The Desire for True and False Miracles – Father Theologos

The second great temptation of the devil toward Christ is the offer to throw Himself down from the rooftop, for the angels would catch Him. Christ, being perfect, refused.

In this video, watch a discussion about the sinful man’s need for sensation, excitement, the sensational, and for miracles that are more or less true.

Enjoy!

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen. Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, O Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us! Amen.

In the previous episode, I talked about the Lord’s forty-day fast in the desert, beginning with the first temptation by which the devil tempted the Lord, telling Him to make bread out of stones since He is hungry. Notice how the devil works with the material, is focused on the material, the body, and uses our fallen logic for his cunning purposes. This is primarily to isolate us from God, pushing us towards pride, towards the love of wealth, the love of pleasure, and the love of power, which are the three great passions. Wealth, pleasure, power. PWP: Pleasure, wealth, power. I’ve mentioned this many times.

Christ always opposes the devil with spirituality and obedience, the dependence on God, even though He does not need to, being perfect God, in no way inferior to the Father and the Holy Spirit. You see, in the case of hunger, it is obvious why the devil told Christ to change stones into loaves: because one of the most main ways people are driven is through hunger and physical fear. And under the pressure of our biological needs, meaning hunger, we, the fallen ones, often do anything to satisfy it or to escape physical fear, the primary one being the fear of bodily death. That is, many of us do almost anything to get rid of a serious illness, which is considered dangerous. In the pandemic I think we’ve witnessed this, haven’t we? Do you understand? So, if in the case of the first temptation it is clear why the devil acted the way he did, I think in the case of the second temptation we need to discuss a bit more.

We see in Matthew ch. 4 and its parallel places, that the devil took the Lord to the Holy City, to the pinnacle of the temple and told Him to throw Himself down if He is the Son of God, because it is written in the Psalm that, “For He shall give His angels charge over you… In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.” Something like that. And the Lord said to him, “It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’ The Lord spoke well to him: when we love God, we do not tempt Him; we don’t put Him through tests like a test subject. You see, the devil does that: he tests Christ, by the first temptation and also by the second, trying to find out if He truly is the Son of God.

The devil does not have a loving relationship with God, but one of enmity, of espionage. The devil always seeks his own interest and the destruction of others. The devil gathers as much information as he can to better fight his victim. It would be good to mention here that when we say God tests us, it’s not a very accurate expression, brethren. He does not test us to learn something from us; God is all-knowing, brethren. The temptations we face come with God’s allowance, brothers. God does not rejoice in human suffering at all, yet it is necessary, because hardships are for our benefit, to be freed from sins, to gain experience, to advance spiritually, and teach others too. In these moments, God is by our side, aiding our release from the passions we are in, while the devil always seeks to push us into despair, depression, deeper into our passions, not to help us.

Returning, the Lord well said, “You shall not tempt the Lord your God.” We must trust that God helps us, as He has helped us many times in our lives. If we pay attention and we look back on our lives, we will notice how often God has helped us in a very discreet way. If God wasn’t with us, brethren, I cannot say where we would be today. Do you understand? As I was saying, God helps us when the need arises, as an expression of His love. God does not work miracles unless absolutely necessary, for He does not contradict Himself—He does not break the laws He Himself established. God doesn’t perform circus acts. Do you understand? I will not jump from this cliff behind me and expect Him to catch me. That is unnecessary.

Perhaps it would be wise to define the miracle: the miracle is the temporary overcoming of the spatio-temporal dimension of the natural laws, of the everyday laws that God has established in the space-time continuum for the benefit of man. Understand? That is, [they are] an excrescence, a break from the everyday. When I say “for the benefit of man,” I mean that even the everyday laws are for the benefit of man, and the miracle must also be for the benefit of man. That is, for the increase in love for God and of the humility of each one of us. Brethren, as I said, God is no circus performer!

I know enough fathers who have seen the Mother of God or our Lord Jesus Christ or other saints, yet they are humble, obedient, and do not make a commotion of their experiences. We, however, are desirous of miracles, because as I was saying, miracles transcend the ordinary, and we constantly yearn to surpass the ordinary, we want to become like God who is beyond all that is ordinary, beyond anything. God is special, He is marvelous, He is unique and unrepeatable, and He reveals Himself through the miracle, through marvel and ecstasy. Well, and the devil exploits here as well. Here arises the great problem of pseudo-miracles, of deceptions, because the desire for advancement, for stepping out of the ordinary, out of the static, and the desire to enter into the miracle is deeply ingrained in the center of our existential DNA.

