be taken up into the joys of the saints in heaven, and be no longer militant but triumphant in heaven.

7.16: The Communion of Saints

The union of the faithful on earth, the blessed in heaven, and the souls in purgatory, with Christ as their Head, is known as the communion of saints or the Mystical Body of Christ, the Church. Through the communion of saints the blessed in heaven can help the souls in purgatory and the faithful on earth by praying for them. The prayers of the blessed in heaven are always efficacious because they are always in accord with God's will (Tob 12:12; Apoc 8:3). The faithful on earth, through the communion of saints, should honor the blessed in heaven and pray to them since they are worthy of honor and, as friends of God, will help the faithful on earth (Ecclus 44:1). The faithful on earth, as members of the Mystical Body of Christ, can help one another by practicing supernatural charity, especially by performing the spiritual and corporal works of mercy (Mt 25:34-40; lTim 2:1; Js 5:16). The faithful on earth can also, through the communion of saints, relieve the sufferings of the souls in purgatory by prayer, fasting, and other good works, by indulgences, and by having Masses offered for them. "It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins" (2Machabees 12:46).

You are now a member of the Church Militant on earth and a prospective member of the Church Triumphant in heaven. If you die in the state of venial sin or without making sufficient atonement for your sins, you will temporarily belong to the Church Suffering in purgatory. Both Divine Tradition and Scripture affirm that God will render to every man according to his works: so that such as die in lesser sins shall not escape without punishment (Mt 12:32, 36; 5:25; 1Cor 3:13-15; Apoc 21:27; Lk 21:58-59; 1Pet 3:18-20; Js 3:2; Prov 24:16; 1Jn 1:8). Do not let the following words of Christ ever apply to you: "If any one abide not in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither and they shall gather him up, and cast him into the fire, and he burns" (Jn 15:6). Rather let it be said of you that you were a faithful member of the Mystical Body of which Christ is the Head. Then at the end of your life you may say with St. Paul, who became the greatest of the Apostles: "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith" (2Tim 4:7).

Ch. VIII: Link Between PR and the Church

2008-04-01T09:27:00.000-07:00

Chapter VIII

THE LINK BETWEEN PRIVATE REVELATION AND THE CHURCH

Private revelation along with all gifts from God are all part of and incorporated into the Mystical Body of Christ, the Church, the Bride of Christ. Private revelation is only one of the many minor charisms bestowed on the Church by the Holy Spirit. The Church unifies and coordinates all her charisms and graces from God to accomplish the will of her divine Spouse, that being to glorify God and to offer the means and way to salvation to all men who desire to be saved and are willing to cooperate with God's graces offered through His Church.

8.1: Normal Tensions Between the Prophetic Function and the Hierarchical Church

At various times in the history of the Church there has been oppositions and tensions, of greater or lesser degree, between the very different elements which comprise the Church. This is absolutely normal. Thus it is not surprising that the relationship between the prophetic function and the official priesthood should occasionally provoke conflict. This relationship already preoccupied the Church during the first centuries; but from the beginning the Church also resolved this problem by her life and her teaching which, although sometimes misunderstood, "must remain immutable because it concerns the essential structure of the Church." 1p242

"That teaching," writes Father Labourdetee, "is essentially this: in the Church of Christ, according to the consummated economy which is that of the fullness of time, the Spirit is before all communicated through the hierarchy. The great charism of truth is bestowed on the Episcopal body. The man of the Spirit, the 'pneumatologist,' the true prophet, the true 'gnostic,' is first and before all the bishops.... Once Revelation was consummated the Spirit did not withdraw; far otherwise, He has been given to the Church in a fullness and with a permanence never previously known. The Episcopal body united to the Pope, and the Pope personally, have the assurance of this charism of truth. And the infallible proposition of the revealed teaching is but the principal form of this assistance which is extended under various forms to the whole exercise of the Magisterium, of power of jurisdiction." 1p242

"But this fundamental doctrine must not make us overlook the fact that the spirit of prophecy, whose role is considerable in the Church, remains there also in a subordinate way. It is this spirit which animates the great strides forward, and the great renewals in the Church, sometimes in the most humble of souls. And under this form certainly the prophetic charism is in no way connected with the hierarchy, but is submitted to it. There is no period in the Church when this animation by the Spirit cannot be discerned. It is assuredly a charismatic movement which has extended devotion to the Sacred Heart throughout the whole Church, from the time of the revelations made to a little Visitandine... the Church is living; to live is to encounter new risks, it is to find oneself face to face with constantly changing circumstances, it is to feel the need to rise above the weight of all human aging. What is more, this life of the Church is not a 'human' life at the level of reason; it is a strictly supernatural life which God alone gives and which He alone can sustain; outside of the permanent institutions which substantially insure the maintenance and spread of the Church, He will always be there in His inspirations to revivify her, to guide her, whether in very humble circumstances which effectively concern a small number of souls, or, on the other hand, by starting a movement which will extend to the whole Church." 1p243

Here then is the solution in principle. If in fact there are conflicts between the prophetic function and the hierarchical power, this is due to a defective interpretation or application.

In the lives of true visionaries, who were to be counted among the finest sons of the Church, there have been moments when - due allowance being made - they found themselves confronting her, their Mother, as Christ confronted His Father when He said to Him: Why hast Thou forsaken Me? In this way they have been able to suffer not only for the Church but also through the Church - an exceptional suffering, temporary and extremely fruitful. 1p243

But these unusual oppositions allowed by Providence emphasized the importance of revelations. Besides, if the hierarchy show themselves reserved or even sometimes hostile with respect to revelations, this is really in order to protect them. The hierarchy is not the enemy of divine revelations: it is the enemy of men who falsify their transmission and the enemy of the devil. The hierarchy believes in the positive interventions of God in the world. But by vigorously eliminating false revelations it gives more weight to the true. 1p244

The attitude of Cure Peyramale of Lourdes was providential. His was an attitude often adopted by representatives of the hierarchy - rejection right up to the moment when enlightenment look place. But then this rejection was the holy protection of divine action against all adversaries. Thus the hierarchy has protected and defended revelations against theologians. The hierarchy has not only a teaching function but also a pastoral and sacerdotal responsibility. It judges, not from one particular point of view, but by taking the whole matter into consideration. In establishing the great benefit which revelations bring to the faithful it does not reject them a priori despite the dangers they involve. lp244

8.2: Private Revelation - Direction in a Specific Way

Throughout the ages of the Church, revelations and the prophetic gifts have been given to both the laity and the hierarchy as a divine stimulus or initiative in a particular circumstance to achieve greater prayer and sacrifice often by way of a particular devotion. When St. Peter announced to the first gathering of Christians the realization of the prophecy of Joel: "I will pour out 'my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy..." he was applying this to the whole Church - to men and women in all walks of life, old people and young people. He certainly intended to say that in the Messianic epoch the Spirit of God would manifest Itself in any member of the Church; no one was excluded in advance from the gift of prophecy or of visions, members of the hierarchy any more than anyone else.

In fact, the Apostles were also prophets. Members of the hierarchy may be both the subjects of revelations and the people for whom the revelations are intended. St. Peter and St. Paul received heavenly revelations as did St. Ignatius of Antioch and St. Polycarp. And there is nothing to prevent members of the hierarchy from receiving divine communications today. 1p245

It was partially through the stimulation of the revelations to Sister Marie of the Divine Heart, superior of the convent of the Good Shepherd at Oporto, that Pope Leo XIII consecrated the whole world to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. A few weeks after the memorable day of the consecration, on July 21, 1899, the Prefect of the Sacred Congregation addressed to all the bishops in the name of the Sovereign Pontiff a pressing invitation to spread devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, through confraternities, the month of the Sacred Heart, and the practice of making First Fridays. 1p247

As with the consecration to the Sacred Heart, the consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary also was accomplished under the influence of particular revelations. On December 8, 1942, twentyfive years after the events at Fatima, Pius XII, in the Basilica of St. Peter, officially consecrated the human race to the Heart of Mary: "Finally, as the Church and the whole human race were consecrated to the Heart of Your Jesus," proclaimed the Pope, terminating the consecration, "we also consecrate ourselves forever to you, O Immaculate Heart, O our Mother and Queen of the world" (A.A.S., 34 (1942) 346). lp248

It is enough to have only a very minor knowledge of the occurrences of Fatima and the attitude of the supreme hierarchy in regard to them to discover their dicisive influence upon the acts of Pius XII which we have mentioned. The Pope would not have acted in this way, or at least not at that time, if there had been no revelations at Fatima. 1p248

It is true that the consecrations of Leo XIII and Pius XII make no mention of revelations or apparitions. They avoid even mentioning the revelations as a reason for or an occasional cause of their actions. This was entirely to be expected. These actions must be justified by the great sources of Faith. But the fact that they were performed by the Church at a given moment in her history, in a particular situation of her life in order to direct her in a specific way, shows the decisive importance of revelations. Here is realized their meaning, namely, the design of God in the history of the Church or of man individually. lp248

8.3: The Attitude of the Church Toward Revelation Before the Nineteenth Century

As was discussed in the chapter on "Criteria of Discernment", the attitude of the Church toward a particular private revelation is a very important criteria, in fact a decisive criterion of discernment. To protect the faithful and to guide them on their journey to eternal happiness through the turbulous waters of life, Holy Mother Church has at various times in her history adopted varing degrees of reserve or cautiousness in regards to private revelation depending on the overall situation and needs of the whole Mystical Body of Christ.

As we have seen, the early Church was very tolerant and even encouraging toward the prophetic charism within the Church as shown by Holy Scripture and the early Fathers. Even with the ravages of Montanism, the Church prudently did not over-react by dismissing all prophesy or private revelation. The guidance of the Church in this area is in the realm of discipline not faith and morals. Thus the Church has the full right, authority, and obligation to change her disciplinary laws when needed.

Even before the Church explicitly determined the scriptural canon in the fourth century, she began to distinguish between revelation to be read publicly in Church or only privately for the edification of the faithful. In an early writing called the 'Muratorian Fragment', we find a striking statement bearing on our subject. We read there: "We also accept revelations, but only those of John and of Peter. However, many among us do not wish for the latter to be read in the Church." And here is what the same document says of the 'Shepherd' of Hermas, which it mentions immediately after the Apocalypse: "It should be read, but not publicly in the church before the people." 1p182

In interpreting these texts one must be careful not to allow oneself to be too much influenced by the fact that the revelations of Peter and the 'Shepherd' of Hermas were later ranked among the apocrypha. The apocryphal idea at that time had several connotations. The term could, it is true, indicate a false scripture, but that was not to say that it was purely and simply false; it may have been so only in so far as it claimed to be canonical Scripture. Moreover, "apocryphal" could also signify secret. Apocryphal might simply be a writing which should not be read in public; its "secret" reading, that is to say, its private reading, was permitted. 1p183 etc.

The 'Muratorian Fragment', which is generally considered as a Roman document of the second century, proves that the Church admitted revelations which were non-canonical. Although the community at Rome knew that the 'Shepherd' of Hermas, a book interwoven with revelations, did not go back to the apostolic age, it nevertheless declared that it should be read.

St. Athanasius who expressed the same rule, explained why the reading of such books was recommended - it was for instruction and spiritual formation (cf. p. 49).

The Gelasian decree is even more precise in this matter. It distinguishes first of all the "accepted" writings from those which must be avoided. And among the accepted writings it classes those which today we call the canonical books as well as those of the first councils and the Fathers - "those which are accepted in the Catholic Church." It also adds the writings which the Roman Church declared acceptable (suscipi non prohibet).

With regard to the 'Acts of the Martyrs', which often mention revelations, the decree holds that these may be admired and highly venerated. But it also remarks that they are not read - publicly, we presume - in the church at Rome; for infidels and certain Christians could find them futile and ridiculous. It mentions accounts of the finding of the Cross and of the head of St. John the Baptist, accounts in which revelations play a decisive role. "These are," it observes, "new accounts which many Catholics read; but when they come into Catholic hands, let Catholics respect the advice of the Apostles: try all and keep what is good." 1p183

The decree neither approves nor condemns; it allows the reading of these accounts which fall far short of the documentation of the accounts of the great modern apparitions; everyone must judge with prudence.

It is inexact to say that in principle it is not the function of the Holy See to judge the authenticity of revelations. It is the Holy See which is by right the judge of their supernatural character. We have established in any case that it has made judgments in such matters.

Not only do the facts prove this, but the Church has even made an explicit pronouncement on the subject. In one of the early sessions of the Fifth Lateran Council (1512) we read "When there is a question of prophetic revelation the Pope alone is the judge". Later, at the eleventh session (1516) of the same council, the following rule was laid down: "We desire that henceforth when divine communications are reported and before they are published or preached to the people that they be generally and legally reserved to the examination of the Apostolic See. Only when there can be no delay and in urgent cases, should they be communicated to the Ordinary of the place. Let him examine them carefully with three or four learned and responsible counselors who later, at an opportune moment, may, on the responsibility of their consciences, give permission for them to be published." lpl84

The practice laid down by this degree of September 19, 1516, was modified by another of July 5, 1634: "The books which contain accounts of the miracles and the revelations of those who have died with a reputation for sanctity should be supported by the approval of the Ordinary of the place; the latter should summon a council of theologians and experts to examine them and advise him. Then he should send the case to the Holy See and await the reply." These decrees obviously hold good for revelations and miracles which have occurred in the lives of persons whose canonization is not contemplated and for cases where the circumstances do not permit awaiting the death of the person before coming to a judgment in the matter. lpl84

8.4: Attitude of the Church Toward Certain Apparitions of the Last Two Centuries

Let us now briefly consider a few of the details regarding the approval of the apparitions at La Salette and Lourdes. In regards to these two apparitions, the ecclesiastical authorities could not await the deaths of the visionaries, who were children, before pronouncing upon facts which, because of their worldwide repercussions, had to be decided upon as quickly as possible. lpl85 etc.

Some months after the event the Ordinary of the place organized, as he said in his pastoral letter of September 19, 1851, "a numerous commission, composed of responsible, pious and learned men who would maturely examine and discuss the fact of the apparition and its consequences." And indeed a big inquiry was made, and the details and difficulties of the event were studied. The consequences were also examined.

It was about these consequences first of all that the ecclesiastical authority had to make a decision. In particular there was the question of miracles; when the juridical inquiry was concluded, a large list of miracles was presented to the Ordinary of the place where the apparition occurred. The Ordinaries of the different dioceses of France pronounced a canonical judgment upon a miracle. After this official recognition of the miracles, the Bishop of Grenoble sent to Rome not only the whole dossier upon La Salette, but also a draft doctrinal decision. Having received an approving reply from the Prefect of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, Cardinal Lambruschini, dated October 7, 1851, in which he wrote: "Everything is going very well and the reading has left me nothing to desire..” the bishop published the pastoral letter of November 10, 1851.

The approving statement by the Bishop of Grenoble along with Bishop Laurence's statement concerning Lourdes can be found in the section "The Authority of the Church a Criteria of Discernment."

In both of these cases, Rome waited for the official conclusion and even doctrinal statement from the local ordinaries. Even after these statements were submitted as mentioned in chapter four, Rome's clear and restrained reply gave neither approval nor condemnation but simply a permissive attitude.

