Fr. Vincent Lampert - Armament for Spiritual Battle - Necessity of Exorcists #2 of 5

[Music] good morning everyone everyone slept well anybody turned the nightlight on don't raise your hand you don't have to admit that so yesterday's presentation generated lots and lots of good questions and some people are even asking me some more so perhaps even two during the day after the presentations if you have those questions it would be good to state them again out loud because I think your question would be good for others someone asked me just before we begin about the Long Island medium show and says well it seems the person is doing good so what could be wrong about that so that's a good question I'm not going to answer that right now but it will come up but questions like that are really good because it helps us to come to a better understanding of what the church believes in teachers so two conference number two comes from Matthew for one Jesus was led by the spirit into the desert so we know that we celebrated the Feast of the baptism of the Lord right after Jesus was baptized what happened to him he goes into the desert he even says the spirit drove him into the desert so the spirit descended at his baptism and then drove him into the desert and into the desert what did he encounter the devil the devil has always been synonymous with the desert experience yesterday was the feast of Saint Anthony of the desert do you know him he went out were being born in Upper Egypt went out into the desert it's considered to be the the father of early religious life and he encountered the devil in his battles and then people came to him seeking help in their own struggles with combating evil so belief in the existence and activity of angels and demons is the common religious fact within many different cultural traditions at the same time there are many people who reject the notion of angelic creatures and believe that the existence of angels and demons along with the likes of exorcism and demon possession come out of a primitive superstitious worldview as a relic from the time of Christ or throwback to the Middle Ages for some people to even talk about exorcism and demons is an embarrassment for these people evil is something of our own making they believe that evil is nothing more than humanity's inhumane treatment of one another but certainly not something that is personified someone alluded to that yesterday evening when they asked a question was Jesus actually performing exorcisms or was he just playing up to the belief of the day so the rejection of the existence of angels and demons does not make them any less real or imaginary in fact the negation of the angelic world is not a trait of our modern world with the Pharisees and the majority of the Jewish people of his day our Lord shared a conviction concerning the existence of angels and demons whereas the Sadducees rejected the belief in the existence of such things in the Catholic tradition it is biblical revelation and the Magisterium of the church that consistently confirms the truth of the existence of angels and demons the Catechism of the Catholic Church states said God our Creator of all visible and invisible things the Kippur EO and the spiritual by means of his own omnipotent power and once from the beginning of time created each creature angelic and mundane even think for a moment the Creed that we recite on Sundays at Mass we say the God is the creator of things visible and invisible and when we state that we're really referencing the angelic world the world of spirits when it comes to the existence of demons he was Pope Paul back into - who stated clearly that evil is not merely the lack of something but an effective agent a living spiritual being he went on to say that it is contrary to the teaching of the Bible and the church to refuse to recognize the existence of such a reality or to try to explain it away as a pseudo reality a conceptual and fanciful personification of the unknown causes of our misfortunes he stated that in his general audience back on November 15th of 1972 you know when Pope Paul began to talk about the devil it kind of threw a lot of people off-guard we had just come out of the 1960s and all types of revolution revolutions and people believed that the church had moved away from the belief in the devil but now here the Pope was talking about it and it really caused kind of a stir at the time and again what's really interesting he began talking about the devil at the same time that the church did away with that minor order of Exorcist for all priests as they were being ordained as early as the 4th century the mystic optical catechesis of Saint Cyril of Jerusalem mentions the nine angelic choirs were orders that would become classic it was Dionysius in his celestial heart hierarchy written about the late 5th or early 6th century who detailed the authority structures powers and domains of the Angels his work strongly influenced st. Thomas Aquinas and would popularize the idea of three hierarchies and nine choirs this notion eventually made it to the west through Saint Gregory the Great the first hierarchy anyway can we name all the choirs of angels she's shaking her head no so the 1st hierarchy consists of we oh there's someone who can do it the seraphim care Dominions powers virtues principalities Archangels and we got those all down let's state him again so it's the Seraphim the cherubim the thrones dominations virtues powers principalities Archangels and angels now the bible does not specifically speak about the creation of the angels when did