On the death of his mother: the mother of the priest is always the mother of all priests
ON THE DEATH OF THE MOTHER: THE MOTHER OF THE PRIEST IS ALWAYS THE MOTHER OF ALL PRIESTS
An ancient Christian tradition narrates that when the mother of a priest appears before the Most High, He will ask her: «I gave you life, what did you give me?». The mother will answer: «I have given you my son as your priest». And the Most High will open the doors of Paradise to her.
Author
Editors of The Island of Patmos
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Enrica died yesterday, mother of our brother Simone Pifizzi, liturgist editor of The Island of Patmos.
The Pifizzi family: on the left Claudio, on the right Simone, in the center the two parents
The funeral will take place tomorrow in the Parish Church of the Sacred Heart in Florence, in via Capo di Mondo 60, at 15:30. All the Fathers of the Island of Patmos embrace their brother Simone with faith and affection. The Fathers Ariel S. Levi di Gualdo, which is located in Rome, and Gabriele Giordano M. Scardocci, who resides at the Convent of Santa Maria Novella in Florence, they will also be present at the funeral for the Brother editors Ivano Liguori, Teodoro Beccia, the Hermit Monk and for the president of Edizioni L'Isola di Patmos Jorge Facio Lince, for whom it is impossible to reach the Tuscan capital tomorrow.
the Island of Patmos, 16 September 2024
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It's true that everyone asks, but we Fathers of the Island of Patmos are beyond doubt special. You know it's our birthday soon?
IT'S TRUE THAT EVERYONE ASKS, BUT WE FATHERS OF THE ISLAND OF PATMOS WE ARE OUT OF ANY DOUBT SPECIAL. YOU KNOW THAT IT'S OUR BIRTHDAY SOON?
The 19 October 2014 our webmaster uploaded the website of the magazine L'Isola di Patmos to the platform which the 20 October was open online, since then we have never experienced a decline but only continuous growth in visits.
Author
Editors of The Island of Patmos
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Dear Readers,
when the 20 October 2014 debuted online The Island of Patmos, founded by the late academic of the Roman School Antonio Love, by the pontifical academic Giovanni Cavalcoli and by the theologian Ariel S. Levi di Gualdo, some said we wouldn't have more than a year to live. And indeed it would have been so, if due to the high number of visits we had not provided ours webmaster and ours social manager to move the website of this magazine to a site less than two years later dedicated server, which, added to all other expenses, entails an expense of for our editorial staff 5.200 euro per year.
The Island of Patmos is carried out by one Drafting composed of six presbyters specialized in the various theological sciences, liturgical and juridical, plus four collaborators. He has published to date 948 items and totaled over 500.000.000 of visits. In 2018 they were born Editions The island of Patmos which they have published and distributed to date 25 books.
If you believe our work deserves to be supported, contribute as you always have done every year, allowing us to reach the necessary annual sum of money that we have to pay every month of October.
It's true that everyone asks, and we Fathers of The Island of Patmos we are without a doubt special. Below you can find our bank account details and the link to the convenient and secure system PayPal.
May God reward!
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The people that we ourselves have long since given up on educating with our authority and authority gave a lesson by saying «Enough!» to the Archbishop of Brindisi
AND THE PEOPLE WHOM WE OURSELVES HAVE GIVEN UP FOR A LONG TIME TO EDUCATE WITH OUR AUTHORITY AND AUTHORITY GIVEN A LESSON SAYING «ENOUGH!» TO THE ARCHBISHOP OF BRINDISI
Much has been said about the excessive length of homilies, as mentioned above, the Pope also intervened. By the way, inappropriately? It's something the Pope must say? Personally I think not and eight minutes seems like a Procrustean bed to me, but we know, That's how he is.
Author
Hermit Monk
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Not taking into account or perhaps not remembering the suggestion given by the Supreme Pontiff regarding homilies which must not last more than eight minutes[1] (WHO), the Archbishop of Brindisi-Ostuni, S. AND. Mons. Giovanni Intini, in recent days he has seen fit to add another ten minutes to the eight, on the occasion of the celebrations of the patron saints of Brindisi, San Lorenzo and San Teodoro d'Amasea. The mayor's speeches were expected, lasted, coincidentally, exactly eight minutes, and the archbishop. But the complaints about the length of the speech, about eighteen minutes, they interrupt the words of the Brindisi prelate several times. The muttering of the crowd, coming from the Virgilio staircase and the Brindisi seafront, they have become "Enough!» (WHO). And these were accompanied by ironic applause and some other sounds. The Archbishop finished the speech without giving any sign of disturbance and, as scheduled, the highly anticipated fireworks display began followed by the procession.