The attitude of the Apostolic See was more positive with respect to revelations in times when Christians were united before the Reformation as in the Middle Ages. In these latter centuries the Church has more and more adopted an attitude of prudent reserve. By this means she avoids certain attacks on the part of unbelievers and non-Catholics; at the same time she preserves her members from the danger of placing too much value upon these extraordinary graces at the expense of the ordinary great sources of divine life from the sacraments. The essential guarantees are, moreover, given by the bishops who pronounce doctrinal judgments in virtue of their membership in the magisterium of the Church.1p188

In the various testimonies from Rome about La Salette and Lourdes, the Holy See did not pass judgment upon the apparitions in question. It trusted implicitly or explicitly to the doctrinal judgment of the Ordinary of the place to whom it had given permission to pronounce in the matter. The Holy See mentioned the apparitions as certain facts because they had been declared to be such and duly established by the diocesan authority. The Sovereign Pontiffs also spoke in their commemorative encyclicals in an entirely affirmative way of certain facts which they did not intend thereby to cover with their own authority. They were relying upon data such as forms the basis for certitude of historical facts. 1p190

When the Holy See allows belief in this or that revelation it does not do so simply because data is available for proving the certitude of a particular historical fact. In affirming the fact of the revelation, the Holy See does not base this affirmation exclusively upon the human testimony advanced in its favor, but refers sometimes even explicitly to the canonical judgment of the Ordinary of the place. Something more than a purely natural factor is involved. Moreover, when we read the doctrinal judgments upon apparitions we note their grave tone, their occasional solemnity, and the bishops' insistence on prayer, such as the invocation of the Holy Spirit and of the Blessed Virgin. 1p191

8.5: Pastoral Ministry

The Church herself exercises a capital influence on the use of private revelation. It is she who guarantees that this use can be fruitful. Revelations are all the more fertile in so far as they obtain at least permissive approval of the hierarchy, since by this approval they more abundantly and more certainly influence the whole Church.1p255 The influence of the Church may make itself felt in a public or a private way. Normally it is the pastors of souls who first of all speak privately in the name of the Church; most frequently it is parish priests or spiritual directors who are involved, as for instance Father Peyramale in the case of Bernadette Soubirous and Father Aladel in the case of Catherine Laboure. Father Peyramale, who was not the confessor but the pastor of the visionary's parish, examined her privately, gave her orders and, so to speak, influenced the apparition itself. Humanly speaking, it was at the urging of M. Peyramale that the Blessed Virgin revealed her name. Father Aladel guided his penitent in complete secrecy, indicating to her the attitude to adopt in regard to the revelation she received. 1p267

Every action of the public ministry, must be in conformity with the requirements of the Church. The Church may approve or condemn such and such a revelation. Sometimes she imposes silence in regard to it in order to avoid injurious effects or the better to assure its fruits. However, the judgment which she pronounces upon a revelation is a decisive act and one which is made once and for all. Once this decision has been taken, the Church does not lose interest even though she has established the facts; nevertheless, her attitude will be expressed thenceforth at a different level - at the level of the pastoral ministry, of preaching. 1p269

The Christian truths, that is, truths about the Person of Christ and His work, as well as their practical consequences for living, are the object of preaching. It was Christ Himself who specified this object when He ordered His Apostles to bring "the Good News to every creature" (Mk 16:15). "Going therefore, teach ye all nations: baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you" (Mt 28:19-29). 1p271

Pope Plus IX warned against abuses of preaching: "It is Christ whom we preach, the holy dogmas of our religion, the precepts according to the teaching of the Catholic Church and of the Fathers." This is what must be preached, that is the true object of preaching, as the scholastics would say. Undoubtedly other matters slip into preaching, matters even of a profane kind such as historical facts, human experiences, scientific conclusions, human wisdom. But these matters are only means of illustrating the object. 1p270

In order to safeguard the infinitely precious revealed Truth, the Church has shown herself reserved right from the start. Thus she excluded the pseudo-gospels and the apocrypha from her preaching. And she saw very early the necessity to determine what beside the essential sources of the Christian life could be read in the churches and received by Christian people. 1p271

Guided by the Holy Spirit, the Church has varied her disciplines throughout the ages to meet the various needs of the faithful. Sometimes she has been more strict, sometimes less in regards to private revelation and their publications. In 1966 the Church repealed canons 1399 and 2318 thus making it easier for accounts of new private revelation to be transmitted to the faithful. But, as always, the Church has the right, the power, and the obligation to censure any book or publication at any time which it deems dangerous to the faith or morals of her children. Prior to 1966, accounts of revelations could not be published without ecclesiastical approval. Now such information can be published unless (or until) it is censured by the Church.

According to canon law, "The right and duty to prohibit books for a good reason rests with the Supreme Pontiff for the whole Church, with the particular councils for their territory, with the individual Ordinary for his diocese.

From the prohibition of inferior authorities recourse may be had to the Holy See, not however, 'in suspensivo' , which means that the prohibition must be obeyed until Rome has rescinded the orders of the inferior authority." (Canon 1395) 7p287

It is easy to see to what extent the good use and wide fruitfulness of revelations depend upon the Church. Once more we note the remarkable link between two realities - revelations and the Church.

8.6: Private Revelation Cannot Commit the Church

The divine laws, revealed once for everyone, are always imperative and apply in all cases; particular revelations are given only for a definite situation. But that God manifests Himself through them is a habitual form of the divine pastoral activity. This pastoral activity, it is true, manifests itself more or less sporadically; but these manifestations through which God acts directly and in a manner apparent to the senses upon men is an expression, normal although secondary, of His providence, always concerned for our eternal salvation. 1p232

It is because revelations have for their aim the direction of human activity in a particular situation that they are not addressed, that they cannot be addressed officially and directly, to the Church. Not referring directly to the ages of the economy of salvation, they cannot commit the Church or the divine and Catholic Faith which has for its object the unaltered mysteries, revealed once for all time. 1p232

What St. Thomas often emphasized in respect to acts or virtues applies to our case. The specification is made by the object, but the object is specified by the end.

Since revelation is made for the direction of life in a particular situation, its object, the divine will, is equally particular - it is not a universal law or truth. God sees, for example, a great danger or an abuse in the life of a person or in a section of the Church; He decides to remedy it by an intervention; but this ceases when the danger or the abuse is removed; the divine will is no longer the same. This proposition has been verified in the post-apostolic period, but it was also so in Old Testament times when the people of God, or at least a section of them, neglected the Laws of Yahweh. Then Yahweh made them feel His anger, but as soon as He saw their repentance, He relented and forgave. 1p233

8.7: Church Recognition of Apparitions After Mature Reflection

"The mission of prophecy is twofold: it is sent to establish the Faith and to correct morals; but (today) the Faith has already been founded, for the promises were fulfilled by Christ. But for that which is concerned with correcting morals, prophecy never will be lacking. " (St. Thomas) 1p225 Through private revelation, God continues to guide and exhort His people just as He did in the Old Testament and in the time of Christ. Through them, God communicates His designs to the world and to us. 1p240

Certain apparitions and the pilgrimages which they have occasioned have passed into the public domain. Not only has the Church, after mature reflection, recognized their supernatural origin, writes Abbe Lochet, not only has she approved the building of places of worship on the sites of these pilgrimages, but she takes part officially in them and she turns their message toward the whole Christian people. On many occasions bishops and popes, in their capacity of leaders of the Church, have themselves participated in the pilgrimage devotions. On many occasions the Pope, in documents addressed to the universal Church, has noted these facts and drawn from them lessons and commands which are addressed to all. 1p240

Finally and above all, the liturgy which Catholics follow throughout the year in celebrating the mysteries of God's people includes the most remarkable of these apparitions - those of Lourdes. It would be no exaggeration to say that in this and many other ways accepted by the universal devotion of the Christian people, these facts have passed into the life of the Church, or rather that the Church has recognized, through the prompting of the Spirit who guides her, that these facts are a part of her life. God's people recognize these events and celebrate then; these events belong to the people and to their history. 1p240

It serves no purpose and is even unworthy of a theologian to ignore these fruits of revelations or to wish to fight against these expressions of the life of the Church on account of abuses which may accompany them. It is the abuses which should be fought - the trivialities, the sentimentality, the affectations of artistic expression, the satisfaction of an inner religious need - and there are abuses worse than these. But the parable of the wheat and the cockle should be remembered. Until the end of time the devil is going to attack the Church and above all in those places and in those forms wherein she is manifesting her life. Christian prudence is required in a particular way because of the subject; that is why it is often recommended in writings dealing with revelations. So the text quoted from the encyclical 'Pascendi' begins thus: ". .. in this matter the Church uses the greatest prudence." 1p208 Pascal's saying applies to the manifestations of which we speak: "There is enough clarity to enlighten the elect and enough obscurity to keep them humble." 1p241

Ch. IX: Obedience To Lawful Superiors

2008-04-01T09:26:00.000-07:00

Chapter IX

OBEDIENCE TO LAWFUL SUPERIORS

9.1: In All That Is Not Sin

"Honor thy father and mother," is an expression of one of the most fundamental obligations under the heading of respect and obedience, and serves as a reminder that we have those obligations not only to parents but to all other representatives of God on earth. And in God's plan, there are not only obligations on the part of inferiors toward superiors but also corresponding duties on the part of those in authority. 12p53 etc.

Every person owes his parents obedience in all that is not sinful. Parents have on their side the duty to give proper good examples to their children, and are obliged to provide for the spiritual and temporal welfare of those under their charge.

All must respect and obey ecclesiastical superiors in their sphere. On their side, bishops, priests and all those holding ecclesiastical authority must conscientiously guide, govern and instruct those under them and take care of their spiritual welfare.

Citizens have obligations toward civil and temporal authorities, duties under the virtue of patriotism. Temporal authorities must rule justly and see to the natural rights of all.

Employees must fulfill their obligations reasonably, justly and conscientiously, while employers on their side must pay a just wage and treat their employees as their brothers with God as their common Father.

9.2: Humility - the True Visionary

After the perfect example of Christ, the saints in heaven were obedient to all lawful superiors in all things but sin. Obedience is not only one of the most necessary virtues but it is one of the greatest virtues due to its very close alliance with the virtue of humility.

No quality in the subject (visionary) of a revelation bears clearer testimony to his or her authenticity than does deep humility. All experts insist upon this virtue. Gerson puts it at the head of five criteria of discernment which he recommends in his treatise upon the distinction between true and false visions. It is not difficult to see why humility is so important for discernment. It is because the man who possesses it is not seeking his own glory: he seeks self-effacement. He is, as a consequence, excellently disposed to receive revelations without including therein anything of his own. Praising humility, Our Lord Himself declared: "He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory: but he that seeketh the glory of him that sent him, he is true, and there is no injustice in him" (Jn 7:18) lp164-166 etc.

Humility in the Christian sense is not a diminution of man. It has certainly a negative aspect: it takes away false greatness and glory from the person who seeks it. But it is above all the vision and the life of truth. The humble man sees himself as insignificant; he is so as the result of his relationship with God. That is why imposture or lying is not in such a man. That is why the heavenly Father reveals Himself to "little ones" (Lk 10:21). And history shows that God continues to reveal Himself to little ones, that is to say, most of the time to those who by nature and their own state are little - in any case only to those who recognize themselves as little ones, in short, to the humble.

For similar reasons obedience may constitute a criterion of discernment, or at least provide a strong support to someone already grounded in humility. It is, obviously, less intimately bound up with the revelation itself than is humility. It proves that the visionary, even in the spheres of will and of action, is not seeking his own interests. As Christ said, "I do not my own will but the will of my Father," so the fact that the visionary proves himself to be submissive to the authority which comes from God cannot help but be a testimony in favor of the revelation which he may have had. This obedience may not have been so strongly evidenced before the occurrence of the revelation as was the subject's humility, which predisposed him to receive that revelation, but displays itself effectively during and after this revelation has taken place.

In regard to this matter there is scarcely a more instructive case than the following which is related in the 'Autobiography of St. Teresa of Avila’ (chap. 29, 5-6) in which she recounts how the Lord manifested Himself to her. She considers the visions which she has received from Him as signal favors from God, and adds that she would not have wished to change one of them for all the riches and pleasures of the world. But since these visions became more and more frequent, her confessors began to see in them the work of the devil.

"They bade me," writes the saint, "to reject them every time by the sign of the cross and by derision, and the devil - for this was he, I was to be certain of that - would return no more; but it was necessary to banish all fear from my soul; besides, God would watch over me and would deliver me. Their command caused me very deep grief. As it was impossible for me to admit that these visions did not come from God, it was a fearful thing for me to obey. I could not wish, as I said before, that the visions should be withheld. But despite everything, I did as I was bidden....

"It was for me a most painful thing to make a show of contempt when I was being favored by the vision of the Lord. When I saw Him before me, if I were cut to pieces, I could not believe it was Satan.... It reminded me of the insults which the Jews had heaped upon Him, and so I prayed Him to forgive me, seeing that I did so in obedience to him who stood in His stead, and not to lay the blame on me, seeing that he was one of those whom He had placed as His ministers in His Church. He said to me, that I was not to distress myself, that I did well to obey; but that He would make them see the truth of the matter."

Here we are dealing with a matter of obedience to God in the mystery of Christ and of the Church. To offer opposition to the obedience owed to the Church is to set oneself upon the wrong path. Disobedience is a negative criterion of discernment and emphasized by theologians. And one of the reasons which bishops and other ecclesiastical authorities have given for condemning this or that apparition has been precisely the disobedience of the visionaries or even, of members of the Church who believed in the apparitions in question and disobeyed the instructions given upon the matter, as happened at Exquioga and on other occasions. 1p166

9.3: Obedience To The Church

The first thing to do with regard to revelations of every kind is to submit them to the Church and to await her decision. This is not always possible. For the revelations may require the visionary to take instantaneous action. When the Lady of the Grotto at Massabiele said to Bernadette: "Now, my child, go and drink and wash yourself in the spring," the visionary had not the time to reflect. She thought only of obeying at all costs, even to the extent of performing strange actions which endangered her good name. "As there was no spring at Massabielle," Bernadette told M. Extrade, "I went off toward the cave: the Lady called me back and gave me a sign with her finger repeating her order that I had to go in under the grotto. Seeing no water, I scratched the earth; a little came out of it and I drank." 1p264

But every time that it is possible, the first thought should be to inform fully a representative of the Church. Actually the history of revelations teaches us that visionaries of every type and their associates have understood that they were obliged to tell everything to the priests.

It goes without saying that one must in such cases follow the directives of the representatives of the Church. Even if these are opposed to the strongest convictions of the visionary, they must be obeyed. God will always arrange things for the best, and, if necessary, change the feelings of His representatives. We recall the case of St. Teresa - through obedience she was made to deride the visions of the Lord, and He told her that she had been perfectly right to act obediently. The Lord blesses all obedient people.

As a general procedure one must display prudence and reserve, at least as long as one is not fully enlightened either by personal experience or by the approval of the Church.

