Christ vs. Satan in Our Daily Lives: The Cosmic Struggle Between Good and Evil

By Robert Spitzer

Spiritual writer, theologian, and philosopher Jesuit Fr. Robert Spitzer tackles the topic of recognizing and overcoming spiritual evil. His focus is the human heart. His goal: our moral and spiritual transformation, which leads to true peace and genuine happiness.

The book is divided into two main parts: the realities of God's goodness and of spiritual evil, and recognizing and overcoming diabolical tactics, which range from temptation and deception to the Deadly Sins.

Father Spitzer shows readers how to experience God's peace even during times of suffering and persecution. He examines the basics of the spiritual life and Christian mysticism, including the contemplative dimension. He explains the purgative, illuminative, and unitive aspects of spirituality, as well as the Lord's consolation and the passive Dark Night of the Spirit.

Father Spitzer provides the biblical and theological background of Jesus' victory over Satan. The author also explores the reality of the Devil, including extraordinary manifestations of diabolic activity such as possession. He recalls the true story of the famous possession case on which the novel and film The Exorcist were based.

In the final sections of the book the author explains:

• how diabolical spiritual forces operate
• how temptation works, and what to do to defeat it
• the "deadly sins" and how to overcome them

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ignatius Press
• Release date: Oct 27, 2020
• ISBN: 9781642291377

Robert Spitzer

Robert Spitzer, S.J., Ph.D. is the President of the Magis Center of Reason and Faith and the Spitzer Center. He was the President of Gonzaga University from 1998 to 2009. He is the author of many books, including Healing the Culture, Finding True Happiness, Five Pillars of the Spiritual Life, The Light Shines On in the Darkness, The Soul's Upward Yearning, and God So Loved the World.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am most grateful to Joan Jacoby, whose invaluable work brought mere thoughts into reality through her excellent editing suggestions and research. It is not easy to do research for a blind scholar, transcribe multiple copies of his dictation, clean up the manuscript, and endure his many edits, but she did so with great patience, care, competence, and contribution—a true manifestation of her virtue and dedication.

I am also grateful to Kathy Wilmes and Gabriella Negrete for their input and considerable assistance in preparing the manuscript.

I would also like to express my appreciation to the board and benefactors of the Magis Institute who gave me the time and resources to complete this Trilogy on spiritual and moral conversion.

INTRODUCTION TO THE TRILOGY

We are building a dictatorship of relativism that does not recognize anything as definitive and whose ultimate standard consists solely of one’s own ego and desires.

—Pope Benedict XVI*

The need to confront the dictatorship of relativism should not be underestimated, for as we shall see, it is leading not only to a decline in transcendence, faith, morality, and purpose in life, but also to an underestimation of the true dignity and destiny of every person, and ultimately to a decline in civility and civilization itself. In an interview with Peter Seewald, Pope Benedict nuanced this point further:

A large proportion of contemporary philosophies, in fact, consist of saying that man is not capable of truth. But viewed in that way, man would not be capable of ethical values, either. Then he would have no standards. Then he would only have to consider how he arranged things reasonably for himself, and then at any rate the opinion of the majority would be the only criterion that counted. History, however, has sufficiently demonstrated how destructive majorities can be, for instance, in systems such as Nazism and Marxism, all of which also stood against truth in particular.¹

Could the contemporary world degenerate into a culture of narcissism or worse? Might it affect not only individuals and cultures, but also religions and social institutions? Even a remote possibility of this scenario bodes ill for civilization and all mankind. Yet Jesus Christ has called us out of darkness and has given us the light of the Holy Spirit in the Church and her rich moral, spiritual, and intellectual wisdom. This Trilogy attempts to summarize the Church’s moral wisdom. In so doing, it complements my previously written Quartet—Happiness, Suffering, and Transcendence, which summarizes her intellectual and spiritual wisdom. For the moment, suffice it to say that the more we know about the moral teaching of Jesus and the Church, the more we will understand ourselves, our true dignity, and our destiny—and the more we understand this, the more we can act to restore the true freedom of Christ within the dictatorship of moral relativism.

I approach this work with great trepidation because I do not want to imply that I have achieved even a high state of moral conversion or perfection—for I have not. As anyone who knows me can tell you, I have a long way to go on my moral journey. Nevertheless, I have come a considerable way because of the grace of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, and the Catholic Church, and the insights of the spiritual and moral masters presented in this Trilogy—particularly Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Saint John of the Cross, and Saint Teresa of Avila. Throughout the years, I have learned a great deal about spiritual and moral conversion—and because I started out fairly low on the moral totem pole, struggled with many of the deadly sins, and resisted deeper moral conversion even in the midst of spiritual conversion, I thought I could provide some very helpful insights to people like myself—insights into the reality of spiritual evil and how it works, the deadliness of the deadly sins, and most importantly, insights on how to fight temptation and grow in virtue. Though I am no saint, I have gleaned some important practical insights to help egocentric and obdurate personalities—like myself—to follow Christ out of the darkness into the light. If I implied that I have arrived, I beg the reader’s forgiveness, because that would be both false and hypocritical.

