4 OT B: That’s not something to play with.

 Friends

Peace be with you. 

I became aware of a concerning trend for bachelorette parties happening in a previous assignment. Apparently, it’s not uncommon for people who want a more tame bachelorette party to invite in a psychic and have the person do a seance or read palms or do some other game that is essentially divination. If you ask a participant, they’re likely to say that it’s just for fun and they don’t really believe the psychic has any powers. The truth is, however, that we, as Catholics, need to be really cautious about this practice and need to avoid assuming nothing bad can happen. I don’t want people to attribute every bad thing that happens in the world to evil spirits or allow a person who makes bad decisions the ability to say “the devil made me do it.” But we likewise have to be cautious of flaunting the power of evil spirits. A commentary I read said, “The western tendency to rationalize the ancient understanding of spirits is rooted in the fact that westerners have much more power over their lives and circumstances than the ancients believed they had.”

The trouble with psychics and mediums and these types of people is they practice divination. Divination is different from prophecy because it presumes we can force the spiritual world to do our bidding and answer our questions. People take out a ouija board, for instance, and ask the spirits a question and think they are getting an answer because the piece moves around seemingly by itself. I was really impressed with Dr. Peter Kreeft again this week when he said, “God is pure spirit and He created angels who are pure spirit and He gave them free will and some chose evil rather than good and these are evil spirits.” Dr. Kreeft is pointing to the fact that, in terms of power, because they are purely spiritual beings, the evil spirits are more powerful than us. So that ouija board is more like the internet than it is an innocent game of Clue, you never know who you are talking to and, therefore, you need to be cautious. This was taken for granted in earlier ages before a guy named Fredrich Nietzche decided that, if we simply denied that anything more powerful than us exists, we make ourselves the most powerful thing. But Nietsche was wrong. The fact that evil is powerful is very evident in this world. You don’t have to ride along with the police department to see it, though I’ve seen there. It happened a little over a year ago in this very church, I believe, when a woman entered the back doors during Noon Mass and started debating with me during the Eucharistic prayer because she believed she was the incarnation of Jesus Christ. I would guess she had opened herself up, incrementally, through the use of hallucinogenic drugs and other acts, to some form of evil, even if mental illness was also present in her.

What can we do instead? If divination is evil because it operates under the impression we can have power over the spiritual realm, the first thing is to recognize we can’t and we should, therefore, avoid it. We should not go to mediums or palm readers or psychics. If we have, we should go to the sacrament of reconciliation and confess it. If we feel like there is a spiritual heaviness or darkness in our life, we should say out loud “You are not welcome here! I have been purchased by the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ and he and his servants are alone welcome here”. We can pray to our guardian angel to protect us from evil spirits. We can pray that great prayer of protection to St. Michael the Archangel to defend us in battle and be our protection from the devil. You can ask me for a blessing to protect you from evil spirits. We can wear the miraculous medal and be consecrated to our Blessed Mother and ask for her special protections. While we should be paralyzed in fear of evil spirits, we shouldn’t play with fire either. 

Secondly, the opposite of divination is prophecy. Prophecy is when God chooses to speak to us. It’s what made Jesus unique in that synagogue in Capernaum. He speaks with authority because he prophetically speaks the word of God. Jesus, in turn, continues to speak to us through the Bible and our Sacred Tradition. Pray daily with the Bible to listen to God’s voice, especially the Mass readings for the day especially at adoration. Read the Catechism and the lives of the saints to see how our predecessors were called by God to live holy lives. We can’t force God to answer our questions, nor get the answers from spirits that may or may not tell the truth. We must patiently seek the voice of truth only from the one who speaks with authority, Jesus Christ.