St. Teresa of Avila writes in the `Interior Castle' (VI, 3, note 3): "It is always necessary to distrust these things (the words which God addresses to the soul) until one understands their spirit. So I say that, at the beginning, the best thing to do is to fight them unceasingly. If they come from God this resistance will be a means of achieving further notable progress; the more one tests out these favors the more they increase; yes, that is truly the way with them."

To be detached in the matter of these graces - even of the best of then - is the first condition of enjoying them without peril. That is one of the reasons why St. John of the Cross declares that it is a sin to desire divine communications.

Father J.G. Arintero states that there is in this position "a certain exaggeration, or a dangerous confusion": it is not illicit, he says, to desire them, if one does so solely as a means of getting to know God better and to love Him more and to increase in ourselves a horror of the spirit of the world.

The visionaries use their privileges well if they are and remain humble. Humility, more than any other virtue, draws down God's graces; and here in particular it helps to avoid the dangers of illusion and of abuse. "If we are humble the vision, should it be the work of the devil, will not do us any harm; if, on the other hand, we are not humble, the vision, should it have God for its Author, will not produce any good fruit in us. Our Lord in His mercy wishes to manifest Himself to a soul so that it may know Him and love Him more. He discloses to it some of His secrets or He accords it some graces or special favors. But if the soul, I repeat this, considering that which should make it wholly abashed and aware, in its lowliness, of how unworthy it is to receive such a favor, thinks itself immediately a saint, if it seems to it that this grace is the reward of some service it has rendered, it is evident that the great benefit which it should derive from the vision will be converted to evil" (Foundations, VIII, 3-4). 1p265

9.4: Different Realms of Authority

It is good for us to realize that a true visionary or mystic is a normal person like you or I which God has chosen to use as an instrument or a channel of communication to man. Almost invariably, a true mystic has reached a high degree of holiness already before the, extraordinary communication from God.

Certainly we should pay heed to private revelations that have been investigated by the Church and at least implicitly approved or to private revelations that we ourselves have logically discerned to the best of our ability as being apparently from heaven even though the Church has not been able to investigate it yet. We should be very grateful to God for mercifully communicating to us in this extraordinary way through private revelation to help us. But just as the prophets of the Old Testament or an advisor to a certain group with no official jurisdiction or power of jurisdiction over others, a mystic or visionary, has no more divinely given authority over other people (besides his children) than any other human being does. This is one of the basic reasons why no one is bound or ever will be bound under pain of sin to believe and accept any or all private revelation. But parents, ecclesiastical superiors, and civil and temporal authorities do have divinely given authority over those in their respective charge. To out rightly disobey an explicit command within their jurisdiction of a lawful superior would be materially sinful; mortal or venial depending on the intention and circumstances.

Thus, if a mystic or visionary or one of his followers disobeys or disregards a valid ecclesiastical superior's command within his proper jurisdiction, even if the command seems imprudent or unjust, the disobedience would be sinful. The same conclusion would follow if a son disobeyed or willfully disregarded his father's command, which was not sinful, and within his naturally God-given broad jurisdiction. This juridical set up proceeds not only from God's revealed supernatural law but also from the natural law of God who created all things including us and the world we live in. Heaven may prudently and tactfully point out some basic abuses through a mystic which reflect on lawful authority, but heaven will never advocate unlawful disobedience to a lawfully seated authority since it was heaven who gave the valid authority to the person to begin with. This would upset and contradict the whole natural and supernatural order established by God Himself! Obedience in all things but sin! Thus, since we were made by the one true God, it makes sense that without this natural set-up of various lawful authorities each with their own respective realm of jurisdiction, our world and all its different societies would be in complete and total chaos. The rule would be "survival of the fittest" or "the stronger shall conquer". There would be no respect of rights or human dignity or God and His Laws since due to Original Sin, man is basically selfish and prone to laziness, pride and rebellion.

9.5: The Pit of Cynical Self-Deception

But one of the most self devastating talents of rebellious man is the art of making rationalizations, excuses and exceptions for himself even though he subjectively thinks he is objective. What a deep pit of blind and proud self deception! Who can help such a one or such a group all stampeding in the name of God or Mary or holiness in the same perilous direction ironically away from God and His representatives? It is so easy and such a strong human temptation and tendency to seek to observe and dwell on the faults and abuses of a lawful superior. After dwelling on these so-called faults and abuses of a superior over a period of time along with listening to and hearing support from our agreeable peers and (busy-body?) 'friends', is it any wonder that when we receive a hard and disagreeable command from this superior that we are able to easily disregard and subjectively justify disobedience to such a command? It would be very difficult for two sons to obey a hard or perhaps even an easy command from their father whom they had so frequently undermined and degraded in their own minds by idle talk about what they determined as the faults and abuses of their father. In the same way, what are the logical consequences of imprudent and frequent derogatory detraction or calumny about a priest, or a seated bishop or the Pope or even an organization such as a government or the Holy Catholic Church herself?

9.6: Destructive Propaganda

How did the communists undermine and effectively destroy the trust and confidence of the Vietnamese and other peoples in their friendly ally, the U.S. government? They promoted the idea with massive propaganda that the Americans were imperialists and only wanted to control and take over their country. How do the Communists attempt to convince their millions of enslaved citizens that their government and economic system is the best? By denying to them the truth and facts about the outside world along with massive brainwashing type propaganda. What is one of the basic ways of destroying the USA from within? By massive doses on the mass media of detraction and calumny about our government officials and our inspired constitution itself and the virtue of patriotism. We may say that we do not like anti-patriotic demonstrations against our country but are we guilty of undermining some other lawful authority or organization? What is one of the most powerful ways of greatly undermining the effectiveness of our great divine gift and only infallible guide on earth, our Holy Mother the Church? By public and private calumny and detraction directed toward the various facets of the Church herself but most especially toward Christ's lawful and direct representatives on earth the Pope, bishops, priests and all lawful Church authorities and superiors.

But one might prudently and justifiably ask, "I realize the great damage done by undermining lawful authority, but when and how should one prudently speak up about seemingly dangerous or sinful abuses and policies of lawful authority?"

9.7: Prudent Action of a Son

Let us again return to and examine the basic divinely structured unit of the family in order to better understand the prudent path or safeguards to take regarding the similar and parallel structured of, for example, a government or even the entire Catholic Church. If an imprudent father encourages one of his sons to read and fill his mind with pornographic material, how should a prudent son handle the situation? When talking to his brother, should not the prudent brother do all he can in the line of charity to get his brother not to accept and read the destructive material and yet at the same time not undermine the forth commandment in any way? Should the prudent son immediately resort to blatant defamation of his father in order to convince his brother of the truth of this evil or should he do all he can to solve the problem including privately admonishing his father in charity and humility and yet instill into his brother a prudent respect for the office of fatherhood or parenthood? There is a point when the prudent son would have to speak out against his father, but what should be done first and in what manner in order to cause the least amount of scandal or deterioration of the God-given authority and dignity of his father and authority in general in the eyes of himself and his brothers and sisters.

Should not a prudent teacher support his fellow teachers on the staff when talking with complaining students? Or should he take sides with the students and point out many faults and abuses of a particular fellow teacher? Would not the vast majority of students be delighted to acquire the defamatory support of a teacher especially since fallen human nature likes to gather fellow human support especially from some type of authority for their unwarranted or even warranted complaints? "After all, this teacher gives us too much homework, he grades hard, he has a weird personality and he doesn't care to see our side of the coin!"

If students spend much time knocking teachers in conversation, it can become more difficult for them to apply themselves eagerly to their class work to be able to get a lot out of their classes since they have allowed themselves to "down" or undermine their teachers or other authority in their own minds and attitudes. It is human nature to want to be critical or cynical. Due to pride, we tend to want to down others to seemingly boost ourselves especially if there is some irritation from some God-given authority such as a parent, teacher, priest or bishop. Subconsciously, we feel if we can gang up against such an authority (figure) by getting others to agree with us (since we are not man enough to think and stand alone on our own thought out convictions), then it is easier to rationalize prudence away and convince ourselves that we are right and justified for our degrading and undermining an authority. God does not go by "majority rules" or by numbers, but by what is right or wrong.

9.8: Fundamental Imprudence Within a Family

Consider also the damage done to a child whose Dad or Mom take the side of their complaining child against some authority figure such as a teacher (or a police officer) without talking to the teacher first and getting all the facts and explanations. Even if the teacher also seems imprudent in some areas in the opinion of the parent, would it not be normally damaging to the child for the parent to take sides with the child or defame the teacher (or police officer) in front of the child? Most children (and adults) would prefer to make their life easier, even when imprudent, and avoid "taking the wrap" for their own mistakes and sins. If children can manipulate and enlist human support especially from those in authority for their imprudent desires or actions, they tend to feel justified and can more easily disregard their weakened conscience. This happens frequently within a family in which a spoiled selfish child attempts to manipulate one or both of his (unwise?) parents using "guilt trips" and other manipulations or attempts to pit the parents against each other in order to achieve his selfish egotistical or lazy whims. Even if the child turned out to be totally justified in his complaint, the prudent parent should try to solve the problem with the teacher or within the school system among adults rather than risking hurting the good and industrious attitude of his child by forming a "scapegoat" type attitude or habit. When the child is older and mature enough, then the parents could explain to the child in a prudent way the facts of life regarding good and bad authority figures.

9.9: Authority Destroying Authority

Another example of undermining or destroying the necessary structure of authority could be caused by the superior himself by not supporting the superiors under him. An example of this would be if a principal of a school ignored a report from a teacher about a delinquent student and then sided with the delinquent child due to favoritism or some other unfounded motive. Another example of this would be if an owner of a business sided with an irresponsible employee rather than his foreman for unfounded or imprudent reasons. Or how about a father imprudently taking the side of his son over his wife? In these examples, we can see that the student would tend to always run to the principal when the student did not like doing what the teacher asked him to do and thus strip the necessary disciplinary power away from the teacher rendering the teacher ineffective and powerless to enforce his necessary class rules etc. This would likewise be true with the business and family example also. This imprudent action of such superiors very effectively undermines or even destroys the very necessary structure of the organization.

What would happen to the Church if the Pope imprudently supported or gave more credence to the words of priests under a bishop rather than to his seated bishops? What would happen to a diocese if a seated bishop supported and gave more credence to the arguments of laymen rather than to his priests? The bishops around the world are, in a very real sense, an extension of the Pope's jurisdiction while the priests are an extension of their bishop's jurisdiction under the Pope. When one imprudently attacks or criticizes a priest or a bishop, he is also attacking and criticizing the Pope, the visible head of the Mystical Body of Christ, the Church. This is why one of the great and unique marks of the Church is oneness or unity. It is incompatible to seek (or mouth) unity and yet undermine the true unity of the same Church by defamation of Church members through detraction, calumny, disobedience, and using imprudent self styled procedures to try to "impeach" a priest or bishop.

9.10: St. Thomas and Fraternal Correction

St. Thomas tells us that fraternal correction is the spiritual alms deed of reproving a sinner; it is an act of charity. 3p209 etc.

Sometimes we are under obligation of giving fraternal correction. This is always so when a discreet word of ours could lead a grievous sinner to amend his ways.

Correction as an act of justice is the duty of those whose place and station require them to direct others spiritually. Correction as an act of charity is a warning properly given on due occasion by anyone who can prudently prevent sin or cause a sinner to repent and amend.

Fraternal correction can be given by anyone to any other person, be that person's place high or low. Indeed, sometimes conditions make it the duty of a subject to correct his superior. Yet correction must always be given with prudence and discretion, and never with insolence. 3p209

St. Thomas tells us: " A subject is not competent to administer to his prelate the correction which is an act of justice through the coercive nature of punishment: but the fraternal correction which is an act of charity is within the competency of everyone in respect of any person towards whom he is bound by charity, provided there be something in that person which requires correction.... Since, however, a virtuous act needs to be moderated by due circumstances, it follows that when a subject corrects his prelate, he ought to do so in a becoming manner, not with imprudence and harshness, but with gentleness and respect. Hence the Apostle says (1Tim 5:1): "An ancient man rebuke not, but entreat him as a father". Wherefore Dionysius finds fault with the monk Demophilus (Ep. 8), for rebuking a priest with insolence, by striking and turning him out of the Church."

"It would seem that a subject touches his prelate inordinately when he upbraids him with insolence, as also when he speaks ill of him: and this is signified by God's condemnation of those who touched the mount and the ark" (signifying our prelates - Ex 19:12).

One who is not an equal can reprove privately and respectfully. Hence the Apostle in writing to the Colossians (4:17) tells them to admonish their prelate: "Say to Archippus: Fulfill thy ministry." It must be observed, however, that if the faith were endangered, a subject ought to rebuke his prelate even publicly. Hence Paul, who was Peter's subject, rebuked him in public, on account of the imminent danger of scandal concerning faith, and, as the gloss of Augustine says on Gal 2:11, "Peter gave an example to superiors, that if at any time they should happen to stray from the straight path, they should not disdain to be reproved by their subjects." 4p1336

One sinner cannot justly rebuke another in such a way that his own sin seems less to be condemned than that of the person he rebukes. Yet, if the thing be done humbly, one sinner may correct another, even though he condemns himself at the same time. The good thief at the Crucifixion humbly acknowledged his own sin as he rebuked the bad thief for upbraiding Christ. 3p209

Fraternal correction, to deserve the name, must be an act of charity, not of officiousness, or meddling, or pride, or hypocrisy. It is to be given in the spirit of loving friendship in God. And when such correction is necessary, those bound to administer it, by reason either of justice or of charity, are not to refrain from it for fear that the person corrected may be angry or resentful, or may be worse in conduct because of what is said to him in correction. 3p209

Certainly, fraternal correction is always to be given in a manner befitting the exercise of charity. It is to be given privately at least, at first. Some evils may call for public denunciation, but private admonition should be given first. Sacred Scripture directs that this course be taken. (See Mt 18:15) 3p209

After private admonition has proved fruitless, the sinner should be corrected before "one or two more" prudent witnesses, and thus every opportunity should be given him to amend without suffering public dishonor. 3p210

Catholic moral theology tells us that "revelations about public officials or candidates for public office are lawful when the public good calls for them (e.g., when a man has used corrupt practices in order to be elected, or when he is incompetent, or when he has been guilty of malfeasance in office), and the conditions of the previous paragraph are observed." 19p246

"These revelations are unlawful when the public good suffers from them (e.g., when the safety or dignity of government), or when the due conditions are not observed (e.g., when one resorts to personalities about a deserving public official, or practices muckraking because of mere prejudice or partisanship). The law permits fair comment on public persons or works, but it also grants an action for criticism that contains unfair aspersions of personal character or unjust accusations about public conduct." 19p246

9.11: Danger of (Extreme) Traditional Groups

Thus we can see that we must be very careful with respect to the eighth commandment of God especially regarding lawful authority due to the great probability of also seriously undermining the observance of the fourth commandment. It is fine and prudent to talk about faults and abuses of public officials and candidates for public office for the proper reason and in the proper non-destructive circumstances and context as discussed above. But we as adults may presumptuously think that there is no harm done by gossiping to our neighbor about the faults and abuses of some one in authority, such as a priest or a bishop; we must consider the awesome power of good and bad propaganda. Even if we mouth our love of God and country but we tend to only listen to and talk about the faults and abuses of civil and Church officials at the wrong time and in the wrong circumstances and with the wrong people, it is not too far down the road that we could very easily loose our confidence in our great country and our precious and delicate faith in our only infallible and indefectible authority on earth, the Holy Catholic Church. This may seem impossible but if we only listen to talk about the bad side, even if seemingly true, or listen to talk that is unsubstantiated rumors even from the mass media or speculations of idle gossip about so-called "traitorous" bishops and heretical cardinals or “Black Popes", or supposed "modernist" or "liberals" is it any wonder that there are numerous disjoint (traditional and extreme traditional) groups who boastfully refer to themselves as the last "last remnant" and the salvation of the Church and claim that we have had no valid Pope since Plus XII and that the 'Novis Ordo' is invalid and sinful to attend?