Despite all this, I am making small progressive steps out of the darkness and have learned much about the power of grace—and how to submit to it through suffering, faith, and prayer. I hope the insights, most of which are borrowed from truly great saints, will be useful to people struggling with spiritual darkness and evil through the light and grace of Jesus Christ.

I. How the Quartet Connects to the Trilogy:

Three Dimensions of Conversion

The combination of my previously written Quartet (Happiness, Suffering, and Transcendence) and this Trilogy (Called Out of Darkness: Contending with Evil through the Church, Virtue, and Prayer) is intended to help Christians negotiate the challenges of conversion in the contemporary world. Some of these challenges are the following:

     ■ Being immersed in a culture of Level One (sensual and materialistic) and Level Two (ego-comparative) happiness and purpose

     ■ Being confronted by skepticism about God, the soul, and Jesus

     ■ Being discouraged by suffering and God’s seeming involvement in it

     ■ Being undermined by the culture’s critique of the Church and her moral teachings

     ■ Being inundated with violence and pornography on the Internet

     ■ Being pushed into the egocentric and often narcissistic world of social media

     ■ Being drawn into a permissive and often hypersexualized social milieu

     ■ Being desensitized to ethical principles and the promptings of conscience

Given these extraordinary challenges, it should come as no surprise that many Christians have grown weak and apathetic in their faith, and some have lost or forsaken it altogether.

Bernard Lonergan distinguished three dimensions of conversion: intellectual, religious / spiritual, and moral conversion²—all of which are challenged by the above problems in our culture. Though these challenges can be more than met with an abundance of evidence and methods that have recently come to light through science, medicine, philosophy of mind, and scriptural exegesis, we need to develop willing disciples of evangelization to point to these methods and sources of evidence, to help those gripped and even daunted by the above challenges. Though we are not prepared to discuss this now, we will do so in the conclusion to this Trilogy. For the moment, let us return to the three dimensions of conversion—intellectual, religious/ spiritual, and moral conversion.

Let us begin with intellectual conversion, which we might define as rational conviction about the truth of God, the soul, and the transcendent life, as well as Jesus Christ and His teachings. Such rational conviction can be obtained through a variety of means: empirical evidence, verifiable reported evidence, logical proof, scientific evidence, and combinations of these methods. Since the evidence indicating the reality of transcendence is abundant, it is not necessary to rely on only one or two kinds of evidence or methods. It is best to assemble a large number of sources of evidence that are mutually complementary and corroborative. As explained in the conclusion to this Trilogy, we have provided this evidence for the reality of God, the soul, and Jesus in Volume II (The Soul’s Upward Yearning) and Volume III (God So Loved the World) of the Quartet. The evidence includes contemporary philosophical proofs of God’s existence as well as contemporary scientific evidence for an intelligent Creator from the Borde-Vilenkin-Guth proof; entropy; and fine-tuning for life in the initial conditions and constants of the universe. It also includes evidence of a transphysical soul capable of surviving bodily death from peer-reviewed medical studies of near-death experiences; studies of terminal lucidity; and the implications of our five transcendental desires, Godel’s proof, and contemporary studies of self-consciousness. With respect to Jesus, the evidence includes scientific studies of the Shroud of Turin and the Sudarium (face cloth) of Oviedo, N. T. Wright’s arguments for the historicity of the Resurrection, and contemporary scientifically validated miracles. In all, there are about twenty different sources of evidence for transcendence covering the five major methods mentioned above—empirical data, verifiable reports of events after clinical death, logical proofs, scientific conclusions, and validated historical testimony as well as different combinations of these. These kinds of evidence have considerable probative value on their own, which increases when they are seen within their mutual corroboration and complementarity.

In our culture, a large number of young people will have to have pursued intellectual conversion successfully (through examining the above evidence for God, a transcendent soul, and Jesus) before they will be able to engage in spiritual and moral conversion, because belief in these three fundamental realities provides the foundation for pursuing a source of revelation and a church community (integral to spiritual conversion). Stated plainly, if analytically oriented students are apathetic or doubtful about God, the soul, and Jesus, they will not seriously participate in a church community or feel obligated to adhere to its moral teachings.

In my view, it is a huge oversight to offer middle school and high school catechesis courses that do not explore the evidence for God, the soul, and Jesus. As noted in the conclusion to this Trilogy, this oversight has led more than 40 percent of our young people not only to abandon the Church, but also to detach from faith in God altogether.³ Young people identify the principal reason for their unbelief as a contradiction between faith and science—or faith and logical evidence.⁴ For this reason, I would recommend that young people be acquainted with the evidence given in Volumes II and III of the Quartet before presenting them with the need for spiritual and moral conversion given in this Trilogy. (The Magis Center has prepared free and accessible summary presentations of this evidence for young people in its 7 Essential Modules⁵ and the Credible Catholic Little Book⁶.)