it take place st. Agustin proceeding very cautiously thought that it could be seen in the book of Genesis in the creation of the mysterious light that shoots out at the beginning of creation without any material support he says that the light that was first made was the formation of spiritual creation he defined this spiritual light as nothing more than intellectual life turned entirely toward God who illumines it these angels know themselves in their own nature and then refer themselves to God and in doing so they complete their formation so just think for a moment God created the angelic world and he gave them infused knowledge angels don't have to learn anything it's like a computer that has information downloaded into it which is why when someone has possessed one of the signs is that they can speak a language that they shouldn't otherwise know they don't have to go to school to study and learn they can just call it up and they automatically speak it so again angelic creatures are highly intellectual just based on their own nature but not all angelic creatures chose to complete their formation rather than turning to God some chose to turn away in a Genesis account we were told that God said let there be light and there was light God saw that the light was good God then separated the light from darkness the interesting thing is that once the separation takes place God does not call it good some of the Fathers of the Church see this as the fall of the Angels who chose to use their free will in a manner to turn away from God rather than as an opportunity to draw closer to him so again angels are purely intellectual creatures that received infused knowledge from the moment that they were first created st. Agustin distinguishes between what he calls morning and evening knowledge evening knowledge is that by which the Angels know things in their proper nature this knowledge is considered imperfect morning knowledge is that by which the angels know things according to their glory this knowledge is considered to be perfect the first knowledge of things again evening knowledge was present to the angels that the onset of their creation the second evening knowledge was or morning knowledge was not only when the angels became good by turning to God's glory did they know that they complete their knowledge very complicated so let's explain it again angels received evening knowledge the knowledge of things in the natural order the ability to speak other languages but they only received morning knowledge when they chose to glorify God they took their intellect and they chose to then honor and glorify God and in doing so they completed their creation just saying for a moment in the Genesis account of creation it was always evening came and morning followed and then it was the new day so the Angels that chose to rebel against God Lucifer and his angels are imperfect creatures that's why I told you yesterday that your guardian angel is more powerful than the devil himself the devil is an imperfect creature because he has evening knowledge but never received morning knowledge so even though he comes from the highest choir the Seraphim Angels and angel in the lowest choir that chose to glorify God now outranks an angel in an upper choir that chose to rebel against God so when Lucifer sinned we know that his sin impacted other angels as well so the Rite of exorcism states clearly in the whole history of salvation there are angelic creatures a part of them serve the Divine Plan always giving hidden and potent aid to the church another part is called fallen and is called diabolic they opposed the salvific will of God and the redemptive work of Christ and they also tried to associate humans in their own rebellion against God st. Thomas Aquinas maintains that the first of the sinful angels was before the fall the most exalted of all the angels what do we call this particular angel before the fall his name was Lucifer Lucifer when I was training in Rome I asked father carmine a one day what was the most difficult case of exorcism you ever dealt with he said he had worked with an individual for five years in the older right of the church one of the parts of the right the priest can command the demon to name itself so he said is your name Lucifer he said he got a very interesting response back he said the demon said to him I used to be known by that name but no longer and he said he found that to be pretty profound because Lucifer can no longer use the name Lucifer because to use the name Lucifer would be to acknowledge the one who gave him the name and since he's completely rejected God he no longer recognizes that as his name because again Lucifer is a name that means light the lighted one seraphim angel seraphim means the fiery ones he was closest to the throne of God therefore he would absorb the glory of God more than any other angelic creature you know when I was a kid with my six brothers we would always take these little balls they glow in the dark and what would we do we would put him up against the light bulb for a period of time and then turn the light off and then what would happen it would it would glow it would shine and where was that light coming from it wasn't the ball itself it was coming from the light that light bulb that was the source of that that's why when you think of Satan he's always associated with darkness he can no longer be illumined by the glory of God so you could almost say his light has gone out when you think of a picture of a saint what do we always see around the head of a saint it's a halo the halo is