It is a cop out to label a person "bad" from a little (read or hear-say?) information and then interpret everything he does in our own personal infallible assessment of the person. He's a Communist of a bad bishop or a bad group etc. It seems that most of the members in these hypocritical traditional groups tend to do this to each other. People who treat us bad must be bad, but what about the plank in our own eye? There is a tendency in traditional groups to observe and self righteously judge "extreme traditional” groups so that they can justify and prove (?) that their "traditional" group is not guilty of the extremes and abuses of the "other guys". But are the members of "traditional" groups able to deductively and logically analyze the plank in their own eyes to see if they also are guilty of tearing down the Body of Christ by self righteously defaming or calumniating the liberal clergy as well as their close kins, the "extreme traditionalists"? The traditionalists accuse the liberals of not extending Christian charity and the true spirit of ecumenism toward them. But are they understanding, kind, or ecumenical toward the liberals, the "extreme traditionalists" or anyone not in their group or cult? Every person is not all bad or not all good etc. We keep looking for that perfect person (at least as holy as we are) or priest or bishop or friend. As we get to know a person well, the more we see irksome defects. We tend to also label large organizations as all bad or all good and yet moral theology and basic common sense tell us that there are varying degrees of guilt or innocence due to differences in circumstances, intention, habits, background knowledge, grace, etc. Sometimes we even might tend to think that evil forces have complete control of the world. But we must remember that no one has control over each person's free will except the person himself if he works at it. Satan himself does not have complete control of his close followers and cohorts because they can always fluctuate or change as long as they are alive. God Himself will not interfere with our free will because He wants to know if we love Him or not. God does not want a bunch of robots or irrational creatures in heaven with Him for all eternity. God wants all those rational creatures made in His own image and likeness who have freely chosen to love Him to be with Him for all eternity.

9.12: False Notions of Modernism

The destructive traditionalist and non-ecumenicalists in the prudent sense of the word, may tell you to violate the fifth Precept of the Church by not tithing to "Modernist" priests or bishops since, after all, "Pope St. Pius X said that anyone who promotes Modernism is ipso facto excommunicated".

But who is to decide what Modernism is and what Modernism is not? There is a growing misconception of what Modernism really is. Modernism is not vestments with overlay stoles or servers carrying ciboriums or the Mass and other sacraments in the vernacular or shortening various sacramental rites or priests facing the people at Mass or nuns in short habits. These examples are in the realm of discipline not doctrine. These things have been misconstrued as being Modernism. Modernism is the "evolution of religion through `New Revelation'" (Pius X). Modernism is the intrinsic changing of the doctrines of faith and morals to suit the whims of the people. Doctrines on faith and morals cannot change since they are the implicit or explicit definitions (or descriptions) given to us by our infallible guide on earth, the Church. They are definitions of the natural law from God's creation or the laws from Divine Revelation from Holy Scripture or Divine Tradition. Throughout her history, the Church has at various times changed her disciplines for the overall benefit of her millions of children. Some recent examples of this would be the changes in discipline given to us by the Church from Vatican Council II. Sometimes these changes are not always implemented prudently or there may be some Catholics who imprudently and stubbornly hold on to the abrogated Church disciplines after the Church has changed some of her disciplines. These changes have always caused reactions in the Church, both positive and negative. It is fine to be conservative, for the word means to conserve what is good and useful. But we must be patient and not too quick to judge according to our limited experiences and personal insights into the situation.

9.13: Cause of Disunity

Various imprudent traditionalists groups wonder why they cannot unite with each other. These groups are typically based on pride, the critical spirit, and presumptuous cynicism rather than the foundations of unity and harmony such as humility, charity, and prudence. Certainly there is a time to stand up and be counted and even to rebuke someone or an organization. But there is also a time for understanding and charity. It is sometimes difficult to know when to rebuke or extend our open arms in charity and understanding especially in difficult and confusing times. If we are truly humble and charitable, the soft whisperings of the Holy Spirit will penetrate our ignorant prone minds to guide us, but only if we are docile. The unifying spirit is of God. The disunifying spirit is of Satan. One of the great marks of the true Church is oneness. Of which spirit are the critical traditionalist or extreme traditionalist groups or the non-ecumenical or uncharitable or imprudent "liberal" groups? "By their fruits you shall know them". Are these groups part of the solution of unity or part of the problem of disunity and tearing down the Mystical Body of Christ?

9.14: "Holier-Than-Thou" Movements

There have been many heresies throughout the history of the Church with a strong prideful base. For example, in the twelfth century some Manichean and Gnostic errors surviving from early days crept in from the East and, uniting with a "holier-than-thou" attitude, gave rise to the Cathari who boasted of their holiness and penances. They rejected the sacraments, believed in a god of good and a god of evil and other errors. In southern France they became known as the Albigensians, from the city of Albi. Another heretical sect, the Waldensians, founded in Lyons, France, by a certain man named Waldes, was also excessively "holy". Its members took vows of poverty, chastity, and "obedience," but rejected purgatory, the sacraments, indulgences, and prayers for the dead. Some of these heretics persisted even into the sixteenth century. 6p319

In the thirteenth century and succeeding centuries a fanatical and heretical sect called the 'Flagellants' flourished. The movement was characterized by imprudent self imposed disciplines drawing all ages and conditions of people into this mental epidemic. Clergy and laity, men and women, even children of tender years, scourged themselves supposedly in reparation for the sins of the whole world. Great processions, amounting sometimes to 16,000, passed through the cities, beating themselves, and calling the faithful to repentance. After the Pope forbade these processions, the movement quickly died off for the most part. The 'Flagellants' appeared later at various times up through the nineteenth century usually due to false prophesies of the end of the world along with turbulent times in Church and state. 9p89-92

Another recent example of ultra-rigorous Catholics were the Jansenists. Their doctrines resembled Calvinism in some points, maintaining that Christ died to save only a chosen few and requiring almost superhuman sanctity and purity of life for frequent Communion. The effects of this heresy were widespread and lasting. They included postponement of First Communion and neglect of the sacraments. Jansenism's call for excessive austerities brought discouragement and loss of love of God. 6p351

Pride and ignorance take on many forms. Many imprudent religious groups have strict rules concerning eating or dressing or concerning conduct but are not based on charity or virtue but are rather a pharisaical type attitude. Their strict rules are very often motivated by a drive to convince themselves and others, consciously or unconsciously, that they are holy or "saved" and yet they look down upon others as the Pharisees of old did.

This attitude of deception is similar to a person who is meticulously obedient in small things for "show" or to convince himself that he is going to heaven, and yet he is able to rationalize or ignore disobedience in major things of his own self will and infallibly holy ideals.

Christ came to offer salvation to all men but He had a much easier time with this mission with the tax collectors and prostitutes than He did with the hypocritical Pharisees and proud Jews. The foundation of all virtues is humility and the crown of all virtues is charity, but all virtues must be governed by prudence.

9.15: Earth - A Battle Ground

Times have always been rough on this testing ground called earth even in the times of Martin Luther and before. Consider the difficult times in the first three centuries of Church history when thousands upon thousands refused to abandon their precious faith and chose rather to suffer and die at the hands of vicious emperors and their henchmen. How about the thousands of loyal Christians who died in the fourth century due to the devastating Arian heresy? Consider how difficult it was when the entire Eastern Church broke away in the middle ages due many uncharitable people as well as to the pride and envy of the eastern hierarchy who felt it beneath their dignity to give their proper allegiance to the Pope. Consider the confusion and turmoil in England in the sixteenth century when King Henry VIII threatened death to anyone who would not sign allegiance to him rather than to the true Church headed by the true Pope. There were few courageous souls in England at that time willing to follow the example of St. Thomas More and St. John Fisher.

Although the Church has the divine attributes of infallibility, indefectibility, and authority to teach, to rule, and to sanctify all men until the end of time, she is made up of human beings with a free will at all levels of her God-given structure. The Church on earth, the Church Militant, is not made up of angels or confirmed saints but men like you and me. The dignity of a priest is awesome, but he is still human and his eternal destiny is still to be determined. We must be mindful of the distinction between the great dignity of a human being or his office and the man himself as a sinner just as (in a similar way) Christ gives us the example of loving the sinner but hating the sin. God chose to save men by using men rather than saving us directly as He did the angels.

Yes, it is true, times are tremulous and confusing now. But do difficult and confusing times warrant any of us to become protestant and leave our divinely guided and indefectible Ark on the turbulent sea of life, our Holy Mother Church, as so many other thousands of souls have done in the past both through heresy and schism? Only in heaven will we find no confusion and perfect peace!

9.16: Prudently Separate the Office From the Man

Recalling the parallel example of the family, the proper overall effect or results of the two brothers talking together about their Dad and his faults or scandalous conduct should be that both of the two brothers will come to realize from their conversation with each other the necessity to avoid sin at all cost but also the importance of maintaining or developing a deep down supernatural respect for at least the God-given office of fatherhood. This is the difficult but prudent middle of the road, the straight and narrow ideal and goal that we must strive for as true Christians. The two sons must separate the dignity of fatherhood from the human sinner who is their father. They must love the sinner but hate the sin. The two sons must always remind themselves that their parents represent God on earth just as a good religious obeys and sees Christ in his lawfully appointed superior who might even be fat or ugly or not too bright or even uncouth. If we do not remind ourselves frequently of this God-given dignity of our superiors, we will soon not respect or obey them as we should due to the weakness of human nature with the help of the world and the devil.

9.17: Protestantism

One of the basic tenets or characteristics of Protestantism is the denial or rejection of authority. Most Protestants, who dislike a minister's sermons or personality or hairdo or whatever, will either go to another church or try to vote in another minister. This attitude toward authority is one of the basic foundations of Protestantism since, after all, Protestantism began due to protesting against God's number one lawful authority and representative on earth, His Church, and then starting a man-made religion or their own. But in reality, there is no valid essential reason for a Protestant to treat a minister as a lawful authority anymore than an elected representative since the minister was basically chosen by men or by himself. If a thousand protestant ministers all said the words and followed the rubrics of a Catholic Mass together, the unleavened bread would remain unleavened bread as they all said, "This is my body," since none of them were validly ordained by a consecrated bishop who received his authority and power from an unbroken chain of validly consecrated bishops all the way back to the Apostles who received their authority and power from Christ Himself. No doubt, many Protestant ministers are more virtuous than many Catholic priests and bishops. As Church history reveals, many sons of the holy Catholic Church in the ranks of the clergy and even in the ranks of the hierarchy and a few in the ranks of the papacy have disgraced their position of authority and scandalized the divine organization that they represented. But does such conduct of weak men warrant leaving Christ's Church with all her precious treasures of graces and helps to get to heaven? Should a Catholic leave the life giving sacraments and disregard the sure guidance of the teachings of the Magisterium of the Church because of a supposed or alleged or even a truly scandalous priest or bishop? The Holy Catholic Church is divinely founded by Christ with the attributes of authority, infallibility and indefectibility. These attributes are divine attributes not human attributes. Thus these attributes do not depend on the virtues or vices of the members of the Catholic Church as do human religions.

9.18: Protestant Clergy

There are many priests and religious under vows (and even a few schismatic bishops) who have been able to rationalize their distorted consciences to the point of justifying major disobedient actions (or at least attempting to circumvent their immediate superiors). These priests or religious may have been carefully obedient in small things even to the point of asking permission to do things even when it was not required by prudence or common sense. This is similar to the sickness of scruples. But these same outwardly obedient religious have no qualms of conscience or remorse to put their self-formed ideals or illogic above even their vows to God who is represented by their bishop or immediate superior. An example of this would be ex-cardination or leaving one's bishop or superior without permission. In the name of God's glory or holiness or defense of the faith or salvation of the Church or Saving the last remnant of the Church (which of course they apply to themselves) or whatever, these self righteous priests and religious either imprudently undermine and tear down God's lawful representative (their bishop or superior) or simply disregard or leave their bishop.

God chose to use men to save men. That is why he founded His Church made up of men to carry on after He Ascended into heaven. He could have made us, tested us, and saved or condemned us as He did the angels - individually without a Church. But He did not! Most Protestants feel they can go straight to Jesus, their just Judge, the all-perfect and all powerful God. They feel they do not need intercessors given special power before God such as a priest, a bishop, or the Church herself. They do not need the Blessed Virgin Mary or the angels and saints or their fellow humans to intercede to God for them by prayer. But is this not exactly what individual Protestant Catholic laymen or priests or even bishops are doing who cut themselves off from the VINE, the Holy Mother Church? Is this not the same attitude as that of Martin Luther who preached salvation by faith alone, rejected all but two sacraments, and made private interpretation of the Bible the sole rule of faith. 6p342

9.19: Protestant Son

Perhaps to illustrate the imprudence of such behavior of disobedience, consider the prudent relationship of a father and his son. Is the son to honor and obey his father in all non-sinful commands except those commands that the son disagrees with or does not feel like doing? If his father is fat or uncoordinated or not intelligent or..., are these proper reasons to not obey his father? What are the limits of a father's authority over his children? Every person owes his parents obedience in all that is not sinful. We have the perfect example of Christ who was obedient to Mary and Joseph. His life at Nazareth was summed up in those words in the second chapter of Luke, "He was obedient".

Kind feelings are not enough. Love is not a humanistic emotional feeling of joy or some kind of a subjective religious experience, but rather a joy stemming from a true intellectual knowledge and faith of union with our Creator based on objective truth. Real love is measured not by word or feeling so much as by doing. Obedience toward our parents means fulfilling all their commands (as long as they are not sinful and one is still a child living under their parents roof). St. Paul's reminder in his letter to his Catholic friends at Colossia was: "Children, obey your parents in everything" (Col 3:20).

9.20: Proper Procedures

If we have been given the supernatural gift of faith and believe in Jesus Christ and in the one true Church that He founded, then we should abide by her rules and work with the system not against her. Heretics have always hurt the Church. But over reaction to heretics or dealing with supposed heretics in the wrong way not within the normal framework and procedures of the Church have also hurt the Church and often end up in heresy or schism. If we think we know of a priest or bishop who, according to our judgment, is scandalizing souls to the point that we feel something should be done, then we should act prudently as shown by St. Thomas and Catholic moral theology and within the framework of the divinely guided Church. Words and actions of a priest or a bishop which we feel are seriously scandalous should be recorded and documented with signed witnesses and sent to the priest or bishop and to Rome and the Apostolic delegate. Then we should continue our prayers and wait patiently and let the proper Church officials do the job that they have been appointed to do rather than defaming the priest or bishop and the Church he represents by word or letter.