We may now proceed to spiritual conversion, which Lonergan frequently calls religious conversion.⁷ It begins with our awareness of our inability to be satisfied without a relationship with a transcendent (divine) Being. Volume I of the Quartet (Finding True Happiness) describes this as Level Four happiness, within the movement from Level One (external-pleasure-material) and Level Two (ego-comparative) to Level Three (contributive-empathetic) and Level Four (transcendent) happiness and purpose.⁸ This transition arises out of self-discovery similar to what Saint Augustine describes in his Confessions. As we move through the stages on life’s way, we begin to notice the supersophistication of our nature by the emptiness and alienation we feel when we are devoid of interpersonal relationships with others and God. We also notice that we cannot be satisfied by the truth, love, fairness, goodness, beauty, and home offered by this world alone, and that we will be satisfied ultimately only by perfect truth, love, fairness-goodness, beauty, and home.

Frequently enough, this sense that our true fulfillment and home lies beyond us is accompanied by what I have called cosmic emptiness, cosmic alienation, and cosmic loneliness (on the negative side),⁹ as well as the numinous experience and intuition of the sacred (on the positive side)¹⁰—all of which impels us to search for the God who at once seems to be present yet hidden, the question and the answer. Since He wants us to acknowledge our need for Him—not only for fulfillment and a response to our radical incompleteness and loneliness, but also to rescue us from our awareness that there is spiritual darkness around and within us—He waits for us to make our decision. God will not make the choice for us, but waits for us to open ourselves to His numinous and sacred presence we feel within us. This response is what we have called a little leap of faith.¹¹ When we make this little leap, we complete the first of four steps of spiritual conversion. There is a thorough summary of this first step in Volume II (Appendix I)—the movement from Levels One and Two. There is an explanation of the move to Levels Three and Four in Volume II (Chapter 4, Section I).

The little leap of faith helps us attain a sense of peace, extricating us partially from our sense of cosmic emptiness, alienation, loneliness, and guilt. Yet, we still sense incompleteness and the need for the Sacred One to rescue us from the darkness we sense around and within us. Very frequently, this opens us to the need for a religious community having legitimate religious authority, and a real conduit to the sacred. This might take us to the Church of our childhood or might open upon yet another search for a true source of God’s self-revelation and the Church, through which that revelation best occurs. In Volume III of the Quartet (God So Loved the World), we discussed how Jesus’ revelation of love as the meaning of life holds out the key to His self-identity as the ultimate source of revelation (Emmanuel—God with us). The acceptance of this truth in our hearts—and our desire to live according to it—constitutes the second step in Christian conversion. Once we have accepted Jesus as the ultimate source of God’s self- revelation in our hearts, we can then attend to the evidence of the mind (intellectual conversion) once again. Chapter 4 of Volume III of the Quartet examines the evidence for the historical reality of Jesus’ glorified Resurrection (through the Shroud of Turin, N. T. Wright’s arguments for its historicity, and the witness value of the apostolic preaching); Chapter 5 examines the evidence for Jesus’ miracles as well as the presence of the Holy Spirit then and now; and Chapter 6 examines Jesus’ self-revelation in the light of His mission to give Himself totally to mankind in an act of unconditional love (His Passion).

If we respond to Jesus by opening ourselves to Him in our hearts and acknowledging His reality in our minds (through the evidence He left for us), we can then proceed to the third step in spiritual conversion—choosing a church community. In Chapter 1 of Volume II of the Trilogy, we detail the substantial evidence for Jesus’ initiation of His Church under the leadership of Saint Peter and his successors who are promised the Holy Spirit to help them maintain fidelity to Jesus’ truth. In the appendix of this volume, we examine the contemporary, scientifically validated miracles that point to the continued presence of Jesus within the Catholic Church—through His Mother (in Marian apparitions), His saints, and His Holy Eucharist. Though this evidence is significant, it still requires a movement of the heart, as in all dimensions of spiritual conversion. As noted later in this Trilogy (Volume II, Chapters 2 and 3), this confirmation of the heart is best obtained by participating in Mass, devotions, prayer, and pilgrimages, as well as reading the lives of saints and other spiritual writings. If one proceeds into the Catholic Church through Baptism, profession of the faith, and Confirmation, then it is time to move toward the fourth and final step of spiritual conversion, which is the deepening of our faith through participation in the Church. This is covered in detail later in this Trilogy (Volume II, Chapters 1-3).

II. Moral Conversion—the Reason for This Trilogy

By now it will be apparent that the Quartet is devoted to intellectual conversion (Volumes II and III) and spiritual conversion (Volumes I and IV), while this Trilogy is devoted mostly to moral conversion (which completes the conversion process). Moral conversion is often the final dimension of the conversion process—not only because it is difficult, but also because it requires the conviction of intellectual conversion and the grace of spiritual conversion to make progress. There are three major dimensions of moral conversion corresponding to the three volumes of this Trilogy:

     Volume I, Christ versus Satan in Our Daily Lives: The Cosmic Struggle between Good and Evil. The first dimension of moral conversion is to acknowledge the darkness within us and around us—from human beings and from spiritual realities who have chosen to act against God and Jesus. We also need to understand how evil works—both the evil coming from our hearts as well as the tactics of Satan and other evil spirits.