The next day, in the Church during the solemn Pontifical, the bishop, who evidently had digested the matter badly, decided not to give the homily, indeed to keep a very short one of this nature:
«So as not to tire you out this evening as I tired the listeners last night and I wouldn't want anyone else to shout enough, I thought about keeping quiet tonight. Let us welcome in silence the word of God that has been sown in our hearts" (WHO).
For his silent protest he cashed in, needless to say, the solidarity of a political faction, But, in conclusion, Excellence, It's possible that a whole night wasn't enough to overcome such a modest thing? Maybe it wasn't an opportunity to laugh about it and perhaps launch a short, incisive and constructive message to the protesters, given that the thing had now ended up in the newspapers and therefore well known? That's how it went. At the bottom of the Archbishop of Otranto Stefano Pendinelli it got much worse: he was slaughtered by the Turks who waited sitting on his episcopal chair together with the devout faithful gathered around him in the cathedral church in distant 11 august of 1480, transformed by the infidels into a horrible slaughterhouse (cf.. The Martyrs of Otranto).
Archbishop Giovanni Intini was not the first challenged in history and not even the most famous. We all remember that even the Apostle Paul, thinking well of taking advantage of the circumstances and finding himself in an authoritative place like the Areopagus in Athens, launched into a speech with a high-sounding incipit: «Athenians, I see that, in everything, you are very religious". But we all know how it ended as soon as Paul introduced the central theme of Christianity, that is, the Resurrection of Christ: «We'll hear from you another time about this» (At 17). One flop we would say today, poor Apostle. But it's not that the next day Saint Paul lost heart. Indeed, he left and went to Corinth without ever ceasing to offer the word of his Gospel.
All those who have to do with the Christian message they know they have to take into account the objection or annoyance of a party. In these times when there is an obligation to have one's say social, even and perhaps especially if you don't know the subject, it's almost a refrain that as soon as the words of some ecclesiastic are reported there are those who comment: «ah on pedophilia?»; «The riches of the Vatican?» … Or the most classic: «Welcome them, you who have the facilities»; if anything we are talking about migrants. If you hear the news about social which concerned the Archbishop of Brindisi, you see that there is no deviation from this rule, some defend it, others criticize it, many laugh, they make jokes and there is no shortage of blasphemy.
But that doesn't mean you have to blame it, maybe a little at the moment, much less keep silent. Sometimes the weapon of irony, to know how to use it, it becomes more effective than silence and opens up possibilities for dialogue.
On the excessive length of homilies a lot has been said and, as mentioned above, the Pope also intervened. By the way, inappropriately? It's something the Pope must say? Personally I think not and eight minutes seems like a Procrustean bed to me, but we know, That's how he is.
I remember a funny fact which I have witnessed more than once. In a country parish where I was, the respect for the "Mr. Curate" was deep-rooted: woe betide anyone who touched the priest. But it happened that he too could sometimes go on at length in his homilies. There was a direct farmer in the parish, not of high culture, but of solid wisdom, who did not miss a Mass despite his commitments. He stood sideways, along the nave and sometimes, fortunately rare, if the sermon became excessively long or repetitive, he pointed this out by standing up. No offense or rudeness, just a sign of friendship, because he loved the parish priest very much, and him, understanding, he quickly reached the conclusion.