The Church structure, as Christ set it up, is not democratic. Neither is the structure of the family. Nowhere in Scripture does it indicate that the family or Church is to be democratic. God stands by His lawful authority even if they are sinners. An imprudent authority may be removed only by lawful means, not by back biting etc. Very rarely do we have all the facts or circumstances about the reason for the conduct of superiors or laws. It is prideful presumption to conclude that the Pope is bad, the Apostolic delegate is bad, most bishops are bad and therefore we the people have to save the Church. God will keep the Ark afloat using the divinely given structure of the Church despite bad clergy or imprudent and self-righteous laymen who think they are called by God to save the Church by exposing the self-proclaimed "faults and abuses" of priests and bishops.

This same prudent line of action holds true for our U.S. government with our inspired constitution. At least in this country we can worship God as we each see fit and we have basic freedoms that most human beings do not enjoy right now on the face of the earth. So let us vote in the right candidate or run for office ourselves. But above all, let us be builders and uniters for freedom and love of God and country and neighbor not cynical parasites and smug defamers of others.

9.21: "New Things and Old"

It is important for us to be patient. For "in your patience you shall possess your souls" (Lk 21:19). The Church has always acted slowly and prudently. Each era in the history of the Mystical Body of Christ has its own needs for the salvation of souls. Holy Mother Church, the Ark of the New Testament, guided by the Dove, changes her disciplines when needed. But these disciplines are always based on her infallible doctrines. Thus, our Heavenly Mother on earth takes care of us, her children. Sometimes we, her children, do not understand why she makes the changes that she does. But we can be sure of one thing, no other organization on the face of the earth can boast of her three attributes and four marks identifying her as the true divine Ark on the sea of life. The Church can truly be compared to that wise scribe instructed in the kingdom of heaven: "Therefore every scribe instructed in the kingdom of heaven, is like to a man that is a householder, who bringeth forth out of his treasure new things and old." (Mt 13:52)

9.22: Disobedience - Our Great Moral Disease

One of the great moral diseases of our times is that we are disobedient. And that is a pity, because God commands us to obey all lawful superiors in all things save sin. 12p63 etc.

Modern men often complain that they have no peace of mind. One of the greatest steps toward peace of mind is just plain, simple, old-fashioned obedience.
The will of God is manifested to us in the orders of our superiors. The virtue of obedience does not merely consist in doing what is commanded, but in being ready and willing to do what is commanded.
St. Augustine calls obedience the greatest of virtues, because it is the parent and source of every other virtue. The Bible tells us that obedience is better than sacrifices.
Even the Son of God Himself gave us the example of obedience, because he was subject to two human beings, Mary and Joseph.

Ch. X: Proper Attitude Toward PR

2008-04-01T09:25:00.000-07:00

Chapter X

PRUDENT AND IMPRUDENT ATTITUDE TOWARD PRIVATE REVELATION

What should be the prudent attitude toward private revelation? As we learned in the chapter on discernment, it is no easy job to be able to determine the true from the false revelations. Even in the true revelations, it was shown that there are many ways that the revelation can be impure. But most people are unaware of these realities about private revelation. The vast majority of people do not have any background experience or access to the necessary books and resources to study mystical theology. The most important criteria of discernment is the implicit or explicit approval of the Church. But this generally requires a substantial amount of time. In the mean time one may investigate a private revelation on his own. But he should use a prudent reserve along with logical deductive reasoning and much humble prayer.

There are some who naively believe that the revelation which the visionary transmits to us comes integrally from a heavenly person; it is this heavenly person, so to speak, who composes its text. Each word comes from above and penetrates the human psyche. We are dealing with an encounter between two persons: a heavenly person "has come," "has visited the earth." Happy are the eyes which saw him, and blessed the place he sanctified by his presence! The expression of the face, the demeanor, the dress are objective details which are clothed with symbolism. Once heavenly intervention has been admitted, the entire event is clothed in an objectivity equal to that of other facts. 1p117 "There can be no error because, after all, it is from heaven."

This attitude toward revelations seems very "naive" to others. According to them, God makes use of the psychological realities which He has placed in man. To believe that He performs miracles in order to accomplish something which does not exceed the limit of human possibilities is "miracle-hunting." God normally makes use of secondary causes such as the human psyche, the imagination, the subconscious. God uses these means of communication but so does the devil as well as the visionary himself, consciously or unconsciously, by inputting his own psyche into the revelation.

In every revelation there is psychological co-operation. It is minimal, according to the first opinion. But according to the second, it is so developed that one may ask if the revelation is not turning into fiction. It is not surprising, then, that others put forward a solution midway between the two, which is that the content of a true revelation comes wholly from God, but that it enters deeply into the psyche which expresses it more or less in its own way. The revelation comes back to the individual and undergoes a change in the sense that it receives an explanation from the intellect. 1p118 This psychic process along with other pertinent factors in revelation including hallucinations or diabolical influences were thoroughly discussed in the chapter on discernment.

There are no errors more like the truth, more seductive, more widespread, than the exaggerations of partial truths. This is the case in the question with which we are now dealing. Any of the three theories proposed does not give itself a satisfying explanation of all the facts. The first seems to explain some of them, the second, the majority. With regard to the third, it is necessary, or at least very helpful to eliminate undue deception, to have a thorough knowledge of the criteria of discernment regarding revelations.

10.1: Catholic Faith vs Hunan Faith

In regard to the visionary, "many theologians are of the opinion that the persons themselves to whom such revelations are made and those for whom they are destined may believe in them with real faith, provided they have had clear proof of their authenticity." 2p701

Also we have a statement made by the majority of the Fathers and theologians of the Council of Trent in regard to our problem. According to the resume of the discussion made by Father Laurence Mazochius: "The majority of theologians and finally nearly all the Fathers (of the Council) decided that without a special revelation no one may be certain with a certitude of faith that he is actually in the state of grace." They said "certitude of faith," the same theologian reports, since they could not have been thinking of certitude of evidence; and probable certitude was admitted as a fact without the intervention of a special revelation. 1p203 Here we are talking about Catholic Faith or divine faith which must be believed.

It is obviously not the same in the case of those who receive the revelations only through the visionaries. The basis of the assent to revelations in this case is an act of human faith, commanded" (imperatus) by prudence and reinforced by the motives of the virtue of piety. 1p205

The most authoritative decision on this matter is to be found in the encyclical 'Pascendi' of St. Plus X who made his own the reply of the Holy Office to the question about the attitude of the Holy See in regard to the apparitions of La Salette and Lourdes, which had already been canonically approved by the ordinaries of the places concerned: "These apparitions or revelations," we read in the encyclical, "have neither been approved nor condemned by the Holy See, which has simply allowed them to be believed on purely human faith, on the traditions which they relate, corroborated by testimony and documents worthy of credence. Anyone who follows this rule has no cause to fear" 1p205

But, as for all belief, there must be influence of a moral order in order to reach certitude. Piety exercises such an influence, that is, piety in the theological sense; this is a virtue of veneration accessory to the virtue of justice. 1p207 This gift completes the infused virtue of justice and makes us look upon God as our Heavenly Father, and helps us fulfill our duties out of love and grateful loyalty. Piety inclines us to look upon our fellow men as children of God and brothers in the Mystical Body of Christ and therefore leads us to sacrifice ourselves in the service of others. 6p107

Thus, in its proper meaning, the term piety is applicable in pre-eminent fashion to the heavenly Father and, by extension, to what belongs to our earthly fathers - thus one's country is also the object of piety.

But the Church is truly our Mother; we accept with piety what she allows. Thus we may arrive through our own investigation at belief in the apparition at Lourdes. However, we read in the encyclical 'Fulgens Corona' a prolonged and emphatic reference to this event; the Pope speaks of it as of any other undisputed historical fact; therefore I believe "piously". And my faith is thereby more solid, surer. This is the respect I owe my Mother the Church, who increases the certitude of my faith; this faith remains, in regard to its structure a natural assent, but it is subject morally to supernatural influence. 1p208 etc.

That is all the more reason why we may consider piety in respect to revelations not only a moral virtue but also a gift of the Holy Spirit, the "principal act" of which "is to venerate God with filial affection" (Sum Theol., II-II, 122, 1, ad 3).

But this act of piety is, in the end, like every Christian act carried out under the influence of Christian prudence. Christian prudence is required in a particular way because of the subject; that is why it is often recommended in writings dealing with revelations. So the text quoted from the encyclical 'Pascendi' begins thus: "... in this matter the Church uses the greatest prudence."

It is understandable that Ranwez, to quote only one among recent writers, wrote as follows about this matter: Adherence of human faith. Assent, prudently based upon testimony which merits confidence and respect. An act of intellectual docility assuming good will, but a will calling for a perfect logic, a lofty wisdom, and thus eminently reasonable. For, if such a commitment binds the intelligence itself, it does so nonetheless without risk of dangerous error, since the door remains open to every possibility of retraction which the evidence might eventually demand, as also to all sworn statements which others might believe should be made to the authorities". 1p208

No doctor has exerted so much influence upon the subject we have dealt with in this section as Benedict XIV; he visibly inspired the teaching which the Holy See has officially proclaimed. Having categorically declared that ecclesiastical approval does not indicate in this matter anything other than a permission to publish the revelation for the good of the faithful, he wrote the following which resumes everything we have just said: "While there must not and cannot be given an assent of Catholic faith, there may, however, be given (debetur tamen) as assent of human faith following the rules of prudence, and according to which these revelations are probable and piously credible." 1p209

10.2: The Abuse of Revelations

Since true revelations are precious to us, the abuse of revelations are dangerous to us. Private revelations are truly a merciful gift from God. They help us conduct our lives in a particular situation. They help motivate our slothful wills by using extraordinary means thus captivating our attention and feelings in such a way that they are affective in cases where other methods would not be.

It is chiefly here that abuses creep in. Normally speaking, man loves change. He flees from the boredom that comes from the monotony of the actions of ordinary life. He feels the need for some new experience, some event, some sensation. In the spiritual life especially, in those periods of dryness when it becomes necessary to live by pure faith, the danger of abusing revelations is great. There are Christians who have an irresistible need to feel, to see, if possible, something staggering. 1p258 etc.

Leon Bloy wrote to Jeanne Fermier: " . . . the hour has not come, I do not see signs. God is not showing Himself in a sensible, indisputable way .. I am awaiting Signs and up to the present I do not see them. So long as the Supernatural does not appear manifestly, incontestably, dreadfully, deliciously, there is nothing real. "

From such a state of mind emerges the danger of interpreting particular revelations in too universal a manner and applying. them to things which have no connection with them. Certain apparitions have been tragically abused by being mixed up with the social, political and religious struggles of the time when they occurred. It is understandable that the ecclesiastical authorities have intervened.

Again, the need for startling happenings encourages abuses in the sense that authors seek to impress their readers by interpreting, from a standpoint of terrible apocalyptic catastrophes, messages which contain pomised and warnings of chastisement.

"It is remarkable," writes Father J.H. Nicolas, "that what interests the majority of people in these private revelations is the announcement of future events ... the trials from which people are emerging or in the midst of which they are struggling do not occur at all. The apocalyptic events with which we are threatened are always imminent at any moment of the time when the prophet - or any one of his interpreters - speaks."

Revelations are subject to another kind of abuse. It is considering them as the discovery of a method of self-sanctification at little cost. Then the spiritual life grows upon stony, thin soil which is not nourished by the great Christian mysteries. 1p259

A new devotion, for instance, may be presented as a spiritual panacea or a remedy for all diseases; cure-all, or even a source of answers for all problems of life which could and should be found and solved using God's normally given graces and natural abilities and resources.

10.3: The Pit of Self-Deception

One of the main paths to heaven which is also a basic source of God-given crosses in life is to think, to dig out truths and answers and applications of these truths and knowledge of God and His will for us every step of the way leading toward heaven. This is how God so designed life. To seek or desire an easy source of answers to life’s problems would not only be imprudent but even dangerous due to the possibility of falling into the habit of not thinking or complacency or using this pseudo source of answers as an excuse or rationalization or a self-made smoke screen to avoid doing what we should be doing.

It is a very natural human tendency to avoid our heavier God-given crosses by willfully (even if partially subconscious) ignoring them or shoving them aside and then picking and choosing another more convenient cross that we are able to rationalize as a substitute. The reason why a substitute cross is chosen, at least initially is because most people, who still have a little fear of God or hell or loss of heaven left inside of them, try to convince themselves that they are on the road to heaven since, after all, they are working so hard for God, or neighbor, or Holy Mother Church. A religious may subconsciously or consciously desire to avoid his prayer life so he works hard on exterior activities to sooth his conscience. Or a religious may pray extra in order to rationalize his lack of charity and kindness toward his fellow religious and neighbors. A married man may become involved with many activities outside the home to rationalize avoiding the bothersome cross of spending needed time with his perhaps nagging or critical or negligent wife and irritating children.

To justify these self-chosen substitute crosses, there is a tendency to seek and hold on to readily available excuses such as an imprudent custom or the words of an authority figure imprudently applied or even twisting Bible quotes out of context or twisting Catholic doctrine or even private revelation to justify certain actions or beliefs which are imprudent or sinful due to the times or circumstances of the situation. This is one of the major reasons why God gave us an infallible Church to properly interpret the Bible and Divine Tradition and all spiritual things and thus apply these teachings to our daily lives throughout time in innumerable situations of life. But as long as man is alive with a free will, there will always be a way out of doing God's will of carrying the cross of Christ because God will never force anyone into heaven.

The person who is able to change his ways when he discovers the errors of his life is invariably the person who either fell into the pit naively or semi-innocently while still sincerely praying to God and seeking and following truth even if it hurts or he is the person who willfully or semi-willfully chose his pit but had many outside prayers and help. "Many are called, but few are chosen". Everyone falls into various pits in his life, but few painstakingly dig their way out of each pit they fall into and persevere in their truth seeking mission till death. The reason why few are willing to dig out of their pit by seeking truth is because invariably, a cross along with more responsibility is attached to each piece of new and real truth especially when it applies to our own lives.

10.4: Few Respond To the Whisperings of the Holy Spirit

God made us. He knows how to make us happy in innumerable and perfect ways - if we would only let go. The more we let go and become docile and humble, the more the Holy Spirit and His spouse, the Virgin Mary, can mold us into Christ with the aid of His virtues and seven gifts. These infused virtues and gifts of the Holy Spirit enlighten our minds and strengthen our wills to become more responsive and docile to the slightest whisperings of the Holy Spirit.

A mature man makes the best decision he can with the information available at the time and sticks by it even if it hurts a little or is against his feelings. If later he receives new information or insight into the problem, he then may see fit that he must change his decision even though he may have to swallow his pride, or change his comfortable life style or face a certain undesirable God-given cross. Life is full of necessary and often unpleasant changes for love of God. Thus, it is important to slowly develop a habit of docility with God's help.