not their glory that they're radiating they're radiating the glory of God so much that they use their free will to really give glory to God that they begin to radiate God's glory in their own life but those who choose not to do that get trapped in darkness the light literally goes out so after the fall Lucifer became the chief of all the evil spirits now referred to as the devil or Satan the word devil comes from the Greek word Diabolus which means adversary slander or a poseur it occurs 33 times in the New Testament the word Satan comes from the hebrew and means accuser it occurs 34 times in the New Testament another term used for Satan as we mentioned is Lucifer Satan is a morally wicked creature hostile to both humans and to God he is not wicked by Nature but because of Vice as wisdom 2:24 declares through the Devils and the death entered the world this wicked creature is also known by his Maleficent activity he is branded as the evil one 12 times in the New Testament and the final plea in the Our Father is to be delivered from the evil one Matthew 5:37 and also 613 he's also known as the enemy the adversary the one who sews weeds in the field Matthew 13 39 he's called the enemy he is the Antichrist par excellence first John 4:3 depending on the form his malice takes he is described as a liar and the father of lies and a murderer from the beginning since his lying led humanity into sin and death John 8:44 in as much as he draws humans into evil he is the tempter and the seducer Satan is also known as the enormous dragon revelation 12:3 13 - and the ancient serpent in Revelation 12:9 and also 20 verse 2 the case with Lucifer's sin was that he loved his own good without the recognizing the fact that God was calling him to something more so Lucifer again was the most brilliant and most beautiful of all the created beings in heaven prior to his rebellion Lucifer is described in the following terms it's found in the book of the prophet Ezekiel chapter 28 verses 12 through 17 there it says of Lucifer you have the seal of perfection full of wisdom and perfect in beauty you were the anointed cherub who covers than I placed you there you were on the holy mountain of God you walked in the midst of the stones of fire you were blameless in your ways from the day you were created until one righteousness was found in you your heart was lifted up because of your beauty you corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor so Lucifer like all angels was created for the purpose of glorifying God however instead of serving God and praising him forever and he desired to rule over heaven and over all creation in the place of God he wanted supreme authority in Chapter 14 of the book of the prophet Isaiah Lucifer states I will ascend into heaven I will exalt my throne above the stars of God I will also sit upon the Mount of the congregation I will ascend above the heights of the clouds I will be like the Most High and the key word that we hear in these statements is I which is why we say that the sin of the devil is the sin of pride stain Agustin writes that pride is too disordered love of my own my own excellence to the point of contempt for God again we begin to love ourselves more than we love God st. Thomas Aquinas explains that it is impossible for a creature to cease being a creature so as to become equal to the Creator in all respects Satan therefore wanted to be like God not by nature as an equal but by resemblance he wanted to be similar to God in as much as God by nature is an end unto himself therefore in the words of John of st. Thomas Lucifer uses freewill choosing to remain the first and an inferior order rather than to become one among others in a superior order you might say the line would be better to reign in Hell rather than to serve in heaven so Satan's sin involves the sin of many angels the book of Revelation declares that the dragons tell swept one-third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth revelation 12:4 so when Lucifer rebelled against God being closest to the throne of God his sin illumined it went through all the choirs of the Angels and 130 the Angels embraced his concept of rebelling against God so angels in the higher choir lumen those in the lower choirs so his sin you could say trickle down and one-third of the angelic choir chose also to rebel against God now we can say again that his bad example influenced others who then chose to submit to Satan as their chief st. Thomas Aquinas says that these fallen angels become demons and the slaves of the one to whom they have surrendered namely Satan the Fathers of the Church forcibly assert that the wickedness of the devil and his demons far from being natural and innate which would make God responsible for evil results from a personal decision to sin God did not create demons God only created good angels but they chose to use their own freewill to rebel against God and in doing so they became evil so after the fall the demons do not lose their angelic intellectual quality so even after the fall they still have evening knowledge but their minds have now become darkened deprived of the light of wisdom they can no longer be illumined by the wisdom of God the free will of the demon stubbornly persists forever which is to say that they are forever fixed in their bad choice sometimes I've had children ask me Father is it possible that the devil could one day repent and the answer is no they cannot they are incapable of repenting and their damnation is eternal for demons no redemption is possible so why is this the case theologians suggest it