MEDJUGORJE: & the
temptation of Christ
[6] And said to him: If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down, for it is written: That he hath given his angels charge over thee, and in their hands shall they bear thee up, lest perhaps thou dash thy foot against a stone. [7] Jesus said to him: It is written again: Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. [8] Again the devil took him up into a very high mountain, and shewed him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, [9] And said to him: All these will I give thee, if falling down thou wilt adore me. [10] Then Jesus saith to him: Begone, Satan: for it is written, The Lord thy God shalt thou adore, and him only shalt thou serve.
......concerning the
first temptation we can see that Christ is tempted to conjure a miracle and to
turn false doctrines and lies into truth(stones into bread)...for it is said
that the word of God is food or bread to the intellect and the contrary to this
would be stones...
...the gods made of wood ..wood is a
commodity that can be carved according to the whims of the artificer..for example a god conjured from the imagination of man which can be the amalgamation of many strange desires or elucidations...it is a
god that can change..yet God never changes....accordingly these false gods are
of stone...meaning dead doctrines based in errors and falsehood...they cannot
see because they are in darkness..as it says in John Jesus is the light and the darkness did not
know the light....etcc.....
..however elsewhere in
the bible it is told that Jesus is the chief stone..from him come all good
doctrine....as it says in Ephesians 2:20 ..the mystical body of Jesus is the church so all good doctrine stems from the church....
And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham for our
father. For I tell you that God is able of these stones to raise up children to
Abraham
-Matthew 3:9
..in a literal sense
God is able to raise righteousness out of the dust as he was able to make Adam
from the dust and change the state of fallen man through Christ... in a spiritual sense God is able to
take false teaching and expose it through the works of the saints and
the church thus creating good from evil in an incidental way through his
permissive will.....
...as it says in scripture
it would be better if a millstone be tied to those who mislead God’s children
and that they should be cast into the abyss...the stone spiritually represents
lies, false teachings, and errors,and the justice of God or his wrath which
falls upon those who follow false teachings...
the abyss represents the wasteland of ignorance which the deluded soul
must wander in finding no rest in truth...So we see in medjugorje people travel
there to tempt God into conjuring up words from heaven on a daily basis...they
ask for a sign...they ask for a miracle..yet the miracle has occurred in the
mass...Jesus has given himself already...what is happening in medjugorje is
only a reenactment of the devil tempting Christ
...concerning the
second temptation we can see the devil tempts Christ to cast himself down...in
a spiritual sense this is to trust his human intellect and not have faith in
God...since we see this in medjugorje the seers are telling the faithful not to
trust the local bishop but to believe what they say...if we take God as the
church and his pastors we see that we are casting our intellect down to human
subjectivism in hope that God’s angels will protect us from harm and cause us
to make good decisions..however when our mind is not focused on heaven and the
traditions of the church we can see that we are following a temptation of the
devil..indeed we shall dash our feet against stones(false doctrines and errors)
since we are following what the seers say and not what the church tells us
through her local ordinary (the bishop of Mostar)....
....concerning the
third temptation we see the devil tempts Jesus to fall down and adore him or to
embrace the spirit of the world... we
are told in scripture three times of the prince of the world
.... John 12:31... Now is the judgment of this
world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out
.
John 14:30…Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.
John 16:11…Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged…
.
John 14:30…Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.
John 16:11…Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged…
so we see the cities
and kingdoms that Satan offers in a moral sense are those things which the
world holds in high esteem…namely riches and material goods…and so in a moral
sense we see that the devil is offering all good feelings and pleasant
experiences…however as Catholics we are told to embrace the cross… when we hear
it said that the devil took Jesus to high place in a spiritual sense he is
talking about being proud..since those who are humble are lowly and meek..and
God chooses the lowly and meek not those who are high and proud…when we are
lowly and meek we listen to the voice of God…the voice of God proceeds from his
church…in medjugorje the advocates of the seers have not listened to the voice
of God …the local bishop….and so we can safely say they are fooled…they are
indeed listening to the spirit of the devil which is high and proud…indeed many
people are not intentionally guilty of a proud spirit..however they are guilty
of complacency..and part of pride is complacency of spirit…they have false
humility..they acknowledge that they themselves are sinners however they do not maintian a recollected disposition ... they believe they are very holy since heaven
has touched them through the spirit of medjugorje…and they have no need to look inside themselves too deeply...those who are proud do not
examine themselves because they feel
they have no faults apart from their frailties..and so as a result of pride
God permits them to fall into complacency..so they trust every decision they
make as a right decision since they believe the holy spirit guides them..however
the devil who is the author of this complacency emboldens these people and
causes them to sink ever deeper into lusts for happiness and blessings…and in so doing such people are turned inside out..they look for outward feelings and blessings instead of searching for the kingdom of God within ...and so the devil has accomplished what he has set out to do... he perverts holy exercises with hopes that many people fall away from
the cross and its mortifications…in this way the devil tempts people with
impulses to pray and ask God for blessing and inspires good feelings within the
soul with the express desire to cut people off from the true cross of Christ
and all Christian charity….so the more the seers of medjugorje offer new
apparitions the more the followers lust after these visions…and so true faith
based on perseverance and hope in the things unseen is replaced with a false
faith in the things seen and heard.. as Jesus said...