Few listen carefully to the inspirations from the Holy Spirit and His spouse with the ears of their soul. Some act and pray as they want to but have consciously or unconsciously thwarted inspirations to work and pray as God would have them. With little docility to inspirations or cooperation with available graces, there is much loss of graces and merits. All the prayers and graces in the world will not do any good if not cooperated with and applied to what we are supposed to do and thus produce the good fruits that God would have us produce.

"Ora et labora"! Pray and work! These two words cannot be separated. If a person prays and yet does not work or does not do the work that he should but some other work that suits his own fancy, the prayer is wasted because the graces and help derived from sincere prayer are not applied to doing God's will due to self will. Most likely, in such a case, the person is not truly praying to do God's will, which usually has a cross attached, but rather his own will with his own self-picked ego-satisfying crosses. On the other hand, if a person works and yet does not pray, the work is most likely for naught due to improper motives of self interest rather than the interests of God or neighbor for love of God. The combination of true and sincere prayer and work will produce the desired result of good fruit and thus eternal merit. As Pope John Paul II tells us, the degree of perfection in all the states of life is measured by the rule of charity; love of God and neighbor.

We must pray and work as Mary did with the sincere intention and desire to do God's will even if it is difficult and contrary to our personal desires. We must not allow ourselves to consciously or unconsciously rationalize or subjectively make exceptions or excuses for our selfish desires and actions.

10.5: Great Saints or Mediocre Sinners?

What is the difference between the great saints and mediocre sinners? With the help from God through prayer, the great saints faced the truth and themselves squarely; they let go of themselves, trusted God, did not get sucked into the infinite variety of pitfalls and side roads of the world, or the devil, or their own selfish fancies. The great saints zeroed in on their main fault but most especially, a generous, towering love of God with the help of Mary their holy mother.

With God's help, all things are possible. But without His help or with our stubborn lack of cooperation, we will remain locked in our lowly human nature filled with self. Just as it is not part of the nature of a stone to bloom or a dog to recite Shakespeare, so too, it is not part of our human nature to act like and become children of God without God's help. It is a far greater change for a man to become a child of God, to be raised to the supernatural life, to share in the very life of God, sanctifying grace, to practice the supernatural virtues, than it is for a stone to bloom or a dog to speak.

10.6: Revelations: A Problem of the Present Time

There have always been false prophets and occasionally, especially from the Middle Ages on, we witness a positive epidemic of visionaries. In our own time, for example, innumerable crowds were drawn to Exquioga, in the Basque country or to Heroldsbach, in Bavaria, where visionaries and revelations so multiplied and vied with each other that the Congregation of the Holy Office was obliged to intervene and to condemn such manifestations. 1p4

But it is not condemnations only which issue from the Church. Through her ordinary Magisterium the Church in our own time has approved many particular revelations. On many others she reserves her judgment even though years pass by. This attitude is, on the whole, in their favor.

It is surprising to realize how extensive the influence of pseudo-revelations may be. Wonders, strange coincidences whether artificial or real, authentic spiritual benefits, insistence upon certain arguments and unvarying silence about others, an irresistible emotional need, the suggestion of the crowd, the influence of individuals they love and admire, may impel Christians to assume attitudes which at first sight are inexplicable. These attitudes, which turn a minor aspect of religion into a leading element in Christian life, are not to be found solely in the so-called ages of faith and of ignorance, but even in our own day, when science might seem to be triumphant in many spheres of life. They are in fact flourishing vigorously at present, a fact that may be partly explained by the efficiency of modern methods of communication which permit the immediate diffusion of news of the slightest event throughout the Church. 1p114

The situation is so serious that the highest administrative authorities of the Church have deemed it necessary to react against a tendency so injurious to Christian life. Quite significant in regard to the present situation of particular revelations is the article "Saite cristiani, a muovere piu’ gravi!” (Christians, be less carried away!") by Cardinal Ottaviani, published in the 'Osservatore Romano' of February 2, 1951, before he was made cardinal. First of all he briefly and vigorously emphasizes the fact and the providential role of particular revelations. But this is only the introduction to a grave warning: "It is a curious thing," he writes, "that it is but a short time since the Church had to defend the fact of revelations, and now she has to give a warning against the abuse of them; the craze for the marvelous is such that it is becoming a grave danger to the Christian life; people are running in crowds to places of reputed apparitions and neglecting the sacraments and defying the authority of the Church." 1p5 He continues: "Who would have imagined fifty years ago that the Church today would have to put her sons, and even some priests, on their guard against so-called visions, against fictitious miracles, in short, against all those events regarded as preternatural which, from one continent to another, from one country to another, practically everywhere attract and excite the masses? ... For many years we have been observing a recrudescence of the popular passion for the miraculous, even in the religious domain. Masses of the faithful flock to places of presumed visions and fictitious wonders and, on the other hand, they neglect the Church, the sacraments and preaching." 1p115

This article shows in a masterly manner at what point the faithful may be deceived if they do not apply the true criteria of discernment when confronted by pseudo-revelations. It is also to be noted that never in all her history has the Church explicitly rejected such a large number of false revelations as in our own twentieth century. In the last thirty years alone she has condemned at least fifteen of them. 1p115

There are indeed people who irresponsibly acclaim every revelation, apparition and vision which is being discussed. They quickly accept them as important facts in history or as a fulfillment of the Gospel text. Eager for signs from heaven, they are convinced that apocalyptic times are at hand. They look upon those who do not believe in these things as rationalists and unbelievers, or as blind men who do not wish to see the signs of the times and whose distracted minds refuse to accept the designs of God. 1p5

That there should be excessive reactions against such a situation is very understandable. There are Christians who refuse all credence to revelations. For them all revelations, or practically all, came to an end with the death of the last Apostle. All later manifestations appear to them as no more than illusions and frauds, the machinations of man or of the devil. Those who know something of the power of hallucination or of hysteria, the latent forces of the unconscious, are apt to think in these terms ... How many fanatics are there who, through curiosity, through the need to emerge from their spiritual dryness or because of their social isolation, believe that they hear voices from the next world while all the time they are merely talking to themselves! 1p6

10.7: The Right Not To Make Use of Revelations

In order to defend oneself against all the abuses to which revelations are exposed, there is one radical method to adopt - to ignore revelations completely. We have the Gospels and the Church, the Faith and the sacraments, and these are sufficient to raise Christian life to the sanctity desired by God. 1p259 etc.

At all events, provided that the Christian retains the respect due to the authority which has pronounced upon a revelation, he has, generally speaking, the right to refuse to accept it. Anyone who does this for good reasons and in a spirit of humility need not fear a refusal of grace. It is properly one of the essential characteristics of particular revelations that they are not addressed at once to all and to each of the faithful.

St. John of the Cross expressed himself categorically upon this point: "Nothing is to be believed in a supernatural way, save only that which is the teaching of Christ made man, as I say, and of His ministers, who are men." 1p259

10.8: The Usefulness of Belief in Revelations

Here is the content of a quotation from the Mystical Doctor: "And so we must now be guided in all things by the law of Christ made man, and by that of His Church, and of His ministers, in a human and visible manner, and by these means we must remedy our spiritual weaknesses and ignorances, since in these means we shall find abundant medicine for them all. If we leave this path, we are guilty not only of curiosity, but of great audacity." 1p260 etc.

Must we conclude from this that all those who believe in Lourdes, for example, are curious and audacious? No. The Doctor of Carmel would not allow such a conclusion. He is thinking of the personal revelations, not approved, of mystics. Here is a doctrine which we find in ‘The Ascent of Mount Cannel' (book II, chap. XVII): God sanctifies man according to his nature. He begins with what is the least elevated and the most exterior - the senses. He perfects them by supernatural communications. By this means the senses are greatly confirmed in virtue and withdrawn from their inclination to evil. The supernatural visions which God is accustomed to give afterward to a soul which is well disposed, enlighten the senses, spiritualize them and produce great fruits in the spirit.

But if this is the case, the question arises: Should one, because of the danger of abuses, refuse means of such benefit for the Christian life? On the contrary. We are invited to profit by these fruits, for it is normal to use all means which favor our ascent toward God.

When the Church approves revelations, when she grants privileges and indulgences to the devotions connected with them, when delegates of the Sovereign Pontiff, cardinals and numerous bishops go in pilgrimage to the places of these apparitions, how could we not see in all this an invitation to make use of these revelations in order to receive the fruits of which we spoke earlier? 1p260

But, as pointed out earlier, there may be certain cases where there is an obligation to believe in revelations. The saints testify to us that there are revelations which present themselves with so much clarity that it would be impossible not to believe in them.

"Theologians admit, moreover, that in particular circumstances, for example, when revelations present the visionaries with clear evidence of their effects, the visionaries are obliged to believe in them. Some theologians even think that an act of theological faith is involved.

But apart from these particular cases, the following must be considered as a guiding principle. The recipients of revelations may be called upon - even obliged - to believe according to the tenor of the revelation. That others may have the right, even the duty, to reject them may be so, but for the recipients it is another matter. Otherwise why would God make revelations? Was not Zachary punished because he hesitated to accept what the angel said to him? The Lord reproached the Apostles for not having believed the testimonies of the women who recounted their vision of His resurrection (Mk 16:14). 1p261

One could apply to all apparitions or visions what Bishop Ginoulhiac of Grenoble said in his pastoral of November, 1854: "La Salette is not a new doctrine, it is a new grace; it is not a new teaching ... it is an additional admonition."

Now an admonition is given in order that it may be believed and obeyed. The only question is to know to whom it is addressed. No one can oblige us to accept a new doctrine to be added to the teaching of the Church. But I, in my particular situation, may be obliged to accept a grace which is presented under pain of losing the friendship of God.

We are at this point entering into the mystery of vocation. Within the domains of the Faith and of the Law different vocations are to be found. Every Christian should live his vocation in his own way. Should a particular Christian refuse to follow the path laid down for him within the guidelines of obedience of lawful superiors - which from the general point of view is a detail - he may endanger his eternal life. Speaking of these personal matters, St. Paul says: "For if I preach the gospel, it is no glory to me, for a necessity lies upon me: for woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel" (lCor 9:16). 1p262

10.9: The Fruitful Use of Revelations

Those whose only knowledge of the revelations is through the visionary will derive all the profit from the revelations by using them prudently. It is not good to want to know about as many revelations as possible and to restrict one's spiritual reading to books on revelations received through apparitions or visions. It is very much to be recommended, upon two conditions, that those who are leading a sluggish Christian life should make use of one or other particular revelation. The conditions are that they approach their content by the light of the great Christian sources and that they refer to the evangelical law when there is a question of giving status to acts demanded by a revelation. 1p265

It is through the realization of these conditions that the use of revelations is proved to be fruitful. In other words, the criterion of the abuse or the fruitful use of revelations is to be found in the docility with which one accepts the directives of the Church.

If someone, for example, goes to Lourdes solely to satisfy some vague interior religious sentiment, he will end up with those "crowds of the faithful" referred to in such strong terms in the article "Saite Cristiani" in the 'Osservatore Romano' of February 2, 1951. This article speaks of those crowds of the faithful who betake themselves to places of presumed visions and miracles and at the same time abandon the Church, its sacraments and its preaching! 1p266

It is quite different with a person who makes this pilgrimage with the intention of finding God in a place where He has strikingly manifested Himself in a manner less ordinary than in the pilgrim's own parish. In this place the pilgrim goes to confession, or makes a better confession; because he is the witness of an immense movement of faith, he is better able to grasp the meaning and reality of the Eucharist and the mystery of the Cross. The apparition of the Blessed Virgin, and still more the personality of the visionary, Bernadette, pass into the background of his consciousness. It is indeed a particular revelation of Mary which draws him hither; but once drawn, he discovers, through her, the Church and in the Church, God, the infinitely Merciful. This is the best use of revelations which could possibly be desired. 1p266

Ch. XI: The Dynamics of Community

2008-04-01T09:24:00.000-07:00

Chapter XI

THE DYNAMICS OF COMMUNITY

11.1: Social Structures

We as humans are social beings. We have an inborn longing for companionship with others to share our joys and sorrows our experiences or just plain to be with others. We tend to congregate into groups for a variety of functions and activities such as schooling, sports, clubs, church and civil organizations, prayer groups etc. Some of these groups are more isolated and separate while most of the groups we are in overlap with each other and even engulf other groups such as a religious group being within the whole group called the Church or the Mystical Body of Christ. Each of these groups has a particular function or purpose or reason for its existence.

Man truly does have a free will which was given to him by God. With this free will, man can pick and chose his friends as well as his environment to a greater or lesser degree. But each environment that he chooses does have a certain influence on him depending on how long he spends in this environment and the degree of impact it has on him according to his willingness to allow his environment to influence him along with various other factors. Each member of a particular group gives part of himself and his personality to the group thus influencing the other members of the group. Certain members, especially the leaders etc., generally influence the others more than the rest of the members. The group itself also takes on its own particular type of character or personality due to the sum total of all the personal contributions of the members. One could call it a type of group or community dynamism.

As in all things in life, at least on this earth, there are good groups and bad groups depending on one's point of view or values in life. But, just as each human being has some good in him and some bad, so too, every group has some good in it and some bad. No group is all good or all bad, but there are a variety of degrees depending on the goals or fruits produced etc. There are groups who do tremendous good for their fellow human beings motivated by a sincere love of God even though they may have a few weak or detracting members. There are groups who do tremendous damage, both spiritually and physically, to their fellow human beings along with seriously offending God through sin even though they may have a few naively innocent members who believe they are serving God and neighbor. Between these two extremes, there are numerous combinations and varieties of good and bad groups, each having its own particular goal and direction and character.

11.2: Constructive Community Life

The first and greatest community or type of a community is the Trinity. From all eternity God exists three in person and one in nature, and this ineffable union of persons in a singleness of nature constitutes a sort of divine family, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 21p128

On earth we have the greatest visible community, the holy family, Joseph, Mary, and the divine Child, an earthly heaven with a visible trinity. Here we behold the cradle of divine-human love erected, and from Nazareth, as from an ever flowing source, love streamed forth again into the world, into Christian families, but especially into the cloisters of religious life. Every convent, in God's idea, should be a copy of Nazareth, a home of love, where especially chosen souls reach love's perfection, not only through the vows and virtues as practiced by the individual religious, but in community life where the religious live collectively in the bonds of charity under their head, the superior, as God's visible representative, working out their own perfection and the salvation of their fellow men, and thus fulfilling the Great Commandment: " Thou shalt love the Lord, thy God, with thy whole heart" and "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." 21p129

In every good family behold how the children love, respect, and obey their parents. What is the source of this love? It is God who by natural ties binds parent and child into one flesh and by supernatural grace and the fourth commandment knits them together into one social unity.

Religious family life is on a higher plane than that of Christian families in the world. It is a spiritual life in which the ties that knot superior and subject are not those of nature but the golden cords of grace. It is wonderful how God effects this perfect love through community life, for the end of all religious life is perfection, and perfection is perfect love. Diversity of persons in the unity of love is God's standard of perfection in Himself and in His creatures. We see this preeminently in community life made up of superior and subjects. There is nothing more conducive toward making one forget and deny one's self than just this religious family life, which urges us to seek the common welfare in preference to our own.