Our tendency toward the infinite is the main part of God’s image in us. This tendency is so deeply rooted in our nature that even the devil has not tried to uproot it. He knows that he cannot remove it. He has only distorted it. You see, he did not tell Adam not to seek perfection – meaning “the knowledge of good and evil” in the language of the Old Testament – rather he told him to seek it in matter. Do you understand? He distorted his direction. Thus, distorted “miracles” appear, or to put it differently, man’s desire for vain glory. Do you understand? Here, by miracle or pseudo-miracle, I do not mean only what is generally understood by believers, but I go back to the root, that is, to man’s greed to stand out, to be praised, to place himself above others, to attain a superior knowledge, and here, as I said, due to Adam’s fall, problems arise.

Some miracles are coarser, more material, while others are very subtle and very difficult to discern. When I say “coarser,” brethren, they are not a joke, even if it may seem so at first glance. A lot of attention is needed. For example, if I tell you about the “cargo cult,” you might laugh even though it is not a laughing matter. You shouldn’t, brothers. In short, it is about the indigenous populations of the islands in the Pacific, who were living their lives peacefully at their level of knowledge, of livelihood, and suddenly find themselves facing shocking realities that they cannot explain – the most well-known case I can mention here is the American-Japanese conflict during World War II. Because the Japanese and later the Americans – even more so – sent them cargoes with food and other necessities to win their sympathy and thus use their islands as military bases, they developed a true religious cult in which deities and ancestors were invoked, believing that the cargoes would come again.

The problem is not as simple as it seems, brothers, because most cargoes came literally “from the sky,” that is, they were dropping from the skies, because the indigenous people didn’t know about airplanes and even less about parachuting. To complicate matters further, some of their sharper leaders maintained and intensified this cult to the point of fanaticism, from which they drew benefits based on the empty glory they gained as leaders, playing roles as “prophets,” intermediaries, mediums, “high priests” of the cargoes, all sorts of such positions.

 Of course, the problem reaches its peak when these incantations indeed reach a very intense religious level, but they are directed towards the enemy, and then we end up with practices like voodoo, witchcraft – which, yes, brothers, exist to this day and not only in the Pacific, brothers! God forbid! Practices that always target the human soul: both the sorcerer’s and the one on whom the magic is done, or on the sacrifice. Today, human sacrifice is still done, even today. This is even though the devil can “help” with material things, supposedly good, so that a person does not realize that their soul’s freedom is targeted. The devil always aims for the freedom of the human soul. He targets the human soul, he targets its connection with God.

The same mechanism of coarse miracles is still visible today, brothers, because any technology advanced enough for the target audience no longer distinguishes itself from magic, from sorcery. We see that today we have the issue of science, which has proven to be very controversial, with extremes on all sides. When I say extremes, I also refer to the fetishization of a product, meaning the product is [apparently] perfectly saving, without blemish, problem, or any side effects, promoted thus by the producing company or by supporters of the product for various reasons, usually financial motives or out of vain glory. Or on the other extreme, that a product would lead to a denial of Christ, without the Church expressing itself in a synod in this regard. Brothers, the Church must express itself in synod for something to be a denial of Christ.

Of course, there are cursed objects, occult items, and similar things, but these are evident cases, brothers. These must be burned or buried. Brothers, from my little experience, any product that generates hate, that generates fanaticism, is not from God, it is not good, brethren, regardless of whether, from a technical or scientific point of view, that product is, so to speak, as it should be. It is better to avoid it, brothers. Avoid it.

Of course, I emphasize even more here that there should not be any pressure, especially religious pressure to take or not take that product; this is the worst, brothers. And not hatred; not pseudo-religious, fanatical hatred on this topic. Be very careful, brethren! To avoid giving controversial examples from contemporaneity, in order not to generate tension, dissension, division, I will give you an example from the past from the area I know a little bit about: computers. Brethren, the Commodore Amiga was a computer introduced in 1985 and was well ahead of its time. It was the first personal multimedia computer that offered exceptional sound and graphics for its time.