     Volume II, The Way Out of Darkness: The Church, Spiritual Conversion, and Moral Conversion. The second dimension of moral conversion is interior purification that begins with the grace and resolve of spiritual conversion and proceeds to what Saint Paul calls the transition from the old man to the new man (Eph 4:22, 24; Col 3:9-11; cf. Rom 6:6; Eph 2:15). We give techniques to assist this process of moving from the lower self to the higher self, and then show how to use this transition effectively to resist temptation and to grow in virtue.

     Volume III, The Moral Wisdom of the Catholic Church: A Defense of Her Controversial Moral Teachings. The third dimension of moral conversion is the formation of our consciences through principles of personal and social ethics. We begin by explaining the critical and hermeneutical assumptions needed to assent to Jesus’ and the Church’s teaching on moral principles and methods, and then proceed to the principles themselves, giving special emphasis to the sin of adultery (in personal ethics) and Catholic social teaching (in social ethics).

Though moral conversion takes a lifetime, the continued practice of its three dimensions draws us closer to the heart and light of Jesus Christ, which opens the way to a life of sanctity and effective evangelization. This Trilogy concludes with a discussion of Christian evangelization—that is, on how to help others move through intellectual, spiritual, and moral conversion.

Just as spiritual conversion integrates aspects of intellectual conversion (e.g., the evidence for Jesus) in its ongoing process, so also moral conversion integrates aspects of spiritual conversion into its ongoing process. So we should not be surprised to learn that part of Volume II of this Trilogy is devoted to spiritual conversion (Chapters 1-3). We may now proceed to an overview of the three volumes of this Trilogy that explains the three dimensions of moral conversion.

A. Volume I—The Recognition of Spiritual Evil and Its Tactics

Volume I (Christ versus Satan in Our Daily Lives: The Cosmic Struggle between Good and Evil) introduces the supernatural dynamic in which our life (particularly our eternal life) is embedded—the struggle between the Trinity (and their representatives) and Satan (and his representatives). The reader may be wondering why the process of moral conversion includes an explanation of the reality of spiritual evil. Shouldn’t this be obvious? Unfortunately, it is not obvious to the young and most vulnerable in our culture. We seem to be caught between two extremes concerning the reality of spiritual evil. One group, which probably fashions itself as enlightened or intellectual, views any allusion to spiritual evil, such as Satan or demonic spirits, as mere mythology, figments of the imagination, and the regrettable remnants of a bygone age—while another group has become fascinated by the occult, witchcraft, and Satanism.¹² Evidence suggests strongly that both groups are in error. The first group has made an error of omission by ignoring the substantial evidence for spiritual evil (and the negative influence it can have over our lives), while the second group has made a spiritual and moral error by believing that the power and promises of evil can provide a supernatural benefit without causing self-destruction, destruction of others, darkness, emptiness, and pain. Both errors can lead to the most negative imaginable decisions about life, purpose, and identity. Therefore, it is necessary to explain the reality of spiritual evil in a balanced Christian way that requires four clarifications.

Firstly, in Chapter 1, we explain the reality and presence of spiritual good—the Trinity and their representatives: the angels, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the saints. This includes public apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary and miracles through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and saints, as well as the divine presence within us—for example, the numinous experience, the actions of the Holy Spirit in our lives, personal visions or revelations, and mystical experiences. Personal experiences of the divine are quite common but, because they are frequently subtle, can be overlooked if we are not attuned to them. Readers should not proceed to Chapter 3 (The Devil Is Real, the reality of spiritual evil) without first being aware of the power and presence of God (and His representatives). We do not confront spiritual evil by ourselves, but with the immense power and assistance of God.

Secondly, in Chapter 2, we consider Jesus’ definitive defeat of Satan and his demonic spirits. Though Satan continues to exercise power in the world (in the lives of individuals and the direction of culture), he cannot be ultimately victorious—nor can he be victorious in any particular battle in which the affected individuals have put their faith in Jesus Christ and called upon Him for help. The evidence for this in the New Testament and throughout Church history shows the power of the Holy Spirit through Jesus’ name and the ultimate demise of Satan.

Thirdly, in Chapter 3, we proceed to the reality of spiritual evil. Though some readers may object to presenting details from the exorcisms of Julia (a recent case reported by psychiatrist Richard Gallagher) and Robbie Mannheim (based on the diary of the Jesuits who performed the exorcism on which the book and film The Exorcist was based), I could think of no better way of calling readers’ attention to the reality, presence, and malicious intent of Satan and his followers (demonic spirits). Why present this evidence in such an explicit and scary way? Because Satan is exceedingly crafty and disguised, preferring to remain hidden in the lives of ordinary people so that his schemes to bring darkness to the world will go unrecognized. Virtually every spiritual work, beginning with the Gospels’ accounts of words spoken by Jesus¹³ and the writings by Saint Paul,¹⁴ has acknowledged this. If a brief examination of the evidence for Satan can alert believers to his presence, then they can learn how to resist him.