is because God no longer offers them the grace that could per se convert them for them the hour of choice has passed the in very intellectual creatures they knew every possible consequence of what we happen to them if they rejected God and even when they could see that one of the consequences would be eternal damnation they still chose to rebel against God we as humans have the capacity capacity to continue to grow and learn to constantly be converted and so for humans we can change that's a part of our nature but not for a purely intellectual creature who can see again because of their intellect every possible consequence of a choice that they might make so another way to look at it is that unlike humans whose freewill can change an angel by reason of their purely intellectual nature is situated from the start in the presence of all that he can know angels don't constantly learn they knew everything from the beginning with this infused knowledge that they received from God so their free will is fixed from the start totally and unchanging on the object of their choice think for example as long as the end as long as iron has been heated in the fire its malleable the blacksmith can give it one form or another but once it has solidified it no longer changes Aquinas says it is the irrevocable character of their choice and not a defect in the infinite divine mercy of God that makes the angels sin unforgivable so for the devil it would not even occur to him to ask for forgiveness it wouldn't even consider the a consideration for him the Catechism of the Catholic Church states there is no repentance for angels after the fall just as there is no repentance for men after death paragraph 393 so the world that Jesus Christ came to redeem is saturated with demonic presence scripture gives many accounts about the reality of the devil and his baneful influence on humans for example in mark's gospel there are 13 references to a personified satan or two casting out demons this includes jesus performing four exorcisms as well as four by his disciples we are told in the Acts of the Apostles God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power and how he went about doing good and healing all those who were under the power of the devil because God was with him Jesus shared this power and authority with his disciples and every time he sent them out he gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness matthew 10:1 would be one scriptural reference now the church holds to the belief in the victory of Christ over the devil and his demons but also to the struggle that continues over the course of human history this struggle manifests itself in varied ways that include the affliction of people things and places infestation vexation obsession and possession Jesus described his mission as one of a reconquest an enterprise to free humanity from our servitude to Satan and to restore us to God we are told in Luke's Gospel that Jesus came to proclaim release to the captives to set free all those who were oppressed Jesus's mission I would state is a mission of exorcism it is a battle against unclean spirits that disfigure the image of God as the Acts of the Apostles tells us he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil acts 10:38 however our victory over the devil and the other evil spirits is not one without combat Satan stubbornly insist on preventing the coming of the kingdom of God Satan tries in the desert from the very beginning of Jesus's public life to divert him from his mission Peter will do the same later and for that reason Jesus says to him get behind me Satan Matthew 16:23 Satan is the one who puts into the heart of Judas the plan to betray Jesus John 13 - and then he enters into him john 13 27 after tempting Jesus in the desert Satan we are told departed from him until an opportune time Satan believes that the crucifixion is his moment it is his hour but what's interesting is that Satan's perceived moment of being his hour is actually the hour of Christ Jesus cries out from the cross father if it be your will let this cup pass from me yet not my will but yours be done Luke 22:42 in contrast to Adam Jesus resist Satan with his unfailing obedience to the will of the Father it can be said that the whole life and suffering of Jesus are a yes to God and consequently an ode to Satan Satan's perceived moment at his victory becomes the moment of his defeat Jesus is dying on the cross Satan says I finally won but again the moment of his perceived victory is the moment of his defeat and then Satan realizes everything that he was doing to bring Jesus to the crucifixion was playing right into God's hands everything that he thought he was doing to rebel against God God was using that against him he becomes infuriated and then he then focuses his attacks against humanity so Satan thus Concord begins a battle with the church which is the seed of the kingdom of God Satan does everything to try to impede the growth of the church his desire would be to influence humanity to reject God as he has done Satan stirs up persecutions heresies and dissension he obstructs Paul's missionary activity he claims Christ's disciples in order to sift them and he strives through temptation to separate every believer from Christ to snatch the word from their heart let the per less the person believe and be saved and so we are warned your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour resist him solid in your faith being solid in our faith is the most key ingredient that any of us can have you know I always say to people as a Catholic