Love, as found in community life, and which imparts to the soul a share in the bliss of divine love, is achieved only when we make the sacrifice demanded; the transformation of self-love into self-consecration for others. Both superiors and subjects in their relations to one another must dedicate all that is in them to the acquisition of this perfect love - their time, talents, services, mutual respect and sympathy. Only then can we attain to the perfection of our state and enjoy that peace and security which alone the community life can give us. 21p130

Consider what imperils this community life. Many religious fail against community life by singularity where they are obliged to live as units of a social group. Others emphasize their rights too much and forget their corresponding duties. Others, again, selfishly get all they can out of community life but fail to contribute their share to its requirements.

The superior may fail by imagining the community to be there for him and not the other way around, that he is the "minister and servant of all." Hence proceed lordly ways, domineering, preferences, and all that goes to make a superior a cold official and less a warm, loving father in Christ, ready to forgive and to forget, sympathetic with human weakness, big and hearty toward all.

The subject may fail by antagonizing his superior or cultivating him too much for personal advantages and preference over others, and by treating his fellow religious uncharitable or unjustly.

In all these ways individual religious may change the harmony of community life into discord and make what should otherwise be a peaceful religious home a purgatory for others. There are especially three types of character that are destructive in this way: irregular members, selfish members, and disgruntled members. 21p131

The Royal Prophet, contemplating in spirit the privileges of those called to live in the house of God, calls them "blessed". And that with good reason, for if one lives up to the requirements of community life, makes the heroic sacrifices demanded of self-love to promote its harmony, he soon advances to that perfection which deserves beatification even here below and tastes of that other beatification, that peace and happiness of mutual love learned from the Godhead, from the Holy Family at Nazareth, and found today in its purity only in the well-regulated community life of religious orders.. 1p132

Thus we can see from the example of Christ Himself, along with the beauty and happiness of mutual love within a family or a well regulated community life of a religious order, the great value of the community.

11.3: Destructive Community Life

But a community with the wrong leaders and with the wrong ideals, whether deceptive or not, can be very destructive and a powerful tool in a leaders hands (or in the devil's hands). Consider the examples of Jones Town in Guyanna or Satanic cults or mind control and peer pressure groups used in totalitarian governments such as Russia or China to force conformity to the State's way of thinking.

An ex-'Moonie' , Richard LaMartina, described life inside the Unification Church, 1979-82 (Rev. Myung Moon - Leader). After being invited to stay over for a few days with a group of artists and musicians in an area north of San Francisco, Richard was invited to the (Moonie) camp. It was a farm where they showed slides and explained the views of this group of people who had supposedly lofty ideals about helping mankind. LaMartina says the idealistic purposes were just the things he had always advocated in his life. Raised a devout Catholic, he admits now that this willingness to submerge himself for the common good, and to better know God, likely made him easy prey for what followed. 22p8 etc.

"After two days there, they pretty much get you to commit to seven days, then to three weeks," and so on, he said.

First he was at a small settlement called Booneville, about 100 miles north of San Francisco. Then, after learning about some of the church's work, he was taken to a place called Camp Kay, in a nearby portion of California.

Initially, LaMartina had learned about such programs as "Project Volunteers," which was to help feed poor people. The members were asked to raise funds by selling items in the streets and at public places. Since leaving the Moonies, LaMartina said he learned that $60 to S70 million is raised by the church annually in this way, and that very little goes to charitable projects.

At Camp Kay, the doctrine of the Unification Church - with Moon as its self-proclaimed messiah - was intensified.

LaMartina said the church grabs hold of its members not through physical coercion, but by mind-control tactics.

"Part of the indoctrination is they make you feel guilty for questioning (church tenets) as being scientifically or religiously invalid," he said. "Also, part of it is they get you to reveal hidden parts of your life through peer pressure."

He said that other senior members serve as examples, making "life's testimonies.." Eventually the Moonies thus "get you revealing deep things" about yourself.

LaMartina said, "They then use that information to control you. If you want to leave the church, they say the reason you want to leave the church is because you haven't dealt with those deep, inner problems."

"You don't really realize it's mind control." LaMartina said.

During the three years he was in the group, he was constantly aware of "things that were gnawing at me." There were parts of the doctrine as it applied to history, people, and God which LaMartina did not see in the black and white perspective of the Moonies

"They projected the world as being so polarized," he said. "I never (before) saw the world in that way.

If you do not accept the dogma, you are chastised as being small-minded and the indoctrination is stepped up.

LaMartina was allowed to go home for several days when his father died, but be returned to the church. A visit in California from his mother, who still resides in Racine, a brother, and friends, did not persuade him to leave the church. For that to happen, he had to get married.

LaMartina participated in the largest mass wedding ever conducted at that time, in Madison Square Garden. (Moon has since held a larger mass wedding-in Korea). Moon himself arbitrarily matched woman and men - 2,075 of the couples - in the gargantuan spectacle. One of them was LaMartina and a girl from Tottori, Japan, named Chieko.

"Now I had another person in my life from the Unification Church and I wanted to resolve my doubts," LaMartina said, recalling the July 1 ceremony.

"I told my (group) leader that I had to go away for seven days to smooth the marriage with my family," who LaMartina said had taken his action "very hard."

His serious "deprogramming" came when he talked to three former cult members. One was a former Moonie, the others were once members of the Divine Light Mission which he called "a Bible group that distorts the real meaning of the Bible" to suit its own ends.

"The one thing that hit me then is that I had thought I was following the true messiah, but they had all had the same experiences that I did," he said. "The ex-Moonie brought up all the doubts and questions I had. I opened up and they showed me points of mind control" that had been used against him.

They all recommended that he not return to the Moonies to pick up his possessions and say goodbye. "A lot of people end up staying after they go back, once the mind control was reasserted." they told him. LaMartina maintained he had to be sure he was free and could leave.

LaMartina was back for three hours and told his Moonie leader there was no changing his mind, that he would leave. LaMartina said they told him he could always return when he had discovered the evil nature of the world. While some do return, he said most do not. 22p8

What can we learn from Richard LaMartina's experiences so that we don't get sucked into a harmful group just as he was? It is easy to say that it could never happen to us but there are many shades of the same evil all with a different twist and even a healthful and alluring cover. As Richard's example indicates, these false covers are usually idealistic and even seemingly spiritual and holy with accompanying peculiar practices and rules. What are some of the basic tenets and characteristics of such a group that we can perhaps analyze and identify so as to spot then in other seemingly innocent of wholesome groups?

If we are already in such a group, it is usually difficult to realize the dangers because we are too close to the problem and are also affected by its influences. Richard thought he "was following the true messiah." It was not until an ex-Moonie and other cult members helped him step back and see the whole picture and the basic points of mind control that he finally could put the confusing pieces of the puzzle together to be able to see the picture; and this was even after he had left.

11.4: Discernment of Good or Bad Community Life

Let us see if we can be more specific about the characteristics of demonic influences as opposed to angelic and divine influences. How can we tell from the outside which kind of influence is operating in an individual or a group? 5p82 etc.

a) The first question to ask in this regard is whether the action or statement of belief of an individual or group is in accord with some tradition, some coherent body of religious beliefs. When a course of action departs from a traditional one and in no way tries to relate to any tradition, this is a danger signal that something other than the divine may be operating.

On the other hand when the individual or group is rigidly bound to the letter of the law of some religious group and can conceive of nothing new, then the spirit of death rather than life is often at work. Sometimes religious groups are used to provide security for insecure people. Sometimes by excessive authoritarianism they actually foster immaturity, and this is not of God. Those who are touched by the Holy Spirit are no longer so immature. They know the reality of God's love, and they respect the traditional way, yet they know that in any human institution there is room for growth. The angelic promotes this kind of spirit. 5p83

It is also interesting to note that the ways we listen to others influence our capacity for both cooperation and independence in relationships without blind conformity to the norms and pressures of any particular group. We can relate to others - individually, in groups, in organizations - and enhance them and ourselves, perhaps even transcend ourselves. What is important is that we not lose our separateness or give up responsibility for decisions as individuals. The more we unthinkingly turn ourselves over to a group or to a social enterprise, the greater the loss and detachment we suffer within. John Gardner has appropriately called it "inner estrangement and outer conformity." Listening to one another and sharing our lives become means by which we nourish a sense of community in relationships and nourish also our freedom and individuality. 23p22

b) The second question to ask is whether the action which we are discerning results in love and harmony or in hate and schism. The angelic nearly always facilitates and results in love and improved inter-relationships. Those who claim to have angelic inspiration and preach hate and division need to be watched very carefully. Seldom, very seldom, does the angelic result in division. Few issues are large enough to justify separation of brothers and sisters. Likewise the truly angelic seldom speaks in judgment of others. Few people are converted by judgment. The angelic never gloats over a destructive or judgmental message. 5p83 etc.

c) Jesus spoke with authority and not with finality. Those who claim angelic inspiration and claim to know the specifies of final truth before which all others must bow may well be deceived. Evil and the demonic are far less open to growth and development than the angelic. Jesus said we do not know the time or the hour. Those who claim such knowledge are claiming to know more than He. Some demagogues speak with complete certainty in order to give security to frightened people. This can be a way of gaining power over others, and this is not the way of the angelic.

d) If an action or way of life has angelic inspiration and guidance, it will result in the fruits of creativity, growth, development, increased consciousness and keener awareness. The demonic usually results in disintegration, narrowed awareness and stunted growth. Neurotic stagnation is often the result of demonic influence.

e) One nearly sure sign of demonic power is the attempt on the part of one person or group to gain power over others and seek from the others an attitude of subservience. The angelic stimulates freedom and open and honest exchange between people. The demonic favors bondage and class distinction. Whenever one person seeks to gain power over another, one can almost be sure that the angelic is not at work.

The angelic seeks to promote the attitude of love, encounter and interchange. It rejects dependency on any long-range basis and seeks to create conditions which will enable all people to stand on their own feet and have their own relationship with God and an equal relationship with other human beings.

f) The demonic uses; the angelic encounters. Seldom are people possessed by the angelic. Whenever people use others for their own gain or desires, one can be sure that they are under demonic influence. For this reason slavery is one o f the worst of human evils. God and the angelic want to relate to us as free beings, not to own us. The demonic wishes to possess us and drag us down into the kingdom of hell. Whenever a person seeks to own or possess or use another, beware. The Evil One is close.

g) When one gets inflated and thinks of oneself as perfect and then projects one's shadow and darkness onto others, then one has fallen into step with the demonic. Judgment and a critical and negative attitude toward others springs out of an inflated opinion of oneself in most instances. The angelic seldom speaks of its own perfection. Even Jesus told those who called Him good to say this of God alone. The angelic as messengers of God have the same spirit. When individuals exalt themselves, there is need to discern the reason and find out what spirit they are following.

h) There is a certain quality of destructive depression that is a sure mark of the demonic. It is one thing to go through the dark night of the soul; it is quite another to fall into self-castigating and hopeless depression and darkness. Beware of those who enjoy their misery or their sickness and turn their backs on joy. The desire to suffer can issue from the destructive, warped influence of the demonic. The martyr complex, as Karl Menniger has pointed out so clearly in 'Man Against Himself', is a form of self-hate. Hate is of demonic inspiration whether it is directed against oneself or another. It is a rejection of God to hate myself, the person for whom Christ died because he loved me so. Identification with the suffering of Christ can be a negative inflation. The early Church rejected all voluntary martyrdom. If someone tries to change our attitudes by fear rather than by love, we need to use careful discernment. Fear is his infernal majesty's most frequently used instrument. Those who would seek to save or change us by making us subject to fear may well be under anything but angelic influence. Since love is of the very nature of God, those who are influenced by the angelic (his messengers) will be characterized first, foremost and always by love. Fear will be a very minor part of the repertoire. What made St. Francis of Assisi the incomparable follower of Jesus of Nazareth was the way he incarnated the spirit of love. The angels were certainly with him. 5p85

11.5: Natural Tendency Toward Cults and Mind Control

These mind controlling practices of various groups and cults do not even need to be developed and used consciously. A spoiled and manipulative child automatically tries to use fear techniques, threats (tantrums etc.), or guilt trips (pouting etc.) on his parents to get his way. If the parents imprudently go along with it, then these childish procedures and parental manipulations will become a habit which could very easily last well into adulthood. Children and students in a group or a gang automatically tend to put a type of peer pressure and fear into anyone who does not want to go along with the crowd or the leader. There is tremendous pressure in these all too common groups to not think for yourself for fear of "making waves" which would automatically bring about ridicule and other uncomfortable situations.

It is ironic to hear rebellious teenagers accuse their parents or religion of "brain washing". The groups that they associate with, having idols such as rock stars or TV stars of today, possess powerful built-in conscious and subconscious mind control and cultic type features. "You gota' get with it man." The name of the game is conformity to the idealistic group led by the base animalistic passions of human nature. Is this not true slavery of the worst kind?

Due to the great power of human respect, it is very difficult to stand alone or to be made fun of due to our principles and religious convictions which are very quickly identified by our peers. If we keep struggling to follow God's holy laws, we soon find that we just don't fit in with the crowd following that easy "wide" and well paved road to destruction. It can be very lonely and tough at times requiring strong moral convictions and character to withstand one of the greatest pressures of this world and the devil - peer pressure, or we could say 'friend' pressure. We all know well enough what all this is about. We live in a world where social pressure calls us 'chicken' or 'square' or 'crazy' or just plain 'you're out of it' unless we conform to custom, no matter how vile it is. It is so tempting to reassure ourselves with the thought that 'after all, everyone else is doing it'. But does a plague become any more tolerable because it is general? There are many souls in hell today who said, "But everybody else does it."

11.6: Partial Reason For Increase In Cultism

One of the problems especially today is that there are fewer and fewer people left who have developed the habit of thinking logically and yet more and more who think that they think logically. Our school systems no longer teach reading, writing, and arithmetic but rather rebellion against any disciplined mental structure and even rebellion toward all authority itself including parents, superiors, and God. These new curriculums go under nice sounding titles such as "Values Clarification", "Morals Education", "Dimensions of Personality", "Sex Education", "Individualized Science Instructional System" (ISIS), "Exploring Human Nature", the "New Math", etc. All have brought protests but still tax money is being poured into them. In these new humanistic anti-God school books, students are asked whether they want to stick to their old (and thus outmoded) moral values (from their parents or church), or adopt new ones. For example, in California, the book, "Human Sexuality" starts out with a full chapter on why students should not get sex information from parents or church. It then goes on to promote abortion, homosexuality, masturbation, adultery pre-marital sex and other aberrations of normal morality . This book was approved for the seventh and eighth grades in California. It is also used in even lower grades in other states. In these destructive text books, parents are attacked for moralizing on one hand, then for being unable to teach values on the other. According to these satanic textbooks, nothing the parents do can possibly be right, so the student must turn to his peers and his teacher for his values. These perverted books with appealing titles are "methods for changing the values of children without the teacher getting caught" (Dr. Sidney Simon - Humanist). 24

If we add to this our own natural difficulty in thinking due to Original Sin and our own sins, especially of pride, along with a great bombardment with much illogical nonsense and sexual diversions from our mass media, is it any wonder that many people allow a leader or a group to think for them?