Douay-Rheims Bible
Jesus saith to him: Because thou hast seen me, Thomas, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and have believed
Jesus saith to him: Because thou hast seen me, Thomas, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and have believed
-John 20:29
..this temporal sight is
a great hindrance to spiritual growth since people who follow medjugorje feel
they are already holy since God talks directly to them through the seers and
now they feel they have no need to journey the way of the cross since they feel
they have already arrived and are saved..they believe their belief in
MEDJUGORJE is a great treasure and that few receive such a great blessing and
so they pity those who do not believe and so true charity is perverted into
pity since pity involves feelings of self-grandeur and charity involves
feelings of God’s forgiveness and love…this is an impediment to charity since one believes
those who have not received such blessings are below them and so they lack
empathy and compassion the heart deceived
by pity cuts them off from true charity and unity..all this serves to
heighten their pride which puffs up their ego and makes them
self-righteous…they believe they know all there is to know about MEDJUGORJE and
the workings of God and grace… and this is all self serving which since the
devil is its author can be defined as spiritual pride and inordinate self
love….because they pity others they have no spirit of mercy..since the spirit
of mercy seeks to lift others to the same place one is at spiritually…that is
why the spirit of MEDJUGORJE is one of contention ..it is splitting the church
from within …and so the devil is indeed ruining unity….in this way the charity
we see from the followers of medjugorje is the same as the charity of Lazarus
and dives …its charity directed at serving themselves and not the church and
Jesus..since they openly defy the bishop of Mostar….
“There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and
lived in luxury every day. 20 At his gate was laid a beggar named
Lazarus, covered with sores 21 and longing to eat what fell from the
rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.
22 “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to
Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 In Hades,
where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by
his side. 24 So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me
and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue,
because I am in agony in this fire.’
25 “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received
your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted
here and you are in agony. 26 And besides all this, between us and
you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here
to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.”
Luke 16:19-31
The rich man dressed in purple and fine linen shows he has false
humility since purple denotes penance
and humility however the fine linen shows a love of the world and this dress
betrays the duplicity of his spirit...this rich king is one who experiences all
sorts of blessings that he receives from God and who lives in pleasure and
luxury of the senses yet he does not honour God fully by longing to have
Lazarus with him in spirit but only giving him the scraps of the blessings he
receives from God...the rich king is feasting at the banquet of false piety and
spiritual gluttony...Lazarus we can see is the person who has a hard life but
is humble since he longs to be good like the rich man...out of humility he
believes himself to be wretched since he has true humility and not false humility....so
he does not realize that God has blessed him more by giving him all sorts of
afflictions or spiritual trials since it is through afflictions and
perseverance that we gain the cross of Christ...as it is in true humility the
closer one is before God the more wretched the soul appears to itself since
such a soul sees God as he is in glory and splendour and perfection and the
humble soul sees itself as it is and
realizes its great need for the mercy of God to keep it from falling
into utter hopelessness.....so every blessing such a soul gets it quickly gives
away to its neighbour through charity since it believes it deserves nothing but
wishes to possess God only ..since even
blessings become impediments to union between a soul who loves God for God’s
sake only....and so we say that charity quickens the spirit and the soul....as
it makes such a soul free from any burden since everything it receives(including
blessings) from God it gives away so that the soul can have God alone whom it
so strongly longs for...Jesus said my yoke is easy and my burden is lite...indeed
we shouldn’t pray for afflictions but we should accept them when they come our
way... and pray for the strength to bear them with the help of God’s
grace......let us all closely examine ourselves to see where we stand in God’s
eyes as he is not how we wish him to be......amen
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