if you're going to mass if you're receiving the sacraments if you're praying the devil is already on the run the devil is on the run somebody mentioned yesterday about putting on the armor of God if we're wearing the armor of God by living out our faith the devil is fleeing from us the devil knows that there's a lot easier prey I like to tell people all I enjoy watching Animal Planet shows you know you see the lion is stalking its prey on the African plain what type of prey does the lioness go after two types the week but the lioness will also go after the strong yet the strong does what wanders away from the safety of the herd I was watching an episode one time big ol water buffalos all together the lion was trying to come and get him they charged in the lion ran off one of the water buffalos decided to go down by itself to the pool of water to get a drink and what happens within moments there's like four or five lionesses on top of this animal again the importance of community the important role that other people play in our lives so Satan is always about divide and conquer division you look at a lot of the broke in our world today how people are separated I believe the Satan likes to enter into the cracks of our lives and once he enters into the cracks he's tries to fracture us even more until we fall to pieces Jesus came to bring a cohesion to things to help us put the bits and pieces of our lives back together but Satan is the one who always tries to break and shatter us the good news is that eventually all this Maleficent activity will come to an end with the definitive banishment of Satan into the eternal fire Matthew 25:41 the book of Revelation states and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet were and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever until that day the Lord has given us the Ministry of exorcism to help those who have fallen under the influence of Satan and his demons so the bottom line is Satan is a reality these other evil spirits or reality and the church is the means by which we can fight against his with these realities and to demonstrate our love and commitment for God who has a question about angels and demons because the evening and morning knowledge is a very heady topic to have at this hour of the morning in a very very back rather than they turn way - you seem to be like there's a bag there's like when you need solid it when you don't need someone there's no connection but when you're a random someone and then they there's like Advent is there some sort of like if you have a friendship there's an angel holding together than the boy asking the question if you have a friend is it angelic presence the presence of God that keeps that bond together but when people kind of fall apart give in to anger and frustration perhaps is it the devil or some evil spirit that has come in to try to fracture and to break that relationship certainly as possible because again the notion is that God has wants us to be in community he's given us each other again that notion of the safety in numbers that's why it always alarms me when people today say well you know I'm religious but I don't need to go to church I can pray to God on my own again think of the crucifix we need that personal relationship with Christ the sidearms remind us that we need the communal relationship with God as well even when Jesus taught his disciples to pray he gave them the Our Father we don't call it that my father prayer do we our father it's a prayer meant to be said in community the notion that there is strength in numbers and I do think that Satan is the one who tries to break up and divide families friendships the church teaches us that the family is the main building block of society as goes the family so goes society yes back at Lucifer originally was good how did he explain how you can see the evilness to turn against God because God gave all God gives all his creatures free will we have free will God doesn't one blind obedience from us so God has created us given us our intellect and all these other wonderful things and then God says with what all I have given you we you now choose to honor and obey me a presentation yesterday that notion that freedom and obedience go hand in hand it's when people believe that freedom means you can do whatever you wish nobody has the right to command you you're the god of yourself that we get ourselves into trouble so God wants us to use the gift of our intellects to choose to honor and glorify Him but he wants that to be a free choice on our behalf yes No do you have a question he forgot the question he's going to remember yes [Music] well the reality is that when the angel Sal God sent them to the earth so they're going to roam the earth until the final judgement at the end of time when Satan and all his demons will be cast into the fires of hell how many and how many angels are there how many demons are there does anybody know we have an answer here happening so you says this Saint Padre Pio says that there are more demons than all the humans that have came since the time of Adam so in the book of Revelation it says that there are Myriad's and Myriad's of thousands so they can't even be counted think for a moment that if every person has a guardian angel what is there 7 billion people on the planet something like that so there isn't what's 1/3 of 7 billion so there are many the story of the garrisoned demoniac in Chapter five of Mark's Gospel the man is possessed by Legion and the demons are sent into the swine does anybody remember how large the herd of swine