+  RWS 479 January 29, 2012

4^th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Gospel:  Mark 1: 21-28

23 In their synagogue was a man with an unclean spirit; 24 he cried out, "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?

 I know who you are—the Holy One of God!"

                                                                                                                                      

Unclean spirits at work

By Bishop Precioso D. Cantillas, SDB, DD

The fearful complaint of the presence of Jesus by the man with an unclean spirit in the gospel incident cited above reminds me of a very common and pervasive situation in the world today and even at the work place and among workers—the lack of awareness of God’s presence and His loving will to save everyone, or, the apparent dominance of temporal and material things over those that are spiritual.  There is the so-called “tyranny of relativism” where things are considered not on absolute truths but on what suits personal and/or individual preferences.

Those who consider the workers more like tools and machineries for the production of goods, and who subsequently prefer greater profits than the greater welfare of the workers and their dependents—are like the man with an unclean spirit who fights against what Jesus came to earth for, which is to save mankind from all kinds of bondage, both in body and in spirit.  Likewise, the workers who do not see beyond their work and the material benefits thereof and do not make extra effort to inform and form themselves about the reality of God and their dependence on Him, are “silently”, and perhaps, unconsciously objecting to God’s active concern on His creatures and on the world which He has created.  Extraordinary sighting of demonic presence at the work place or scary manifestations of the evil spirits’ possession of workers may not be reported, but, there are certainly a lot of situations and things which point to the presence of the evil spirit in the world of work.

I believe that every worker should also beware of the presence of evil in the workplace and the various faces or forms it manifests. Recognizing one’s sins, mistakes and wrongdoings—one’s alliance with evil—is the first step to fearing the Lord and eventually crying for His mercy and forgiveness, thus, perfecting not only one’s work, but also one’s life.

Evil spirits in the workplace

By Teresa R. Tunay, OCDS

Some years back I witnessed an exorcism at a construction site—a big hotel near Roxas Boulevard.  The owners of the building asked for it as they believed evil spirits were lurking, victimizing workers in a series of accidents, the worst of which was when a worker walked into a floorless elevator and naturally plunged to a grim death.  The exorcism rite was nothing like we see in the movies involving an exorcist battling the devil possessing a person.  This was an interreligious thing where “prayer warriors” holed out in a glass walled room on the ground floor prayed the rosary the whole night, while a select group of exorcists conducted a kabbala-based ritual several storeys up.

There to observe and write about the ritual, I was allowed to see the preparation, and was given enough information about what was to happen, but for my own protection I was told to stay with the prayer warriors during the ritual itself.  (By the way, the prayer warriors’ room was encircled in salt, a substance believed to shield one against evil spirits, and we inside that room were warned not to look outside the glass walls lest we see someone we know but who’s actually an evil spirit in disguise wanting to come in).  So, the exorcists had Latin prayers written inside a huge circle of salt where the exorcists were to sit during the ritual.  While kabbala is Jewish, the exorcists used some Catholic saints’ images, the crucifix, holy water, and lots of candles burning.

My point in telling you about this is: we need not wait for workers to die mysterious deaths in order to believe that there are evil spirits in the workplace.  Just as benevolent spirits are everywhere, so are malignant ones.  We could even be possessed by an unclean spirit, sad to say, without knowing, or admitting, that we are.  As long as we refuse to know ourselves to recognize that we could be enslaved by evil spirits, we will be cooperating with them in corrupting the workplace.  The spirit of pride, of anger, of lust, of sloth, of envy, et al—are they not present in us?  How are we freed from them?  As the gospel says—Jesus commands the unclean spirits and they obey Him!  Take a hint.   

'Ma, keep out of my bed!'

Quite a number of parents I know who have a good relationship with their children throw their hands up in frustration when it comes to the issue of the RH Bill.  A dear friend sounds weary telling me, “Hay naku, that subject is taboo in our home!  Mia is pro-RH.  She’s 22, studies at UP, and tells me, ‘Ma, you can tell me anything you want except go against RH.  Case closed!’ Imagine!  It makes me sooo sad!”

Another mother who is so passionately against RH Bill declined my offer of a pro-life car sticker, saying, “We have only one family car; my son will never use that sticker!”  She says that her 23-year old single, pro-RH son once and for all squelched her pro-life explanations with, “Ma, keep out of my bed!”  

Both mothers are devoted and practising Catholics, faithful to Church teachings, raised their children well, and have the sympathy and support of their husbands—typical of the happy middle class Filipino family.  And now, in their frustration, both are asking themselves, “Where did we go wrong?  They used to be such nice, obedient kids!” 

When a couple of my own nieces, in their late 20s, openly told me they were for the passage of the RH Bill, all I replied was, “Your are intelligent girls.  If you knew everything about that bill, you yourselves would fight it.”  They countered, “What’s wrong with giving maternal health services to poor people?”  Then the husband of one asked, “What else is there to know?”  I said, “Just think—if that bill were so perfect, why is it taking years to be passed?”  Long story short, he asked that I email him all background information I have about it.

So why would otherwise good and intelligent young people support such a damaging and misleading bill?  How do proponents of the bill lure to their camp well-meaning celebrities like Lea Salonga who herself admitted on TV during a debate that she does not contracept because she’d rather “leave it to God”, nor does she take the pill because “it’s bad for my voice”?  By the way, she was cut off the air at that point.

Young, supposedly smart people who openly and even loudly support the RH bill’s passage do so because they are misinformed—they are given limited information (usually about the “good side” of the bill) to tug at their heartstrings and make them believe they are doing the Filipino people some service by fighting anti-RH folks.

Others who tolerate RH Bill’s passage merely pick up information from the media—where the louder voices, as we know, are more commonly and easily heard and believed.  Few are convinced that the issue is important enough for them to read the bill, to follow the interpellation sessions, or to obtain more information from people in the know.

Worse, there is a malicious misinformation campaign aimed at establishing in the minds of the young that the RH Bill case is simply a Catholic Church vs. State issue: CBCP vs. Noynoy, Old vs. Modern, natural family planning vs. artificial, etc.  As a result many anti-Catholics, Catholics but anti-Church, and those who think themselves “cool” and avant-garde automatically judge the RH bill as commendable and put down the Church as a bunch of old fogeys and narrow-minded hypocrites who are woefully out of touch with reality. 

Enemies of the truth scheme to discredit the Church in the eyes of the young because the Church is the only institution potent enough to expose lies, defend the truth, and perpetuate the good.  The question is: how well are we arming our young people with the love of truth?