This will be a different bulletin article and not one I’m crazy about writing. It’s about “The Spirit World” and what we as Catholics believe about it.
Over my years as a priest I’ve had several people approach me (young and old) about an experience they’ve had with a spirit. They heard a voice or saw a shadow or silhouette in the room. Some have played with a Ouija Board and gotten “a message”. Some have gone to séances to connect with the spirit of someone now dead.
What are we to believe about such things and how are we to treat them?
First off the Bible and our Faith tell us that yes, there are intelligent spirits in the universe. They go by various names: angels, powers, principalities, demons. Both the Old and New Testaments testify to the existence of these “created” spirits in a realm beyond our human way of existing.
A familiar example would be the Angel Gabriel, who served in the classic capacity of an angel . . . “God’s Messenger” to Mary. We believe in the Guardian Angels given to each of us to watch over and protect. (Mt. 4:11, Mt. 18:10)
We also hear, of course, of “evil spirits” who, Catholic doctrine teaches are created spirits who failed the test of freedom to serve God prior to the Fall of Adam and Eve.
Okay . . . so the question for many is, “Can I get in touch with the spirit world?” Various reasons are given why someone would want this. 1. I want to know if my deceased loved one is at peace. 2. I’d like someone to tell me if I should make a change in my life or not. What is my future? 3. It’s fun in a spooky kind of way to entertain at a part.
Our Faith teaches us to be careful here. There is a danger for some well intentioned person to turn to the spirit world as a source of power separate from God.
A person begins to rely on incantations, séances, horoscopes, tea leaves and crystal balls to show them the future or answer life’s questions.
So what’s wrong with that? Simply put, it goes against our trust in God’s providence. God loves us and seeks a personal relationship with us as Our Father. Turning to a Ouija board to show us our future is telling God “he’s not enough” or “Trust in God but consult your Tarot Cards just to be sure.”
There are some things we aren’t supposed to know. God has chosen to keep some things hidden from us. For example – – when God will call each of us home. There is wisdom in this, knowing some things would keep us from living our everyday lives. “Not knowing” helps us turn to God in Faith and trust.
Psalm 131 tells us, “I have not gone after things too great for me. Like a weaned child on its mother’s breast so my soul lies within me.”
So trust in God. Be content in knowing what you know. Pray for those things about which you are concerned and know that God who “knit you in your mother’s womb”, Ps. 139, “knows what you need even before you ask”. Mt. 6:8.
Lastly. Are there spirits? Yes. Do they mess with us sometimes? Very seldom. (I think a rectory I lived in sometime ago had a very timid spirit living in the attic. Really I do. He stayed in the attic and didn’t bother me at all.)
You need to know, however, that any spirit owes its existence from God. God is not rivaled or challenged by spirits. God has complete charge of the freedom He gives to all his creatures and sets limits for them according to His good will.
In the end there is only one spirit to which our knees must bend – the Holy Spirit.
See you at the Snow Ball.
Fr. Tim