Fourthly, in Chapter 4, we discuss the sources of evil in our lives, from malevolent spirits—or our evil intentions. Most of the time, these two sources of evil interact with each other, compounding their effects. Evil spirits exert their influence in a hidden way most of the time—through temptations, deceptions, and, above all, despair. Evil also arises out of the human heart through what the Catholic tradition has called either the seven deadly sins or the eight deadly sins (I prefer the latter).¹⁵ I examine the tactics of Satan in Chapter 4 and then the sins of our hearts (the deadly sins) in Chapters 5 and 6. Let us begin with the tactics of Satan (Chapter 4).

Satan’s most frequent approach is to use temptations and deception. Temptation normally arises through images and suggestions directly conveyed to our conscious and/or subconscious psyches. Satan’s objective is to keep our self-consciousness focused on our lower self (described below), which is the seat of our lower desires for sensual pleasures and ego-comparative satisfaction. His plan is to keep us perennially mired in these lower desires so that they will take our minds off of God, as well as off of Jesus and His teaching. This opens the way to superficial and self-destructive lives that will negatively affect the people and culture around us. Temptations can be resisted by virtue, the sacraments, and prayer, as well as special techniques designed to make the higher self the dominant self-image in the subconscious mind (see Volume II, Chapters 5-6). Deceptions can be exposed and resisted by making recourse to the rules for the discernment of spirits, particularly those written by Saint Ignatius of Loyola. Satan can also deceive a whole culture—even radically—by a variety of deceptions and temptations. However, these too can be countered by reestablishing the third and fourth levels of happiness / purpose in life, and the teachings of Jesus within the culture.

In Chapters 5 and 6, we proceed to the eight deadly sins—the interior attitudes that open the way to evil within our hearts. Throughout the first five centuries of Christian reflection on Jesus’ moral teaching in the New Testament, the Church Fathers discerned eight interior attitudes (that can become habitual) from which sinful and unloving behaviors can spring. Chapter 5 explores five of these attitudes—gluttony, greed, sloth, lust, and vanity, many of which are common today. Though the theological literature about these sins is substantial, I thought that younger audiences might appreciate looking at the impressive examples of them from the vantage point of literary classics and history. Great works of Ovid, Virgil, Shakespeare, Dickens, Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Spenser, and Milton, as well as modern literature and films, provide significant examples of how alluring and entrapping these sinful attitudes can be and teach of their incredible destructive power to self and others. The lesson is clear: keep these attitudes at arm’s length-not only for the sake of your soul, but for the sake of family, friends, colleagues, and community.

In Chapter 6, we explain the three deadliest and most destructive sins—anger, envy, and pride. Using the above classics (particularly Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Othello, and Macbeth) as well as stories from the Old Testament and twentieth-century history, we examine the addictive nature and destructive power of anger, envy, and pride. Though it is common opinion that anger and pride are not that harmful because everybody engages in them, nothing could be further from the truth because they are explosive and almost limitless in the hatred and contempt they can generate. Iago characterizes his envious plot (in Othello) as follows:

     I have’t. It is engender’d. Hell and night

     Must bring this monstrous birth to the world’s light.¹⁶

Again, the point for all readers is clear: no matter how innocuous these three sins may seem, they are to be avoided by all possible means—prayer, virtue, and the sacraments. Hopefully, after Chapter 6, readers will no longer be in the dark about the destructive power of either Satan or the deadly sins he instigates. This may provide the incentive to delve seriously into Volume II of the Trilogy—engagement in moral conversion itself.

B. Volume II—Engagement in Spiritual and Moral Conversion

Volume II of the Trilogy (The Way Out of Darkness: The Church, Spiritual Conversion, and Moral Conversion) begins with an explanation of how to deepen spiritual / religious conversion to provide a foundation for moral conversion. It starts with affirming the Catholic Church as the original and true Church of Jesus Christ under the supreme teaching authority of Saint Peter and his successors. It then proceeds to exploring religious / spiritual conversion through the guidance of the Church, the supreme gift of the Holy Eucharist, the sacramental life, and the inner gifts coming from integration into the Mystical Body of Christ. This leads to the development of contemplative and devotional life that prepares the way for moral conversion. It then explores moral conversion itself through affirmation of the virtues of faith and love (particularly manifest in the Beatitudes), and the use of spiritual and psychological techniques for resisting temptations and developing the higher self (what Saint Paul called the new man, as mentioned above). We will examine each of these stages in turn.