It's not that one wants to teach the I believe to the Apostles, as they say, and even less give advice to an Archbishop. But if it were to happen again and, Alas, it will happen again, it would be better not to get too upset about a dispute. We know well that there are knights who are defenders of the faith around and who, on tempting occasions like this, throw themselves into it headlong.. But with what result? To embitter tempers and with the excuse of defending one side end up widening the divide that divides? It is a little difficult to say how one should behave in such circumstances, the episode of the Archbishop of Brindisi teaches us that emotions are difficult to stem or keep in check. We always remember, But, that every occasion, good or bad, adverse or favorable, it is good for offering the word of the Gospel, so as not to silence the Christian fact. The first Apostles themselves remind us of this even after so many centuries, Saint Paul whom we have mentioned above, who did not lose heart and Peter who wrote in his letter:
«If you then had to suffer for justice, lucky you! Do not be dismayed by fear of them and do not be troubled, but worship the Lord, Christ, in your hearts, always ready to respond to anyone who asks you the reason for the hope that is in you" (1PT 3,14-15).
From the Hermitage, 4 September 2024
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[1] «The homily must not exceed eight minutes, because after time, attention is lost and people fall asleep, and he's right. A homily must be like this"
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Sant'Angelo Cave in Ripe (Civitella del Tronto)
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To the Brother Priests: how to defend yourself from certain new generation Bishops, especially since the invasion of the Apulians?
TO THE BROTHER PRIESTS: HOW TO DEFEND YOURSELF FROM CERTAIN BISHOPS NEW GENERATION, SPECIALLY FROM THE INVASION OF THE PUGLIÈNI?
There is a sense of proportion that must always be applied through the exercise of that wisdom that the Roman jurists called aequitas, then transferred from scratch into Roman Canon Law. What aequitas means and how it is applied? Soon said: if members of the Roman Senate are allowed to insult and rape Caesar's wife, without Caesar and his deputies reacting in any way, you cannot then apply maximum rigor by crushing the legs of anyone who has allowed himself to respond badly to a servant in charge of cleaning the calidarium of the Baths of Diocletian.
Author
Ariel S. Levi di Gualdo
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Italy is now full of bishops ― or rather of episcopetti ― all very social, with one eye winking at the PD and the other at LGBT activists. And all, like broken records, they pronounce precise watchwords: «Church on the way out … break the mold … get your hands dirty...", but above all «the poor and migrants … migrants and the poor...".
Then there are also those who turn on you saying: «How dare you call me Your Excellency? We are no longer in the Renaissance era, Can't you see that I wear a wooden cross around my neck and that I am a native of the land of the most holy Tonino Bello? Call me Don Checco, because maybe you don't know, but I am a small bishop who graduated from the school of Checco Zalone. After all, I belong to the Apulian species, half Apulian and half alien, very popular today. Because if you are not from Puglia, to divide the bishop new generation in Italy it is not easy, but not even apostolic nuncio, academic or official of the Roman Curia". Also because the bishops, although they are not saints, it seems that they do them directly at the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, where today a famous Apulian prefect lives, half Apulian and half alien.
Well, dear Brothers, all these grotesque images circulating on the social media, depicting grotesque priests whose existence is due to bishops more grotesque than them, set them aside, in an archive, all of them. Then, the first time that the bishop on duty who speaks continuously in public about «more dialogue, more democracy in the Church... synodality and conversation in the Spirit are needed...", he will call you to report inside a closed room more authoritarian and despotic than Pol Pot and Korean Kim Jong, if anything to reproach you for being too Catholic, which today means to be “rigid” e “gloomy”, show them all these images and videos: by the priest with the moustache, the earring and sunglasses during the sacred liturgies, to all the others who seem to compete with each other to see who screws up the biggest, but above all the most irreverent …
If the bishop dares to sigh, remind him that there is a sense of proportion that must always be applied through the exercise of that wisdom that the Roman jurists called aequitas, then transferred from scratch into Roman Canon Law. What does it mean aequitas and how it is applied? Soon said: if members of the Roman Senate are allowed to insult and rape Caesar's wife, without Caesar and his deputies reacting in any way, you cannot then apply maximum rigor by crushing the legs of anyone who has allowed himself to respond badly to a servant in charge of cleaning the calidarium of the Baths of Diocletian. And if the bishops were to insist, despite the evidence of the facts, what they are capable of doing, having now lost along with modesty also the sense of shame, you know where to send them, because their authority is not in question, which remains undisputed, but their intelligence, which can and must be discussed. Even a bishop, without prejudice to his own authority apostolic, he can be a complete idiot. And today, of idiotic bishops, we have an inflation rate that would be the envy of the Argentine currency at its all-time high in devaluation.
the Island of Patmos, 4 September 2024
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We believers must avoid entering historic churches to protect our faith and our sense of the sacred?