We’re talking about almost 40 years ago. At the first demo in 1985, it was a 3D sphere that bounced according to the laws of physics – “Ray Tracing,” for connoisseurs – those who saw what was happening could not believe their eyes. It’s a “miracle,” they exclaimed. Well, yes, because we were talking about 4096 colors at a time when PCs had 4 and with great difficulty, reached 256 after two years! Consider that Amiga had 4096. Beyond the graphics, the sound was exceptional; music albums were mixed on the Amiga while PCs could only beep. Yes, a miracle – a pseudo-miracle that, of course, had a known technical explanation, the chips that were there, and so on. This was known. However, this generated a great vain glory, an extremism that was hard to control for the Amiga fan community, who looked down on almost all other computer users. If someone tried to say something, they were put against the wall, censored, and sometimes even threatened. The fanaticism of the fans, how does that sound!? The fanaticism of the fans… the fanaticism, the pride of the Amiga ecosystem has actually destroyed a revolutionary product. A very sad story, brothers. This happens to this day, you should know.

I could give many examples – but I will avoid generating comments and dissention. Pride is the best path to self-destruction, brothers. Let’s not believe that we are elites and that we hold control over the world, no matter how big or small this world may be, because “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.” It is written in Scripture, brothers. Have you seen a thought that promises you glory? It prepares you shame! This was said by Abba Mark the Ascetic, and take it as dogma, brothers! Things become more serious when someone does not emphasize the fact that it’s something human and pushes people to believe that it’s something supernatural. The gift of clairvoyance, for example. This is a very great temptation, and one can fall into it when they know how to speak ambiguously, see the famous cases of the Pythia, the Oracle of Delphi and Nostradamus, but even today we have astrologers and oracles.

Since we’re here, brothers, astrology, horoscope is a deception, let’s be clear.  Some celestial bodies, some stones or some balls of gas and fire, like stars, as celestial bodies are, do not control a person made in the image of the intelligent God, brothers. Perhaps it would be good to explain a little bit where this misconception comes from, even if we have explained it in the past. In the past, there were no weather reports and satellites, people calculated time and hence the weather based on the stars, or rather they observed that the sun on its apparent journey across the sky – since the Earth actually revolves around the sun – rises and sets in different constellations, known as zodiac signs, depending on the time of year we are discussing.

Well, due to the fact that, in the ancients’ understanding, these constellations, or zodiac signs, influenced weather, as I mentioned, that the sun appears to enter and exit a certain zodiac when it is winter and another when it is summer, people eager for fame and gain claimed that the zodiacs also influenced the human being in the sense of today’s horoscope, which is entirely false, brethren. Don’t follow such things!

Why do I tell you this? Because you are greedy for sensationalism, for the miracle, for the avoidance of humility, brethren. You are greedy for a knowledge that God does not give us. Knowledge of the future or even of the present, if it does not lead to love, unity, and humility, is Luciferian knowledge, brethren. It’s not salvific. Do you understand?

Another cause for the emergence of pseudo-clairvoyants (I can’t even call them clairvoyants) is when someone has some experience with people. For example, from experience, meaning from the cases I have encountered, I know that TikTok is very destructive, and I also know that it has been banned in the USA in Congress. If I’m talking to a young man, I have a choice here, either I talk like a man, with a measure of humility, that is, to say, “Brother, we should be careful with this app, I don’t know if you’ve installed it, it’s very harmful, avoid it,” or I talk like a clairvoyant: “I see you are looking where you shouldn’t. You have a dark mind. You are addicted” and I look at him with a penetrating gaze. Of course, many times I will guess correctly, but other times I will scandalize or harm souls.

Yes, brothers, I have seen cases. It’s not good. And even if I guess correctly, it is not right, it’s not good. I present myself as someone I’m not. Do you understand? And know that in proportion to the measure of vain glory, the corresponding fall will also come. God forbid! If God wanted me to be clairvoyant, He would give me this gift, and this gift, mind you, doesn’t generate dark enthusiasm or fanaticism among people. I have seen clairvoyant people. The testimonies appear over time, and anyway, know that God does not grant this grace to just anyone; first of all, the person must be validated by the Church as being a spiritual person, having an exemplary ascetic life and does not generate scandal. Clairvoyants do not grow like mushrooms after the rain, please forgive me!