Stage One—Affirmation of the Catholic Church as the Original and True Church of Jesus Christ. In Chapter 1, we closely examine the need for a Church, particularly a Church with a supreme teaching and sacramental authority and power—to avoid problems of disunity and misinterpretations of Jesus’ words, which would undermine spiritual and moral conversion. We explore the scriptural references in the Gospels concerning Jesus’ intention to start a church that would be unified through His risen body and last until the end of time. We also examine the exegetical evidence for Jesus’ commissioning of Peter and his successors as the supreme teaching authority of the Church in Matthew 16:17-19, John 21:15-19, and Galatians 2:9. We then look into Peter’s supreme role in the Acts of the Apostles, particularly at the Council of Jerusalem. This leads to an investigation of how the first popes, bishops, and Church Fathers understood the role of Saint Peter’s successors (as the Bishop of Rome). This evidence is complemented by nine contemporary scientifically validated miracles connected with three doctrinal proclamations of the Catholic Church—the Blessed Mother, the saints, and the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist (in the appendix to Volume I).

Stage Two—The Development of Religious / Spiritual Conversion. In Chapters 2 and 3, we examine how religious / spiritual conversion is deepened through the guidance of the Magisterium, the graces of the sacraments, and the interior spiritual gifts given through integration into the Mystical Body of Christ. We address how to receive the sacraments and how to engage in and deepen our contemplative lives, particularly through contemplation on the Word of God, contemplative prayer practice, and devotion to Mary and the saints.

Stage Three—From Spiritual Conversion to Moral Conversion. In Chapters 4 through 6, we explore how to develop the major virtues of faith and love and then how to resist temptation by using spiritual techniques (such as the Examen Prayer) and psychological techniques (such as those developed by Dr. Albert Bandura). We then turn our attention to the development of the higher self (the new man), which habitualizes (makes second nature) our moral conversion.

The term self is somewhat technical, referring to a persona or identity that self-consciousness can assume. In view of this, we offer a method to make the higher self as the dominant persona-identity, not only in our conscious mind, but also in our subconscious mind. Using techniques from Dr. Bandura, and others, we show how we can accomplish this effectively. When these psychological techniques are combined with the power of grace (from contemplative prayer, the Examen Prayer, and spontaneous prayers), significant self-transformation can take place expeditiously.

In Chapter 7, we look into the vehicles for Christ’s merciful love in the Sacrament of Reconciliation and spontaneous prayers of forgiveness. Even if we should make real progress in self-transformation and moral conversion, we will still need reconciliation and healing from moral failures in the past, present, and future. Saint Paul makes clear that the road to moral conversion is filled with obstacles, weaknesses, and failings (see Rom 7:15-25). We cannot save ourselves, and we cannot rely on ourselves to be perfected in love. As Jesus tells us, we are all in deep need of a Savior to forgive us, heal us, lead us, and protect us—a Savior who would not spare anything to save us and who would give his very life for us and for the life of the world:

For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. (Jn 3:16-17)

Jesus left us with so many assurances of His unconditional love, forgiveness, and healing grace that we should be confident to put our faith in Him. His Parable of the Prodigal Son, in which the father shows unconditional forgiving love to his son who has betrayed him in every imaginable way, is a revelation of the very nature of His Heavenly Father (see Lk 15:11-32). Likewise, His assurance to the good thief on the cross, who turned to Him after a lifetime of crime—Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise—shows us His unconditional mercy even at the last minute (Lk 23:43). Furthermore, the many instances of His love and forgiveness of sinners, and His desire to be with them and seek them out, tells us of His compassion for us even at the worst of times. Above all, His Passion and death for the sake of our salvation, explained so beautifully in His Eucharistic words, reveal that He would do absolutely anything to bring us into His Kingdom. If we find ourselves doubting His love and mercy for us when we have failed badly, all we need do is look at a crucifix and recall His words to the good thief. This should assure us that our faith in His love is warranted, and that He can rescue us from even the darkest of circumstances.

If we have this faith in Jesus, then the remarkable Sacrament of Reconciliation, which He left to us through His apostles, will bring not only His unconditional forgiveness of our sins, but also His healing grace and the power of His Spirit to renew us again.

The road to moral conversion is not smooth, and even Saint Paul was tormented by his failings after twenty years, crying out, I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do (Rom 7:19). He knew well what he had to do because he could not save himself—he had to call upon the Lord’s mercy, knowing that He would save him from his very self; and so he concludes, Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Rom 7:24-25). We should accept his good counsel and do the same—otherwise, moral conversion will be impossible.

C. Volume III—Formation of Conscience through the Teaching of Christ and the Church

In Volume II we addressed the foundational dimension of moral conversion—interior purification—particularly moving from the lower self to the higher self (what Saint Paul calls the old man to the new man). This process not only helps us to resist temptation effectively, but also to live in the light of Christ’s love and virtue, which empowers our conscience. Yet it is not enough for our conscience to be empowered by love and grace; we also need to form our conscience—that is, to conform it to the principles of personal and social ethics taught by Jesus and the Church. This is the objective of Volume III of this Trilogy—The Moral Wisdom of the Catholic Church: A Defense of Her Controversial Moral Teachings—which brings the process of moral conversion to completion. These principles inform and then conform our conscience so that it will alert us to behaviors we want to avoid (with feelings of alienation and guilt) and behaviors we want to pursue (with feelings of peace and nobility). Once conscience has been formed to alert us to the presence of good or evil, our process of self-transformation (in Volume II) can come to full effect, for we can now apply the power of conscience to our nuanced set of principles to refine our moral conversion. We articulate these principles in two major areas:

     1. Personal ethics (Chapters 1-5)

     2. Social ethics (Chapters 6-7)

Let us begin with personal ethics. In Chapter 1, we explain three major conditions of trusting discipleship necessary for understanding and following Jesus’ and the Church’s moral teaching in our hearts. Without this openness of the heart, it will be exceedingly difficult to assent and adhere to these principles with love and reverence, which will likely cause resistance and interior conflict.

