To perceive something that is imperceptible...
At the end of the book “Hostage to the Devil” by Malachi Martin he writes of a bible passage that was relayed to him by a dying exorcist. It is 1 Cor 50-58. The priest is dying and has lived a life deeply affected by a failed exorcism and stated he was stained by the interaction with evil. The soon to die priest had said to Martin before he died that the victory over death is His victory, meaning Jesus’, so even if we fail, our Lord is still victorious.
1 Cor 50-58:
I tell you this, brethren: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Lo! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable nature must put on the imperishable, and this mortal nature must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?”
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
The things which hold us back from hearing are the things of the world such as money, image, prestige, power, influence, possessions, house, food, entertainment and the like. The other things which hold us back from hearing are our fears. Fear about not having the things of the world such as fear of having no money, a poor image, no possessions, no future and the like. Our senses are our way of seeing and experiencing the world. And as such we think them to be the way to know things. But there is another way. Nothing perishable can inherit the imperishable.
From “Hostage to the devil” Martin says there are ways we understand what evil says of us and our world and that death is not an answer to things but it is the devil’s answer. We think, as the devil thinks, that killing solves problems. Cain was a murderer from the beginning. A possessed man in the book named Wu “…had given himself body and soul to that old, old force, the one which led Cain to murder his brother, Abel, in the fields, the one that tried to impede God's creation of man's world. The oldest. The strongest. For all of them. ‘Them,’ in Michael's mouth, were the Japanese, the Chinese, the Russians, the Americans. They all acted as if death were the final arbiter and the strongest ally in all the universe. Cain's father was a murderer from the beginning, as Jesus was the first to state in the Gospels” (Hostage to the devil, p. 291). But according to 1 Cor. 50-58 death is defeated and therefore the devil himself is defeated.
In this book “hostage to the devil” Martin examines five different possessions and said that each possession pointed us to the a way the devil confuses us. A few examples are in one possession the devil made the case there is no difference between good and evil; in another, that all mysteries can be resolved by the natural; and in another, that there is no spiritual, only psychological. An implication of the latter example is that even love itself is only a biological, psychological “feeling” and that there is really no thing such as love. Love is just a “chemical reaction.”
So, instead, we who believe in the Spirit must then exercise the spiritual life inside us or that life becomes imperceptible. Is God’s grace imperceptible or are we lacking in our ability to perceive it? During an exorcism Martin says there is a real feeling of a presence. A real sense of evil is present and if the evil is exorcised that presence is no longer felt. But God’s grace can sometimes feel imperceptible but if it is there then we should feel it and sense it. But we don’t always. And what chokes us from this? The things of the world choke this perceiving. Our money, our worries, our cares, our image, our power, our influence, our home, our car, our status. We worry if our co-workers or neighbors are talking about us. We worry if someone else’s project goes well. What will happen to our status? We worry and we worry some more.
If we think we have it figured out maybe we don’t. The thoughts inside you, where do they come from? Are they placed there? Injected into you? Did you conjure them up? Why are they there when they are there? Can you in fact quiet your mind? Are you capable of this? How do we slow down enough to sense God’s grace in our life and even if we try to sense it can we indeed sense it? Is God’s grace imperceptible or are we not good at perceiving? If our minds are just chemical reactions then who are you? Are you just one biological, chemical reaction resulting in a life of nothingness and meaningless actions or are you a person created in the image of God with a soul? And if with a soul a way to become divinized? Are we perishable now but can become imperishable through God’s love or just perishable?
Our thoughts are impure. Our ideas are impure. They are impure because we are corruptible. By a force. Outside of us. But the soul which is imperceptible must be considered a real thing, a part of us, and it is in the soul in which we can encounter God through His grace which also seems so imperceptible. How do we sense something that seems insensible? Where do we find a source of good that can turn our evil thoughts to good thoughts?
It is through our interior soul that we can find these things not by looking at the world because the soul is created by God. Our bodies may be physical and perishable but our soul is imperishable. If our body is to be re-united with the soul as we teach in the resurrection of the body then the body too must be made new before entering the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, we should also be concerned, more concerned, with the soul and in it’s communion with God. The body will have to be taken care of by God for one can’t raise oneself from the grave. Then, by doing that, we must quiet the body and look inward. Even if we can’t perceive our own soul or at times God’s grace these are really present in us and in reality. But God does give us from time to time graces we can perceive and happy are we when receive.
From “The imitation of Christ” Book 3, Chapter 1.
THE INWARD CONVERSATION OF CHRIST WITH THE FAITHFUL SOUL
“I will hear what the Lord God will speak in me"
Blessed is the soul who hears the Lord speaking within her, who receives the word of consolation from His lips. Blessed are the ears that catch the accents of divine whispering, and pay no heed to the murmurings of this world. Blessed indeed are the ears that listen, not to the voice which sounds without, but to the truth which teaches within. Blessed are the eyes which are closed to exterior things and are fixed upon those which are interior. Blessed are they who penetrate inwardly, who try daily to prepare themselves more and more to understand mysteries. Blessed are they who long to give their time to God, and who cut themselves off from the hindrances of the world. Consider these things, my soul, and close the door of your senses, so that you can hear what the Lord your God speaks within you. "I am your salvation," says your Beloved. "I am your peace and your life. Remain with Me and you will find peace. Dismiss all passing things and seek the eternal. What are all temporal things but snares? And what help will all creatures be able to give you if you are deserted by the Creator?" Leave all these things, therefore, and make yourself pleasing and faithful to your Creator so that you may attain to true happiness.
It seems we can sense evil more readily then good. It seems we can acquire evil more easily than good. But as God said to Cain his desire would consume him. Our desires will consume us unless we seek to find the thing in us which is imperceptible.