God first validates someone in the Church through natural virtues and then raises them to the gifts that are beyond nature. And man can fall from there too. As I said, let’s not absolutize either in good or in bad. Let’s be humble. Also, in the category of the above, there lies fortune-telling based on various methods behind which the enemy or experience with people is hidden. Who they are, facts about them, or how to talk to them. Coffee reading, rice reading, palmistry, cartomancy, tarot, God forbid! Or even [fortune tell] from the Psalter, from the Pedalion, that is, from the collection of canons, or even from the Gospel. In anything that can convince us, can satisfy our thirst for the sensational, the desire for miracles, for excitement as I said. Yes, there are also “modern” forms of fortune-telling mixed with electronics, but it’s better not to give you ideas, as in the end, the devil plants thoughts. The devil tries everything to detach man from God and to subjugate man to stars, coffee beans, and even cards. Anything, except God. Know that the enemy gets involved in these things and often makes them fit.

The most dangerous is with church books because these, actually, plus or minus, theoretically, fit everyone because they are written under the grace of the Holy Spirit. Yes, they fit and don’t fit because not everything fits everyone, be very careful! If I open The Rudder (Pedalion) to a canon that speaks of murder, it does not mean that the person has committed murder! Of course, generally those who engage in such practices foreign to orthodoxy, even if they consider themselves orthodox, are clever enough to choose from the whole page where it opened, the passage that they believe best fits the gullible one in front of them. Do you understand?

It is even more dangerous when the enemy intervenes directly without being summoned, i.e. in visions, dreams, and all kinds of feelings. The golden rule is: we believe nothing, we accept nothing, and, sometimes, we do not reject anything, we do not pay attention. We do not accept and whatever comes to us, we tell an experienced spiritual father. In short, we do not pay attention and confess everything. Of course, the devil will push us to hide them, especially if it is an experienced spiritual father. If the spiritual father does not know much and the person is searching for them and is stuck, then the devil doesn’t trouble himself very much, you should know. Look for experienced spiritual fathers.

Brethren, these are very dangerous, because if a person is looking for them, has a tendency in that direction, then they will find them, but they will find what they shouldn’t and what they don’t expect. It is true that when a person struggles, if they cross themselves, pray, confess, and Communes, then they will escape. The enemy will not withstand it. Of course, it takes time. If, however, a person willingly surrenders, well, then it is difficult. I do not know if you are aware of the case of the Roman Emperor Julian the Apostate who denied Christ (hence the name) and returned to paganism and made a pact with the devil. When he saw him, however, he was so horrified that he crossed himself, and the devil immediately disappeared. After that, he performed incantations and asked the devil what to do so that he doesn’t disappear again, and then the devil told him to kill a child, God forbid, and to hold the child’s heart in his hand as he made the pact. That’s the devil, brethren. Why did the devil tell him that? Because due to such a great sin willingly committed, the sign of the Cross would no longer have an effect. Do you understand?

Something similar happened in our days with Georgică – Georgakis – I don’t know if you know, but in this case, the story had a good ending. The story of Georgică is recorded in the book “The Gurus, the Young Man, and Elder Paisios.” I even met fathers who knew both Saint Paisios and Georgakis, and they said that the man indeed had a very great, immense, demonic energy: by simply concentrating he could break rocks into pieces or snap thick tree trunks with a karate strike. So, imagine if someone were to break this boulder behind me by concentrating. To break it into pieces. He would turn this rock to dust only by concentrating. That is the devil, the demon. God forbid! Do you understand? You should know that if the devil has no rights, he cannot do anything. He can only tempt. Man must give him rights. And if he does, God forbid!

By the way, since we’re talking about pseudo-miracles, do you see how impressive they are and what excitement, what vain glory they generate? But they are not useful for the soul, they do not bring love and humility, but separation, a tear from others in a selfish sense, they bring a lot of pride. Georgică, I don’t know if you’ve read the book – was taken by his parents at a very young age -they were Greek – from Greece to Tibet where he became a magician, an accomplished sorcerer and also became a black belt karate grandmaster. Due to his advancement in magic, he was summoned to the Dalai Lama, and when he arrived there, he had to enter through a narrow, low gate so that he would bow before the Dalai Lama.