So what are these three conditions?

     1. Deepening our trust in the Lord.

     2. Deepening our relationship with the Lord through gratitude and love.

     3. Cultivating the freedom to lovingly follow the precepts of Christ and the Church.

If we do not grow in trusting discipleship, we will never be able to assent and adhere fully to the precepts of Christ and the Church. We will always be standing outside Jesus’ and the Church’s perspective, trying futilely to understand why they hold these principles to be true, good, and consistent with God’s will.

Chapters 2 through 5 focus on the six major principles of Christian personal ethics themselves—the six commandments articulated by Jesus in Mark 10:19:

Do not kill, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.

In the current day, these commandments take on considerable sophistication, nuance, and complexity corresponding to the sophistication of education, technology, and communication within the culture. In Chapters 2 and 3, special consideration is given to the prohibition of adultery because the sexual revolution has caused a reinterpretation of sexuality that has undermined the proper nature of sexuality within marriage as well as marital commitment itself. Jesus’ view of sexuality promotes and enhances marriage, exclusive permanent commitment, and intimacy and generativity in marriage, all of which impact the security and well-being of children and the family—not to mention the culture and society formed by sound families. In light of Jesus’ and the Church’s teaching about love and sexuality, we give special consideration to why Jesus and the Church teach against extramarital sexuality, premarital sexuality (including cohabitation), and homosexuality. Chapter 3 examines the negative effects of pornography and gender change as well as the positive effects of natural family planning and the myth of overpopulation.

In Chapter 4, special consideration is given to the prohibition of killing. We first examine the evidence for the intrinsic dignity and transcendental nature of every human being, and then give special attention to abortion, eugenic infanticide, in vitro fertilization, euthanasia, and physician assisted suicide. In Chapter 5, we give consideration to stealing, lying, and cheating, arising out of new issues raised by medicine, science, business, academia, mass media, and social media. The chapter concludes with an important section on creating our own personal code of ethics, which is vital to the process of personally appropriating the principles mentioned above.

We then proceed to the area of social ethics, which has become increasingly more important throughout the course of the industrial revolution, two world wars, and economic globalization. Social ethics is the responsibility of the culture, society, and state, so no individual can be completely responsible for its successful practice. Nevertheless, every individual can do his best to inform and influence the culture and society (through media, church, and educational efforts), and the state (through political engagement), to move ever more closely to the ideal of justice and charity articulated by Jesus and the Church. We begin this discussion in Chapter 6 with a consideration of the world-transforming influence of Jesus and His teaching in four important respects:

     ■ The Golden Rule (see Mt 7:12), which moved society from ethical minimalism (the Silver Rule) to ethical maximalism.

     ■ The equal intrinsic transcendental dignity of every human being (As you did to one of the least of these my brethren, you did to me [Mt 25:40]).

     ■ The positive law, which is subordinate to the intrinsic transcendental dignity of every human being (The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath [Mk 2:27]).

     ■ The responsibility of all Christians to assist those in need, a proclamation that enabled the early Church community to evolve into the largest provider of public healthcare, welfare, and education in the world today.

The effects of these teachings led to four major principles that ultimately evolved into the doctrine of the inalienable rights of all human beings to life, liberty, happiness, and property. This occurred mostly through Saint Augustine (An unjust law is no law at all); Saint Paul and Saint Thomas Aquinas (the natural law); Father Bartolome de Las Casas, O.P. (the doctrine of universal personhood); and Father Francisco Suarez, S.J. (the doctrine of the inalienable rights of all human beings). These Christian reflections on social ethics provided the foundation not only for the Church’s teaching on slavery, the life issues, and socioeconomic rights (Catholic social teaching), but also for Locke’s Treatise on Government, the United States Declaration of Independence, and the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Chapters 6 and 7 provide a brief, but comprehensive, explanation of the major declarations on Catholic social ethics. Chapter 6 addresses the rationale for the prohibition of slavery, abortion, and assisted suicide, based upon the principles of social ethics described in the chapter. These principles form the basis of individual natural rights, but social ethics goes much further—to the domains of social institutions, business organizations, political communities, and the international communities. The need for ethical guidance in these critical social areas moved the Church to write a comprehensive set of guidelines over the last one hundred years called Catholic social teaching (beginning in 1891 with Pope Leo XIII’s famous encyclical Rerum Novarum).