In the history of the U.S.A., our present high school and college students are the first generation to be less knowledgeable and less educated than the previous generation of their parents. Logical deductive reasoning is becoming a thing of the past. People are more and more allowing others to do their thinking for them. After all, it is hard to think and it is much easier and less "hassle" to avoid developing the mental process of logical deductive thinking. Besides, solid logical thinking generally leads to deductive conclusions which would most likely lead to more responsibility and possible hardships and headaches. In fact, good solid thinking might lead us to the conclusion that we must change or give up a habit or a particular comfortable life style of ours or even leave our "friends" in order to do what we know we must in order to fulfill our long range goals and ideals, in particular, eternal happiness for ourselves or others. But if we form the habit of avoiding logical thinking in order to avoid possible undesirable consequences or if we change our ideals when we stumble across undesirable facts about our lives, we will drift through life with no aim or direction or solid convictions or even important reasons for living. If a man has nothing worth dying for, he also has nothing worth living for.

They say "ignorance is bliss." Perhaps it is for a short period of time so we don't have to face up to or discover our responsibilities or our slow interior deterioration and loss of ideals or hope for future and substantial happiness. After all, does not the Catholic Church say that one of the requirements for a sin to be mortal is that the thought, desire, word, action or omission must be seriously wrong or considered seriously wrong? But the Catholic Church along with basic common sense also says that if you were uncertain about the gravity of a sin but nevertheless committed the sin, you are guilty of mortal sin because you showed yourself willing to offend God seriously. In other words, we should not act in doubt but should form a certain conscience.

11.7: Totalistic Environment

A totalistic environment or society is a state of living in which all the basic requirements of life are fully controlled either through physical force or mind control techniques, or voluntarily being freely chosen by each member of the community with no un-willful coercion techniques used. Some examples of the forced totalistic societies would include the "Moonies", the "Divine Light Mission", the societies described in Thomas Huxley's "Brave New World" or George Orwell's "1984", the many drug and religious cults and the like which are lead and controlled by a leader toward a direction contrary to the desires of the free will choice of the members. Examples of unforced or voluntary totalistic societies would include the freely chosen religious life and also any other group with a set form of life that a person is allowed to freely choose without being consciously or unconsciously coerced mentally or physically toward a direction that he is not aware of and has not freely chosen and consented to.

Human beings, who have any kind of association with each other whatsoever, do influence each other. In regards to heaven, hell, eternity and doing or not doing God's holy will, our influences on others will result in a good effect or a bad effect depending on our example. This is why it is so important for each of us to set a good example due to the very significant influences each of us have on others especially if we are in a position of authority or leadership. Similarly, of the four great marks of the true Church, holiness is the identifying mark which attracts the most members to the true Church. This is because non-Catholics see her holy and prudent members and deductively reason back to the source, their religion.

Since every man has an obligation to know, love, and serve his Creator, we are all obliged to give good example so as not to scandalize and lead astray the weak. But just as God Himself will not interfere or tamper with our free will by forcing us to do something against our will, so too, we must not force anyone to do something against his will unless we are obliged to by our obligations to God or man such as a police officer, a teacher, a parent, etc. Thus, the Key to understanding a constructive cult or a destructive cult is first, does it lead people toward God or away from God, and second, does it force people in anyway whatsoever to do something against their will.

11.8: The Deception of Destructive Cults

A destructive cult will invariably offer appealing ideals or even seemingly wholesome apostolic works to be done just as the "Moonies" do. But the leaders of such a cult are using the innocently allured people to accomplish another goal, whether it be money, a false or imprudent worship, or merely an ego-trip of the leaders. The leaders themselves may not be fully aware of their own motives or the direction of the group at any given moment due to lack of full understanding or repeated imprudent rationalizations which have been repeated, built upon, and forgotten. But the important point is that the followers are either being lead away from God in any way whatsoever (including away from His true Church) or are being forced physically or mentally, consciously or unconsciously, to do something that they are unaware of or are unwilling to do.

There are innumerable ways and hidden ways and hidden techniques of controlling the mind of people. Some of the typical methods as illustrated by Richard LaMartina are: "They make you feel guilty for questioning (church tenets) as being scientifically or religiously invalid". "They get you to reveal hidden parts of your life through peer pressure ... and they then use that information to control you", causing one to give up his independent morals ideals through peer pressure so as to succumb to the direction of the human mob lead by the leaders - often called sensitivity training etc. They force everything into their "black and white perspectives" so you will be blinded to the partially masked and subtle truths of the matter. They project "the world as being so polarized", which is also an attitude which makes it difficult to see the real but hidden realities of a complex world or causes the cult members to be imprudently biased thus making it more difficult to see things objectively due to these fabricated preconceived and instilled false notions about life. They make you think that you are "following the true messiah" or the true will of God or what the Blessed Mother wants or some other important and basic human ideal and goal, all of which very effectively allures and keeps good and innocent people as well as not so innocent people. They tell you that this is the only true belief or way of thinking and acting which appeals to our basic need put into us by God to find or have the infallible truth. They claim to have their own source of revelation (or a prophet) which is put above the Bible or even (at least implicitly) put above Jesus Christ (or the true Church) since they have an infallible source of truth and guidance. A destructive cult is generally based on a human personality rather than common sense and deductive logical thinking leading to the one true personal God Who gives true freedom of mind and soul not manipulative mind controlling slavery. They tell you that the end of the world or the chastisement is near causing you to loose sight of reality and overall common sense and to lean more toward the cultic refuge of false peace and security which we all seek. They tell you how fortunate and privileged you are to be in the cult which appeals to our pride and blinds us to the fact that we are being used and manipulated by them. They tell you that here in the (cult) environment there are less dangers to you or your soul (or psyche) due to the "evil nature of the world" which causes many to stay and conform to the flow of the mass of people in the cult. They tell you what to wear, what to eat, when to sleep or get up (keeping you partially and mentally mesmerized), what habits to form, what to pray, when and where to turn your reports in, who to honor or seek "infallible" answers from, so that the members slowly loose their identity and individual thinking abilities and begin to seek what does Sun Myung Moon say or what does Jim Jones say or what does "Big Brother" say or what does the "Party leaders" say or what does _______ say?

The name of the game is to control the cult member's total mental input. Once this is done they can gently lead us a different direction against our conscious will or even change one or more of our basic beliefs or even change our whole foundation and direction in life. It is done so slowly, so smoothly and seemingly logically with all the right alluring trimmings for the particular type of people they are attracting into their particular cult.

11.9: God Offers True Freedom

But God on the other hand lets us use our free will as we choose. That is why we can choose to hurt or destroy ourselves or we can choose to help and save ourselves with His help. God offers us His "sweet yolk and light burden" of His cross. Christ Himself chose suffering as His lot while on earth. Thus He not only showed the value of patient suffering for love of God but He sanctified all suffering by giving it tremendous value for those who unite their personal God-given crosses in life to the cross of Christ in spirit and love.

God knows what is good for us since He made us. Our strong innate drive for substantial and lasting happiness was put into us by God who alone can perfectly and completely satisfy this very basic need. A constructive cult, which the Catholic Church could be considered in its basic definition, would have to lead us to this true freedom and happiness from God alone. Religious in an approved religious community such as the Franciscans etc., do take vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Thus, it would seem on the surface that the superiors of a Franciscan community are guilty of trying to control the members since these superiors arrange and control most of the environment and mental input into the members. In fact, a Franciscan under vows must obttain permission to do something that is not covered by the constitution or the local house rule. But the fundamental reason why a Franciscan community is a constructive and not a destructive cult is because each member freely takes the three evangelical vows to God not to a human personality but to the Divine Personality. Just as the parents in a family situation, the religious superiors take the place of God on earth as His direct representatives. Even if a superior is fat, ugly or not kind, he still must be respected and obeyed due to the vow of obedience, due to God's natural law and of course due to the fourth commandment of God. Thus God's will comes directly to a Franciscan Friar by way of his lawful superiors. The superiors are bound under pain of sin to uphold the set constitution, the approved house rule and to govern all else according to the basic norms of moral theology, canon law, and the basic law of love of God and neighbor.

What it all boils down to is that every human being will end up serving someone or something. Using his God-given intellect and freewill, he will either end up serving himself finding emptiness, the devil finding hate, envy, and pride, the world finding -empty and short lived thrills and excitements with remorseful strings attached, or he will end up serving his divine Creator and thus find God Himself besides himself. Only by returning to the Source, the One who made us, will we find happiness and the freedom of soul and spirit that we so desperately need and crave. In God's infinite wisdom and love, He made each of us exactly the way He did. God loves us and is interested in us as a unique individual. That is why every saint is different with his own strengths and weaknesses and particular qualities. It may seem derogatory and negative, at least to human nature, to pick up our cross and follow Christ. But hidden in the mystery of suffering is freedom of our immortal soul chained down by our fallen human nature and bad habits that we have allowed to grow and develop through denial and rejection of truth and God's help which is called sin.

God the Father loves His divine Son infinitely and so He gave His Son the valuable treasure of suffering while on earth. The more God loved the saints and the more they loved God, the more God gave them one of His most precious gifts on earth, suffering and tribulations which they bore with love and resignation with God's help. What a mysterious gift from the One who loves us most!

A person may use his God-given free will to choose to blind himself from the truth and thus dig for himself a pit of self-deception. But when a whole community digs the same freely chosen pit of deception together and reinforce each other and their more or less bothered and dulled consciences, imagine how difficult it would be to recognize and dig out of this pit of illusion!

Conclusion

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CONCLUSION

The link between revelations and the Church has become more and more evident as we have progressed in this study. At times we had the impression that we detected opposition to private revelation on the part of the Church. But as we came to examine the details, we quickly noted certain facts which helped us to understand the unity of all aspects of the problem.

First of all we have noted that the best proofs for the existence of revelations reside in the supreme authority of the Church herself, which has provided them through the popes and the Councils .1p273

Then, in the very difficult quest for discernment, we have taken into account that, in the last analysis, the certitude and authenticity of revelations depend upon the Church because miracles, which are generally considered to be the decisive criteria for the discernment of revelations, assume their value as a proof only after they are recognized by the Church. Certainly the miracle may be sufficient in itself for one who has experienced it personally or who is the eyewitness of it, or who can study it at leisure. But there is still the whole body of the faithful for whom it will always remain problematical. Miracles are difficult to discern because of the hidden forces of nature, because of the always possible intervention of the devil, and because of the considerable attraction which appearances may exercise upon the human mind.

Finally, it is in the life of the Church that revelations find their meaning. They show that the Lord remains always with the Church to direct her not only in an invisible way, but also through sensible manifestations of His presence in the affairs of a community or of an individual. Revelations are, moreover, very frequently occasions of a remarkable expansion of the life of the Church, for in places of apparitions one sees men of every race and language coming together in a unity of faith, prayer, sacramental penance, and Eucharistic communion.

Again, the fruitful use of revelations depends in a very intimate way upon the Church. This is demonstrated especially when social revelations are involved, but private revelations do not escape her vigilance. Through confessors and spiritual directors, who are normally aware of these revelations, it is still the voice of the Church which is making itself heard.

Thus, throughout the course of this work, we have been able to note that revelations receive their strongest supports from the Church. It is in the Church, indeed, that they find the best guarantee for their existence, the surest criteria of their discernment, and it is in her that they realize their meaning and fruit.

All this does not surprise us when we consider the link which exists between the Church and revelations. They are inscribed in her history and they belong to her as subsidiary signs by which God manifests invisible realities to man. That is why, if one does not recognize in the Church a close and mysterious union between the visible facts and the invisible realities, one can understand neither the existence nor the meaning of charismatic revelations.

If the Reformers rejected revelations in principle it was not solely because of abuses which they found. More profound reasons - among others, lack of understanding of the Church as the "Body of Christ" (Col 1:18) - induced them to reject revelations. Thus an eminent representative of our separated brethren, Emile Brunner, could write: "What is the Church? That question is the unresolved problem of Protestantism." If one does not see in the Church the Body of Christ, that is, a mysterious continuation of the Incarnation of the Word, one cannot understand why God intervenes in the history of the Church and touches her through the medium of the senses.

Now God willed to realize the Incarnation through the Blessed Virgin. Within that perspective we can understand why theologians, following the example of many of the Fathers, call the Blessed Virgin Mary "the prototype of the Church." They refer to her thus chiefly because Mary is the Mother, Mother before the Church, for the Church and in the Church. Since this is so, it should not surprise us to witness today devotion to the Church and to the Blessed Virgin Mary progressing simultaneously in the consciousness and the life of Christian people. Neither should it surprise us that theological thought dwells with special interest on both the Church and Mary. It is not by chance that Pius XII, at the end of his encyclical upon the Church, 'Mystici Corporis', gives a whole doctrinal synthesis upon her who is the "Mother of all the members of Christ" (Epilogue).

But a mother is naturally solicitous for her children who are in danger. Thus Pius XII said, at the end of the Marian Year of 1954, that Mary "has not ceased to pour out upon poor humanity all the treasures of her affection and of her sweet attentions."

Did she not display these sweet attentions in striking fashion in such places as Lourdes, La Salette, Fatima? Is it not permissible to think that it is because she is a Mother, solicitous for her children that she, more than any other heavenly personage, has had recourse to such extraordinary means as apparitions? Thus she seeks to reconcile a great number of her wayward and disobedient children with God.

Because of the great Marian apparitions and in order to understand them better theologians are seriously seeking the proper meaning of revelations and to construct a theology of them. It may be affirmed that this meaning will be found only in the mystery of the Church, "the Body of Christ" of which Mary is not only the most illustrious member but also the Mother.

We should be proud and happy and grateful to be members of the greatest and grandest organization on earth. We enjoy her protection and share in her graces. The remembrance should make us thank God every night for such a privilege. It should also cast before us a challenge.

The history of the Church has shown us those things which hamper the Mystical Body of Christ in her efforts to carry the graces of the Redemption to mankind; we have seen those things which help her bring the inspirations of the Holy Spirit to their fullest fruition. With the challenge and the warnings of the lives of the saints and the sinners of twenty centuries before us, the torch of Faith is placed in our hands. We now are to have our brief day. Will we bravely carry the light forward or will we bravely carry it back? Will we hold it high or dash it to the earth? Will we build up the Mystical Body or tear It Down.

The Mystical Body of Christ, the Church, has been walking the earth, preaching and teaching and doing good for almost 2000 years. We have seen her despised, rejected, disobeyed. We have seen her made to suffer and die a thousand times, all that men may live.

But we are that Mystical Body. Christ can now live and work in the world only in and through us. He can also be persecuted in and through us. What shall it be? Our human wills, under God's grace, hold the answer. What shall it be? Will we be with Him or against Him? Will we be with or against our holy Mother, the Holy Catholic Church, the divine Spouse of the Holy Spirit?

There is no question that the liberals have torn down the Body of Christ by ignoring or rejecting the rules and laws of God and His Church. But the self-righteous ( "traditional") crusaders who have defamed, detracted, and calumniated the Church's ministers, her priests and bishops, have likewise torn and shredded the flesh of the mystical divine Lamb. We must now turn, all of us, toward building and healing Christ's Body in unity and love and understanding for each other united to the one true Vine, the Holy Catholic Church. We must be the cause of true reconciliation and ecumenism by our patient charity and genuine humility.

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