WE BELIEVERS MUST AVOID ENTERING HISTORIC CHURCHES TO PROTECT OUR FAITH AND OUR INNATE SENSE OF THE SACRED?
If a believer, moreover a priest - even if today being a priest does not imply being a believer, we have plenty of priests who are perfect atheists devoted to the new clerical power, all involved in social work - refuses to enter historic churches, The bishops should ask themselves some questions, if they weren't themselves busy being chief social workers.
Author
Ariel S. Levi di Gualdo
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This month of August I spent ten days in the cool, on the mountains of Abruzzo. Soon “fresh” I'll end up there in the literal sense of the word: loss in. Or to put it with the Cardinal Francis George (1937 – †2015), about which the Cardinal also bears witness Angelo Comastri:
«I think I'll die in my bed but I'm afraid my successor will die in prison. And I still fear that his successor will die by firing squad, because we defend the family, because we say that the family is made up of a man and a woman and that life must be born from a father and a mother. We will be persecuted for this" (from the homily of 4 August 2024, WHO).
Even though many aren't aware of it, our fate is sealed. Others, who are aware of it, they flirt with this unclean world of ours trying to please it, in the hope of obtaining his graces and being pardoned at the right time.
For years I have avoided entering historic churches, starting from those of Rome, mindful of the desecrations that believers are forced to witness due to the assault of modern landsknechts (cf.. Sack of Rome 1527). And so, when, meeting up with people around our capital, I was asked several times to enter some of these churches with them, without hesitation I replied: «You go, I'll wait for you outside".
Before leaving again from the cool mountains I went to the nearby Marche, in Ascoli Piceno, to visit that authentic urban jewel, this time entering the Cathedral Church, with the results visible from the video I shot with my mobile phone. I can only tell one, because I think it's enough and more: upon entering the chapel of the Blessed Sacrament I knelt at the balustrade in front of the tabernacle, behind me a female voice begins in such a low tone: «…and what the fuck is he doing kneeling in front of that piece of furniture?». I turn and see three thirteen-year-old girls a few meters away from me, about fourteen years old, in shorts-underpants-crotches, intent on observing me from behind as if I were David Bowie in the science fiction film The man who fell to earth.
If a believer, moreover a priest - even if today being a priest does not imply being a believer, we have plenty of priests who are perfect atheists devoted to the new clerical power, all involved in social work - refuses to enter historic churches, The bishops should ask themselves some questions, if they weren't themselves busy being chief social workers.
I don't go inside historic churches reduced to museums visited by people who are increasingly irreverent and deliberately contemptuous of everything that is sacred, because I'm not willing to see girls who don't even wear short shorts anymore shorts, now they enter places of worship wearing real underwear, what they were once called culottes and which constituted women's underwear worn under clothes. Today the culottes instead they have assumed rank of dress and with them you enter churches, complete with said bras top that leave the belly exposed in plain sight.
I don't go inside historic churches because many women and girls who deliberately and intentionally provoke with certain attitudes, they would like nothing better than for some priest irritated by their outrageous attitudes towards the sacredness of the place to open his mouth to rebuke them; This is what they want and seek, and then spark public controversy over social media or give life to a real media case.
If I dared to scold some of these porn visitors, As absurd as it may seem, I would end up reprimanded by the competent ecclesiastical authority, being neither the bishop of that diocese nor the parish priest nor the rector of that church. Also because, if you enter a cathedral church in your underwear, who in fact allows it is first and foremost the bishop.
On the occasion of the traditional Palio I commented days ago on my page social — in a deliberately colorful way - the image of several girls entering screaming and shouting into the metropolitan cathedral of Siena dressed not so indecently, but really half naked. The video shown here shows in close-up the damsels crossing the central nave in their underwear with their stomachs exposed.