In Chapter 7, we discuss the six major principles of Catholic social ethical analysis:

     1. The intrinsic transcendent dignity of every human being

     2. The principle of the common good

     3. The universal destination of goods

     4. The principle of subsidiarity

     5. Participation in democracy

     6. The principle of solidarity

We then apply these principles to the Church’s reflection on seven major areas of socio-political and economic ethics—the family, the working environment, the economic / business community, the political community, the international community, the environment, and the pursuit of peace.¹⁷ As we shall see, Catholic social teaching is incredibly extensive, giving guidance to our individual and collective minds on just about every topic of ethical relevance to the modern world.

After completing Volume III, readers should have a strong foundation on which to form their consciences to make progress in moral conversion. Moral conversion is a lifetime project, but continued progress brings gradual closure to the conversion process.

III. Conclusion

After completing this Trilogy, the reader will have journeyed through the deep and wide Catholic traditional and contemporary reflection on intellectual conversion, spiritual conversion, and moral conversion. The contents of this reflection draw on a vast array of evidence not only from theology and scriptural exegesis, but also from philosophy, the natural sciences, medicine, history, psychology, sociology, political theory, and economic theory, as well as spirituality, mysticism, and world literature. To plumb the depths of this evidence is to get a glimpse into the mind and heart of God as He reveals Himself to our transcendent souls. As we do this, entering more deeply into the conversion process, we feel the call of the Lord to bring the good news of His unconditional love and salvation to the world. We recognize at once that we are truly made in the image and likeness of God, that we are called to eternal joy and love with Him and one another in His Kingdom, and that He lavishly gives grace, power, and love to us through His Son, Jesus Christ; the Holy Spirit; and the Catholic Church. Yet we also recognize that there is something dark and aberrant in this world that belongs neither to God or His Kingdom—something that wills us to embrace hatred, egocentricity, domination, and self-worship, leading ultimately to our demise. We see in the teaching of Jesus that this power is Satan, who sows the seeds of discontent, stokes the fires of passion, entices us to self-idolatry, and tries to separate us from the Lord of love. We might at first be overwhelmed by the recognition of this foe described so aptly in the Letter to the Ephesians:

We are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having fastened the belt of truth around your waist, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the equipment of the gospel of peace; besides all these, taking the shield of faith, with which you can quench all the flaming darts of the Evil One. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (6:12-17)

As the Pauline author states, Jesus Christ has not left us alone with our enemy, but has prepared and equipped us for this battle by the gifts of His Holy Spirit, His Word, and His Church, as well as virtue and prayer. Yet even with these supernatural gifts, we have one more exceedingly important grace to rely on beyond our natural powers—the unconditional love and mercy of Jesus Christ. Thus, even if we should fail miserably again and again, we are not on our own to win entrance into the Kingdom of God, for in our weakness, Christ comes, forgives, heals, and sanctifies. This mystery is so remarkable and beautiful that it astounds Saint Paul, who found himself still struggling with the flesh (certain deadly sins) after twenty years. As noted above, his exasperation at his continued weakness and failure is worth repeating, for it shows us what we ourselves must do when faced with the same challenge:

I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. . . . I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. . . . Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Rom 7:15, 18-21, 24-25)

If we bear Saint Paul’s good counsel in mind, while firmly aiming at continued self-transformation and formation of conscience, we will make progress. This has certainly been my own life experience, and I assume, with my many imperfections, that I am not very different from the rest of humanity. Notwithstanding this, progress in moral conversion brings us ever more deeply into the truth, love, goodness, beauty, and home of the Lord we seek—or perhaps better, the Lord who seeks us. As we draw closer to the Lord, we touch ever more deeply the joy and peace He offers—even if we are beset by temptations and other interference from our spiritual enemy. This is true happiness, the most sublime happiness arising out of what we have termed Level Four purpose in life. The more we taste it, the more we are drawn like Christian mystics into the Lord’s living flame of love.

So where do we go from here? As the great commentator on Christian mysticism Evelyn Underhill implies, no Christian mystic stays in the highest heavens, but always returns to Christ’s flock to share the goodness and love of Christ he has experienced.¹⁸ Thus, all Christians—particularly those living in the highest dimensions of Level Four—are called by the unconditionally loving Lord to the mission of evangelization; and so our Trilogy concludes with a detailed summary of the need for evangelization within our culture, and how to use the information and tools of evangelization presented in the four volumes of the Quartet and the three volumes of this Trilogy. This enables us to say the prayer of the Pauline author to the Ephesians for every person who is open to the words of evangelization we bring in Christ Jesus:

I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with might through his Spirit in the inner man, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fulness of God. (3:14-19)

PART ONE

The Reality of Divine Goodness

and Spiritual Evil

INTRODUCTION TO PART ONE

In Volume II of the Quartet (The Soul’s Upward Yearning), we described our unconscious awareness of a cosmic struggle between good and evil—manifest in our dreams (through unconscious archetypes) and in the literature of contemporary myths such as J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter, and George Lucas’ Star Wars. We further noted that the reason these contemporary myths are at the top of all-time literary and film sales is that