was five thousand there were five thousand head of swine the demons went into five thousand head of swine how many demons was this man possessed by a lot a lot these angels new perfect knowledge they could see that as a possibility so with their intellect nobody knows the future but God alone but because of their intellect they can have deductive reasoning again that's why demons can watch us and observe us they can guess how we might act what we might be thinking they do not know that definitively but they can use deductive reasoning but then when they are created they one of the possibilities of their rejection of God which they could see because of their infused knowledge was if we choose God we face eternal damnation and even was seeing that as a possibility they still chose to rebelled against God well it does sound pretty crazy doesn't it so when angels fell they fell from all the nine choirs so we talked about a hierarchy of the angelic order there's a hierarchy in the demonic world as well correct question the beatific vision is at us embracing our goal then is to reach the beatific vision not until not until they chose to use their intellects to glorify God so again evening knowledge the knowledge of things in the natural order take your knowledge and choose then to acknowledge things according to their glory God's plan honor and glorify God what's the goal of the human person through life to know and love and serve Him we got the Baltimore Catechism coming right out up here why did God create me well that's we are a work in progress we are a work in progress the Catholic Church teaches that conversion is an ongoing process it's not one and done you know our mindset would be it's not I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior on this day I'm done the church would say no it's just begun because you have to make that choice in commitment every day of your life and then hopefully that arrives brings us whenever our life comes to an end and the final judgment we stand before Christ then we will be found worthy of the Fiat if excision because then our then our creation will become complete evening came and morning followed the new day what did God create on the sixth day of creation he created humans and he created animals what separates humans from animals God gave us the seventh day the day that we can honor and glorify Him and so when we choose to honor and glorify God we are perfected creatures when we choose not to honor and glorify God were no different than the animals which is why when demons manifest they always manifest animalistic in nature growling and snarling it's a really it's sign of their rejection of God yes in terms of time when God created the Angels wasn't an instant kind of thing yes yes yeah and going back again and again looking at the Fathers of the Church God said let there be light and it was good and then he immediately separated the light into the day and darkness but God didn't say that it was good and some of them say that we can kind of see the creation of the angelic world and then their judgment that took place but it happened quicker than that yes all through the conversation that you're describing can reflecting the glory of God kind of implicitly because it's our Blessed Mother that reverses the know of Eve which is why we call our Blessed Mother the new Eve you know Satan presents the Apple and Eve says no to God when the angel Archangel Gabriel appears to Mary yes let it be done to me according to your word there's the obedience piece again there's nothing wrong with an apple I ate one yesterday they're good but it's the question of obedience somebody asked if I was going to make a statement on this now seems to be the time see I have an I have a phone in my pocket that has a picture on the back of it of an apple with a bite taken out of it I always find it amusing that one of the largest corporations in the world chose to use the symbol of the fall of humanity as their icon because what did Satan say surely you will not die you will become like gods technology is not bad what do we do with it I think the reason we see that growing trend of those three statements today you may do whatever you wish nobody has the right to command you you're the god of yourself is because we've allowed technology to think that we as humans have advanced so much we don't need God because we are God because we know everything there is to know but that's really the sin of Lucifer here's all this knowledge close to the throne of God I don't need God I've got myself and that's a dangerous place to be yes Satan is let me see say something more because it's somewhere in here okay so we have the church until then so let's see so they are there a reality that attack humanity and as Christ that gave us the church as the instrument to fight against the devil because again the church the word church comes from the Greek word ecclesia it means community so Christ came to put us in community because in this sense of community and togetherness it gives us the strength that we need to fight against the devil I always like to tell people you know when you look at a lot of the churches that were built during the Middle Ages the long nave why we're churches built according to this model because they look pretty it was meant to mimic the Ark of the Covenant because those who were in the ark were those who were being saved from the great flood so the church began when it began building went from home churches to these big churches that were being built over the sight of the graves of the martyrs began