Obviously I had to put up with the anger and insults of the narrowest Sienese provincialism made up of Contrada members who, if stopped and questioned, would not be able to recite the Our father from start to finish; subjects who would remain speechless when faced with the question: can you tell me the first five words of the I believe? This army social of people who don't even know from which precise point on their body to start to make the sign of the cross, defended these shameless women with drawn swords, calling me "vulgar" and "the shame of a priest" for having dared - according to them - to let out a sigh on the “sacred dogma” of the Palio, which I don't care about, as I had explained clearly. What only interests me is that young women with no common sense of decency are not forced screaming into a historic cathedral church in their underwear with their stomachs exposed., not even if their so-called Contrada won, referred to me, like any other child of the Orbe catholica, I repeat, couldn't care less, because the respect for the sacred place is far superior to the traditional pagan games of the Palio of Siena.
15 August 2024, triumphal entry of women in their underwear into the metropolitan cathedral of Siena to celebrate the winning district of the Palio
This is why I don't go inside historic churches, with all due respect to our bishops who, faced with these irreverent scenes, vent more than ever by talking about the poor and migrants, of migrants and the poor, as well as «Church going out».
The problem is that we believers are leaving the churches, we priests ourselves animated by faith and solid priestly spirit, to leave room for the panties of the shameless ones who, with their thongs in the middle of their asses, gaze in the historic cathedral at that large chair placed on display in the presbytery, known to us as the episcopal chair, on which it climbs only one one of the numerous guys who tries to please and please the international Left by talking about poor people and migrants about migrants and poor people, while inside its cathedral church you walk with the culottes or the thread of the thong exposed in the middle of the ass under transparent shorts. For this reason it is very coherent that the Holy Father launched the excitatory at the right time slogan of the «Church that goes forth», from which the first to emerge are the believers, to protect and safeguard their faith, if anything, on the advice of us priests who still remained Catholic.
I will be among those who will not die in their bed, I will surely die in prison, while those after me, the few who have kept the faith, they will die by shooting in the square for having stated that a child can only be born from a father and a mother, while the self-satisfied clericals of the "outgoing Church" will ask forgiveness from all the international Lefts for the rigor of certain unworthy Catholics devoid of an inclusive spirit and incapable of keeping up with the times, just like those vile ecclesiastics who, to save their skins and maintain their privileges, swore allegiance on the atheist and anti-Christian text of the Constitutional Charter of France during the Revolution.
The thong thread some women wear it in the middle of their ass when they go to visit historic churches; certain ecclesiastical, the thong, instead they wear it printed on their faces as they govern and manage the Church in such a way as to demonstrate from day to day how deeply ashamed they are of Christ, apologizing to the world for him and for his excessive rigor imprinted on the pages of the Holy Gospel which contains within it everything that the world doesn't like, for this reason it is a source of ever-increasing embarrassment for the condescending clericalism that desires to please, please and live peacefully.
the Island of Patmos, 21 August 2024
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When the dream amphibologist author of “Codice Katzinger” he took care of “cat and cat” and tried to scratch itches by celebrating the twentieth anniversary of Viagra …
WHEN THE DREAM AMPHIBOLOGIST AUTHOR OF CODICE KATZINGER HE WAS DEALING WITH CATZ AND MATZ AND HE TRIED TO PITCH THE ITCHES BY CELEBRATING TWENTY YEARS OF VIAGRA …
Good times, when it was more of a woman's hair rather than ridicule Codice Katzinger of a pathetic character who, in order to make news and cassettes, makes no distinction between the twentieth anniversary of Viagra and the twenty centuries of history of the Papacy!
— Smiling at what isn't serious but would like to be —
Author
Ariel S. Levi di Gualdo
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Overwhelmed by the heat that envelops us this summer, Fathers de The Island of Patmos they have entrusted to my pen the gift of a fresh smile with which to pay homage to our Readers, reiterating incidentally that as priests we are called to be serious and not serious people. In fact, between the serious and the serious lies the difference between a sincere man and a hypocritical man.
The Italian man is no longer what he once was, when for a skirt he lost the light of reason. And faced with certain current situations we can only say... those were good times! Today, the light of reason, many lose it behind conspiracies or unlikely cryptic codes of the Supreme Pontiffs who have made false renouncements of the pontificate, to follow with unspecified amphibologies marketed by some salesman …
Instead of testosterone certain Italian men exude science fiction phobias, often even of a pseudo-religious nature. No longer foaming at the mouth as happened in the past, to talk about the unforgettable performances from One Thousand and One Nights that they would offer to certain beautiful women; today, with their mouths, they drool excitedly to talk about gift e ministry pontifical, getting excited much more than they would get excited in front of a beautiful model put on the cover of an erotic monthly magazine.
