Kenrick-Glennon Seminary (10/25/2007)
“Ransomed From Darkness”
Moira Noonan
Moira Noonan
“Is your faith stronger than your fascination?”
“When you come into the land which the LORD, your God, is giving you, you shall not learn to imitate the abominations of the peoples there.
Let there not be found among you anyone who immolates his son or daughter in the fire, nor a fortune-teller, soothsayer, charmer, diviner, or caster of spells, nor one who consults ghosts and spirits or seeks oracles from the dead.
Anyone who does such things is an abomination to the LORD, and because of such abominations the LORD, your God, is driving these nations out of your way.” (Deuteronomy 18:9-12)
All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to “unveil” the future. Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone. (Catechism of the Catholic Church 2116)
All practices of magic or sorcery, by which one attempts to tame Occult powers, so as to place them at one’s service and have a supernatural power over others -- even if this were for the sake of restoring their health -- are gravely contrary to the virtue of religion. These practices are even more to be condemned when accompanied by the intention of harming someone, or when they have recourse to the intervention of demons. Wearing charms is also reprehensible. Spiritism often implies divination or magical practices; the Church for her part warns the faithful against it. Recourse to so-called traditional cures does not justify either the invocation of evil powers or the exploitation of another’s credulity. (Catechism of the Catholic Church 2117)
Superstition is a departure from the worship that we give to the (One) True God. It is manifested in idolatry, as well as in various forms of divination and magic. (Catechism of the Catholic Church 2138)
“I will sprinkle clean water upon you to cleanse you from all your impurities, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.
I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you, taking from your bodies your stony hearts and giving you natural hearts.
I will put My Spirit within you and make you live by My statutes, careful to observe My decrees.” (Ezekiel 36:25-27)
JESUS CHRIST
THE BEARER OF THE WATER OF LIFE
A Christian reflection
on the “New Age”
#4 _ NEW AGE AND CHRISTIAN FAITH IN CONTRAST:
The New Age which is dawning will be peopled by perfect, androgynous (hermaphroditic) beings who are totally in command of the cosmic laws of nature. [For example: biotechnology (engineering and manipulating the genetic makeup, the DNA, of organisms) and nanotechnology (engineering and controlling matter at the atomic level)] In this scenario, Christianity (and Christian morality) has to be eliminated and give way to a global religion (a religion of naturalism) and a (totalitarian) new world order.