saying that the church has become the new Ark those in the Ark those who have been baptized and received the sacraments are those who will be saved at the end of time so the church one of my favorite definitions of the church and I'll probably repeat this again at some point during the day is that the church is the Guardian to the Tree of Life the church is the Guardian to the tree of life because when Adam and Eve had sinned they were expelled from paradise and then remember the angel and the fiery sword are set up to prevent them from approaching the Tree of Life so the goal of humanity is to get to the Tree of Life and the tree of life is even mentioned at the very end of the book of Revelation so our journey is to get back to God intended us to be the tree of life where we are with him for all eternity in his heavenly kingdom and I think the church is the vessel the Christ has given us to make the journey to the Tree of Life the devil knows this and so he begins his attacks against the church because he again he believes that if he can destroy the church then he will destroy the means by which humanity has been given by Christ to arrive at eternal life the devil knows that humanity is still capable of that which he has rejected namely union with God for all eternity what dude what dude what does the devil and demons do all day do you think what do they do all day prowl about the world seeking the rule in the souls again they use their intellect and knowledge and then thinking they realize what they've done misery loves company and they try to pull us in to their own rejection of God yes you remember so the question is on when this the holy spirit drives Jesus into the desert where he's tempted by Satan what's the significance of all of that so the temptations you know what's always like when when the devil first appears to Jesus after the days in the desert what does the what does the devil say to Jesus if you are the son of God command these stones to turn to bread the word if is very important remember the devil doesn't know everything this deductive knowledge he knows that God has promised a Savior prior to being Jesus going into the desert remember the heavens opened and the voice came from heaven this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased so Satan is now thinking is this the Messiah that is supposed to come so he wants Jesus to concretely say yes if you are the son of God command these stones to turn the bread in other words given to human nature if anyone here had not eaten for forty days might you be hungry yes so show me who you really are by giving in to this human need I always find it interesting then when Jesus rebukes him what does the devil do he begins quoting scripture so just because one can quote scripture doesn't mean that one has a good understanding of Scripture because even the devil can quoted but he can twist it around to what he wants and then when the devil is convinced that Jesus is the Messiah the other temptations are about Jesus honoring Satan and not God the Father you know throw yourself down from here you know bow down before me I'll give you the kingdoms of the earth again it's this notion that bow to me recognize me as God and then at the end of the temptation it says the devil departs from him for a time when does the devil show up again yes the crucifixion the agony in the garden the betrayal and all of that so the devil thought thought that when he encountered Jesus in the desert that was his hour his moment he realized it wasn't because Jesus rebuked him so he comes again in the garden and the crucifixion he says ah this is my hour but again it was the hour of Christ who hasn't asked a question yet it has go ahead yes [Music] it says person murder because that's horribly but not intellect it will well and it'll likely me put them table they give the insight to speak another language is that because it's that once the person is possessed it's the do when the demon takes over its you have to make the distinction between the person as an individual and now the demon that's operating in the person's body so once the manifestation takes place it should never be referred to as she's the person is no longer Jane Doe it's now this demon and when the demon is there that's why speaking languages and whatnot why why does the devil possess the human body we get old our hair falls out in false teeth wear glasses what's so great about possessing a human body and the answer was is really as it's the Incarnation so the greatest thing that God did for us was to take on human form in the person of Jesus Christ because the devil again wants to resemble God in every way in his own twisted sense he believes that he takes on human form by possessing a human body but again spiritual faculties the intellect and will always remain free the possession is only have to deal with the body the corporeal and some some remember and some don't so some people feel as if they they have told me that they're like trapped in their own body they see the demon working through them and using their mouth to speak but they are powerless to stop it other people that I've worked with and talked to have told me that they have no recollection of the demonic episode once the manifestation ceases it's almost like they're just blacked out that moment is just erased from their life yes people have seen the manifestations that have taken place yes the possession would would end because again it's of a physical nature certainly yes correct I worked with an elderly man one time in Indianapolis his family was