And so it was that a certain journalist - whose intellectual honesty is equal to that of a fox who enters a henhouse dressed as a Carmelite nun to preach penitential fasting -, he understood that the wise popular proverb had been tragically reversed. In fact, our wise elders said:
«It pulls a woman's hair more than an ox cart».
That's why ours, in data 6 February 2019, he tried to arouse itching with the historical apologia of the ancestors of Viagra by writing in the newspaper The 19th Century this article:
«The ancestors of Viagra. Thousand-year history of aphrodisiacs, from the ancient Romans to words in chat» (see article WHO).
It may be that while working on this article ended up discovering that if Viagra exists it's precisely because women's hair grows less and less, the cart is increasingly tired and the oxen that pull it are increasingly horned. And as if by magic he decided to transform himself from an unlikely historian of urology and andrology into a canonist, ecclesiologist and historian of the most unlikely Church yet, creating a kind of hair and itching that today is more painful than ever, perhaps even on a compensatory level, because many men seem to make up for their natural lack of libido by arousing themselves with plots centered on false popes ruling false churches after their predecessor had falsely renounced the sacred throne to inaugurate a fantastic “venue prevented” (!?).
We priests miss them terribly those men who let themselves be pulled more by a woman's hair than by an ox cart. For us confessors, then, it was a pleasure and a great act of grace to absolve an army of lustful people, behind which, well never forget it, there were just as many lustful women, because men did not do it alone, in that case it would have just been masturbation. Therefore, when certain weeping women, groaning and afflicted in their victimhood, they speak of the plague of cheaters, referring to them as whoremongers, with due honesty they should remember and admit that behind every whoremonger there is always and necessarily a whoremonger, unless, as we said just now, man does not do it alone, in this case, however, it would not be betrayal but a completely different thing and very different sexual practice and activity.
Today, the psycho-impotent in the brain following Carini's rabid rabid dogs and amphibologists who wrote cryptic codes to decode, I am far from coming to confession, because the more they wreak havoc on the Church and the Papacy, the more they pretend to feel right.
Good times, when it was more of a woman's hair rather than ridicule Codice Katzinger of a pathetic character who, in order to make news and cassettes, makes no distinction between the twentieth anniversary of Viagra and the twenty centuries of history of the Papacy!
Happy summer everyone.
From the island of Patmos, 31 July 2024
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The work of the Devil in the history of man: temptation as a daily battle
THE WORK OF THE DEVIL IN THE HISTORY OF MAN: TEMPTATION AS A DAILY BATTLE
Now the diabolical possession, of which even the Lord Jesus was accused is an extraordinary action, very rare, of which the Church follows a strict procedure and rules for its certification. But ordinary action, daily, of the Devil is the temptation that comes to strike man both in the body and in the psyche.
Author:
Gabriele Giordano M. Scardocci, o.p.
Some time ago I dedicated an article to the figure of the Demon, after that in Sicily, in February this year, a heinous crime was committed where the killer, to explain his insane act, he was hiding behind the reason that in his house, in his family members, there was this dark presence (WHO).
I continued to think about it and I find it prudent as well as reasonable to add a few words about temptation, which appears as the ordinary way through which Satan acts among men, placing stumbles, by virtue of his being disobedient and a liar first and foremost. In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, al n. 395, he is defined as a spirit with limited power:
«However, Satan's power is not infinite. He is but a creature, powerful because it is pure spirit, but still a creature: cannot prevent the building of the kingdom of God. Although Satan works in the world out of hatred against God and his kingdom in Christ Jesus, and although his action causes serious damage - of a spiritual nature and indirectly also of a physical nature - to every man and to society, this action is permitted by divine providence, which guides the history of man and the world with strength and sweetness. Divine permission of diabolical activity is a great mystery, but "we know that everything works for the good of those who love God (RM 8,28)».
