Last week we wrote about the demonic phenomena in two high schools in Cebu. We said that what happened could be a form of diabolic influence on the student-victims and we cited incidents in the Bible in which the devil plays a part.
To expand our treatment of this subject we are reproducing hereunder Fr. Amorth’s classification of Satan’s activities. These are: 1) External pain deals directly with physical suffering. This includes the beatings, scourging, and injuries caused by inexplicable pushing, falling objects, and so on, that we read about in the lives of many saints. 2) Diabolic possession . . . . allows a continuing presence of demon in a human body. Possession implies temporary suspension of mental, intellectual, affective and volitional faculties . . . 3) Diabolic oppression is a random discomfort . . . This oppression can strike health, job, affections, relationships with others, and so on. Its symptoms include unexplainable rage and a tendency to complete isolation . . . 4) Diabolic obsession causes an almost split personality. Our will remains free, but it is oppressed by excessive thoughts. The obsessed person lives in a perpetual state of prostration with persistent temptation to commit suicide . . . 5) Diabolic infestation. In this case the malefic activity is directed toward places (houses, offices, stores, fields) objects (cars, pillows, mattresses, dolls) and animals . . . 6) Diabolic subjugation. The term indicates a voluntary past – implicit or explicit – with Satan, by which we submit to the lordship of the demon.
Having known these demonic manifestations one is confronted with the question, what circumstances can subject a person to these evil influences? Fr. Amorth names four – pure divine permission, subjection to a curse, grave hardening in sin, and proximity to evil places or persons. The first refers to God’s will that an individual be subjected to the devil’s harassment, not to make him suffer but to test his faith and strengthen his love of Him. God did this to Job and to the many blessed and saints.
Subjection to a curse as a factor in demonic attacks happens when an evil person casts a curse or spell on another using satanic power.
Grave hardening in sin is a situation wherein an individual becomes a habitual transgressor involving various levels of anti-God practices such as drug addiction, sexual perversion, violence, and other heinous crimes such us murder and abortion. The fourth situation that brings an individual close to the evil one comes about when one frequents such places as Karaoke joints and night clubs or when one keeps for constant company incorrigible sinners such as pimps and prostitutes, swindlers and cheats.
What circumstances in the current social scene are conducive to satanic presence? Fr. Amorth names the following: Influence of mass media such as pornographic shows and violent horror movies in theaters and TV sets. Rock music too, a popular form of entertainment, tends to dull the senses towards decency and impel radical sex-related activities.
What is our defense? Pope Paul VI asked this question in his speech on the subject in 1992 as published in L’Osservatore Romano. He said: “The decisive defense is grace. These days we see a decline in reception of the sacraments especially penance. This leaves us in grave danger, because we no longer have sufficient grace to forestall the invader who besieges us. Innocence is a great fortress: a child is stronger than we are against the devil because he is innocent . . .”
But grace seems hard to come by these days. Although we are a Christian people, how many have hearkened to Christian precepts and are living a Christian life? The hold of the secular world is getting tighter and stronger while our awareness of our divine destiny is growing fainter.
How then can we escape from the embrace of the evil one?