concerned because he was this family was not Catholic they belong to a Christian Church and but their dad had never been baptized never found Christ but throughout his life his foster relationships with demons so I did go and visit him and the family was there and he very lucid he's like yes I know my family is concerned for me and he goes but they need not be he goes when I die I desire to spend eternity with these demons that I defended throughout my life he said you can offer a prayer for me if you want you can hang a crucifix on the wall of my room it means nothing to me I worked with a young man it was in a Correctional Facility who told me that he had never found such power until he declared Satan to be his father he said once I acknowledged Satan as my father I found such power and strength that I never knew before and he says it's so exhilarating I will never let it go [Music] it is people true and that'll be the presentation give next later this afternoon is the oven on the entry points you know I think when people experience brokenness in their lives if they're looking for a quick fix they may go to these psychics and mediums and people who claim to help with the pieces of their lives back together but the danger with people like psychics and mediums is that they tell you something that kind of tickles your fancy you go and see them out of a sense of curiosity they tell you something and you're like how do they know that and usually what they tell you is something good and so the sense of curiosity then leads to a reliance people start going back over and over and over again and the people that I've worked with in these situations say initially they were on some type of high in euphoria they were hearing what they wanted to hear it seemed to give them peace but then you know if we turn to the devil eventually the devil is going to want payment and then that's when these people say the bottoms fall out of their lives their lives start unraveling because again you can't turn to evil to fight evil unless it's oppression because remember I talked about oppression yesterday so the devil won't attack people just for the sake of attacking them if they're going to mass receiving the sacraments and they're praying unless God permits the devil to attack them and that would be demonic oppression remember I said and everybody looked at me like I was crazy oppression is a gift from God God allows one to be tormented by evil as an opportunity for that person to show their fidelity to God well the devil knows who's working against him in the in the 15 years I've been an exorcist I can four colleagues of mine have left the priesthood so the devil knows who's working against him and even can try to up his attacks against I feel like when I'm you working at me that's for God and spreading the word and trying to say Souls is when I feel most attacked so understand me wait we'll talk about these that we can do yeah it's so best practices yes absolutely yes the devil cannot read your thoughts he can hear your speech so the devil can watch and observe us yes cuz if your again it's giving something over to God then you give it over to God the devil can't use that against you yes and you're our verbal prayer can infuriate him because he sees our devotion to God and it's like ah Leonard behavior becomes later as well following the will of God even some of these things that people might get involved it's one's commitment to God because see remember in the I think the acts of is it in acts I believe the seven sons of Siva so the sons of a Jewish priest they're observing Paul casting out demons in the name of Jesus so they think we can do this so they're like in the name of Christ and we expel you and what did the demons do when they manifest they attack and beat up these seven sons because they didn't really have the relationship they were just mouthing the words as if it was a magical incantation but having the relationship is the key ingredient through temptation yes--that's temptation what do you make of the passage that says after the final judgment that saintly we put locked up for like a year be released for a period of time and then finally thrown into the she says why a thousand years if we're done with him and we just be done with him what's the thousand years to God yeah what's the thousand years so it's I think we here and we're thinking one two three we're counting but a thousand years to god this is hard she says why would God let him out again so she's asking me to know the mind of God in the very back you have a question was there no yes so the Antichrist and the devil are separate entities so there's the Antichrist who talked about the beast that will come but again these are all agents of the devil if you will men to try to lure people in to the devil's deception I think we need to we're going to now starts in ten minutes so we probably need to end here but keep your questions write them down and when we meet again we're going to take them up again thank you everyone [Applause] you [Music] you

Channel: franciscanfriars

Views: 76,645

Rating: 4.9167042 out of 5

Keywords: Fr. Vincent Lampert, Armament, spiritual combat, exorcist, Shield, sword, exorcism, Fr. Lampert Exorcism 2020, Scripture, sacraments, Prayer, deliverance, demon, demonic possession, Devil, possession, Satan, Conferences, Franciscans of the Immaculate, Religion, Christianity (Religion), Catholic, Spirituality, Salvation, Faith, God, Church, Gospel

Id: nlFlnZYedCI

Length: 62min 20sec (3740 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 22 2020