I think it is right to return to reflecting on the meaning of temptation, because this topic seems to have disappeared from the horizon of Christian life, rather, sometimes, we try to diminish personal responsibility for sin. How many times have we heard it pronounced, as a joke, Oscar Wilde's famous phrase: «The best way to get rid of a temptation, is to give in". Or only the first part of a well-known phrase of Jesus in the Gospel is retained: "I don't condemn you either"; forgetting that the text continues with: "will’ and from now on sin no more ". Or when in the everyday phrasebook, to excuse particular sins they say: «The flesh is weak».
Just to mention, having quoted the famous writer Oscar Wilde, I would like to mention that, despite his past, the many homosexual adventures, he died as a Catholic, after receiving Baptism from a priest, absolution from sins the moment of death and extreme unction. In the famous letter Out of the depths addressed to a lover of hers, Oscar Wilde never stops blaming himself for the weaknesses demonstrated on every occasion and pronounces the phrase: «Catholicism is the only religion worth dying for».
Always to loosen personal responsibility in sinning, sometimes it comes, in the religious field, to put the entire blame on the Devil. Or we resort, outside the horizon of faith, to the psychological processes by which the human being, since it is such, subject to impulses and desires that often date back to childhood, he is free from sin; he can self-absolve without intermediaries, even going as far as removing the guilt itself, in defiance of any ethics of responsibility. This is something in which Freudian psychoanalysis is a pioneer.
Understand what temptation is it means understanding precisely this human fragility. In a religious and specifically Christian context, we see that this humanity subject to transience has not been condemned by God, but rather, assumed by Verbo, the second person of the Holy Trinity, so much so that in the Creed it is professed that He is: «True God and true Man». In fact, we know that Jesus himself suffered the attack of temptation and brought the word of forgiveness and mercy to everyone, leaving man the freedom to be able to disregard this proposal to his own detriment.
Face temptation for us human beings it means waging a war that we fight frequently. And the example of Christ who engaged in a final battle with the Devil comes to us. According to the account of the Synoptics, the public demonstration of Jesus' messiahship in baptism is immediately followed by the conflict with the Devil, whose peak is reached by the Lucanian version of the second temptation:
«E, leading him upwards, showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the ecumene; and the Devil told him: “I will give you all this power and their glory, because it was given to me and I give it to whoever I want; if you then bow down before me, it will be all yours”» (LC 4, 5-6).
It's a deadly challenge. Jesus cannot contest the Demon's assertion of power, but he opposes it with faith in another power. To whom later, echoing the words of the devil, he will accuse him of being possessed himself, will answer:
«But if it is with the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come to you" (LC 11, 20).
Now the diabolical possession, of which even the Lord Jesus was accused is an extraordinary action, very rare, of which the Church follows a strict procedure and rules for its certification. But ordinary action, daily, of the Devil is the temptation that comes to strike man both in the body and in the psyche.
As the Catechism stated mentioned above, for the mysterious plans of God, this tempting yet limited activity, it is also allowed, evidently for a higher purpose. We could say, for the good of souls. The psychological and spiritual dynamics of temptation have as their goal the overturning of the real relationship between us and God. The devil makes us appear to be good things that are not, leading us to sin, attempts to distance us from the living and true God by placing before our eyes attractive realities that are in truth poor idols.
These demonic dynamics of temptation we can trace them in the first biblical book of Genesis. It is there that we find the mother of all temptation narrated, in the third chapter of the work. The text shows us how a temptation moves that is to the detriment of man and his original relationship with the Creator.
First of all, temptation, in its first movement, it comes between man and God's plan for him, until it corrupts him.
“It meanders […] he said to the woman: “It is true that God said: You must not eat from any tree in the garden?”» (Gen 3, 1).
The tempter thus insinuates himself into the relationship between the creature and the Creator, starting to ask doubts in the form of a question in a dialogue context. The first failure occurs here, the trap into which Eve falls, because he answers. All spiritual authors, based on the biblical text, they warn that we must not dialogue with the devil, but silence it, preventing it from triggering any suspicion. The only voice we need to listen to is that of God.
The next move, or second movement of every temptation, it consists in the moral distortion of a good, making it perceived as the opposite:
«The serpent said to the woman: “You will not die at all! On the contrary, God knows when you ate it, your eyes would be opened and you would become like God, knowing good and evil" (Gen 3, 4-5).
Once you open a door for dialogue the Devil not only sneakily insinuates himself and raises doubts about God like few others, but he distorts His teaching, perverting it. It is the end of morality and the search for true good: make it seem like a bad choice, a shame, as the best and most reasonable thing. Having reached this point, how can you not fall? In fact, everything happens easily. Because sin is presented to us as the truest and most useful way, only to then discover that it is insidious and above all distances us from God:
«Then the woman saw that the tree was good to eat, pleasing to the eyes and desirable for gaining wisdom; he took of its fruit and ate, then she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he also ate it."(Gen 3,6).
As noted, then exit the tunnel of temptation, once entered, it is difficult if not impossible. Yet at the beginning we said that we are not subjects without freedom and responsibility. Even if indispensable goods are undermined by a threat such as the demonic one, we have the capacity, if not duty, to oppose us. The Saints and the masters of the spirit have shown us some means which, if they don't help us avoid being tempted, they strengthen us, they give us those antibodies that make us almost unassailable. I mentioned before not giving space to dialogue with the devil, which can be, for instance, inner, in our thoughts; and to do this we need to be vigilant.
The prayer, following the example of Jesus, It helps a lot in not falling into temptation. It trains us to be vigilant and prepares us for future difficulties and battles with the devil. But sometimes it is also necessary to escape temptation, as if faced with a danger that overwhelms us or that we cannot control, a fire that blazes. The sayings of the desert fathers are full of examples of this kind, when they were tempted on their genuine faith or on the chastity they had chosen. There is a beautiful painting by Matthias Grünewald, preserved in Colmar in France, where the father of the desert is seen, Saint Anthony the Abbot, stretched and attacked on all sides by beasts representing demons with their temptations. But he doesn't give in or give up. The account of the battles of Saint Anthony the Abbot against the devil is told to us in these terms by Bishop Athanasius of Alexandria who wrote, having known him in life, a biography of the holy anchorite:
«The place seemed to have been shaken by an earthquake, and demons, almost as if they were breaking down the four walls of the shelter they seemed to penetrate through them, and appear in the form of beasts and creeping things. The place suddenly filled with lion shapes, bears, leopards, Market, snakes, aspidi, scorpions, and each of them moved according to its nature".
It has rightly been observed that sermons on demons constitute
«… a great example of Christian psychology, in which human excesses are described in the form of demons recalled from the abyss of the unconscious, a sort of Freud ante litteram with the power of Dostoevsky.» (Louis Goosen, Dictionary of saints, Mondadori, 2000).
From what has been said so far it is clear that, humanity being fragile, it is easy for us to give in to sin as a result of temptation. Yet we know from all revelation that we cannot be tempted beyond our ability, that God is our strength in all circumstances. And even if we fall, God loves the repentant man and always welcomes him in his great goodness, as the parables of mercy that we read in the Gospel teach us. So much so that Jesus himself asks us to imitate him in forgiving others and to convert.
Give in to temptation and passively accept sin it does not just appear as a serious act of irresponsibility and immorality; I would also say that it is an act against the beauty and value of the dignity and freedom that God himself has given us. His grace and his love, which has revealed to us in the course of the history of salvation and above all in Christ our Lord push us to free ourselves from the bonds of temptation to live habitually in virtue.
In a next episode we will be able to better analyze the equipment of the virtuous man and what weapons we have from God to fight demonic assaults. In the meantime, to tone down the serious tones a bit, I leave you with a reading recommendation, the beautiful book by C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters. This book is a satirical story in epistolary form in which an elderly devil, «his powerful Abyssal Sublimity, Undersecretary Screwtape», instructs his nephew Malacoda, a young devil apprentice tempter. Screwtape advises Wormwood on how to ensure the damnation of the soul of a young human assigned to him, referred to as the "patient", while God is the «Enemy». So he wisely states, in the introduction, the Lewis:
«There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall regarding devils. One is not to believe in their existence. The other is to believe it, and have an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and greet a materialist or a magician with the same pleasure.".
Santa Maria Novella in Florence, 3 July 2024
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