The young man doesn’t bow enough and bumps his head on the upper door frame, lightly hurting his head. In a reflex gesture, before entering again, he crosses himself as his grandmother taught him when he was little. Then the Dalai Lama starts to scream and, frightened, shouts to those there to chase away the newcomer. Georgică starts pondering seeing that the power of the Cross is stronger than the demons of the Dalai Lama and begins to seek the truth, and thus he gets to St. Paisios. Because he was still being fought by the enemy and had a way of thinking based on demonic miracles, he performs a demonstration for St. Paisios by breaking a large boulder only through his concentration. As I said, think of the boulder behind me.

Yes, brethren, such things happen. When Saint Paisios sees the rock turned to crumbs, he bends down, takes a little dirt from the ground in his palm, adds a little water to it and makes a lump of mud over which he makes the sign of the Cross, blessing it and says: “Break this one!” Georgică concentrated so much that he became dizzy and still could not break the small lump of mud. After that, he received a severe beating from the devil for allowing himself to be defeated. A physical beating, brothers, to be clear! The devil pummeled him, covered him in blood. You see that he cannot touch the blessed things.

Always know that the devil seeks the soul of the man – I repeat myself – both that of the target of the spells and that of the sorcerer, and of the one who pays for it, the one who desires to gain benefits from the spell. Know that spells never turn out well, it is the devil, brethren, even though the devil may deceive the one who is interested. For the target to protect himself, since of course you will be asking yourselves this, he has to protect himself through frequent confession. Confess often, brethren. Once a week, once every two weeks, at the very least, once a month. Often enough for the demonic energy to leave you. Prayer, Communion, holy water in the house, and the burning or burying of the cursed objects, and then it won’t take hold. For the others it is very difficult, but there is hope. Those who cast spells… God forbid! Stay out of it because you could end up in a mental hospital – literally.

The devil leads you from exaltation to exaltation, from vision to vision, from pseudo-success to pseudo-success until he drives you insane. There are plenty of cases in all fields filled with power, vain glory, that is to say, someone has social power when what they desire is to climb the social hierarchy to have political power, a glorified position, or to be loved by one or more women, or even artistic glory. Unfortunately, there are known cases of singers, Lady Gaga, Michael Jackson, Jimmy Page, there are many, unfortunately, who have sold their soul to the devil or have cast spells to achieve fame. Also, of course, those who get involved in such things can get terribly possessed. Then exorcisms are required, brothers.

Now you should know that those who are possessed are not only those who get involved with witchcraft. There are many causes, but generally, to detect cases of demonic possession, they are brought into contact with holy objects: to kiss Holy Relics, the Holy Cross, to make the sign of the cross, to venerate icons, to drink holy water. Even St. Paisios would give holy water to thirsty people on hot days without telling them it was holy water. He would give them a lot of lokum, they would eat a lot of sweets and request water so he would give them water. If those people refused, were horrified or turned yellow, it meant there was demonic energy, they were possessed. If they drank the holy water without having problems, it was not an issue. Do you understand? And of course, the services, at the Holy Gospel or even the New Testament classes. Even at the New Testament classes at the Faculty of Theology they can be detected. I know of someone who would sweat and turn yellow only during New Testament classes. In all other classes, he had no issues, not even in the Old Testament.

Some of the most dangerous cases, however, are the cases of the pseudo-venerable. I don’t even know how to name them. I mean cases of those who struggle spiritually, have ascetic knowledge, but do not purify themselves through obedience and humility, through the cutting off of their will. If one does not cover themselves with this and does not allow themselves to be led toward the humble, to think humbly, not to raise their mind to theological heights, then they are strengthened in the position that what they are doing is right, – that strong horn of Adam – and the enemy, in order to make them have even greater confidence in themselves, in their thoughts, gives them all sorts of pseudo-miracles, even visions and all kinds of advice that is good, acceptable from a moral standpoint, the person is a good, ethical person, even seen as a spiritual person. They may have visions, seeing all kinds of saints, apparitions almost continuously, yet they lack the humility of an ordinary person. Here it is very, very difficult to break through, to enter, however, it can be done if the other has the awareness of their relativity, meaning they are humble and says like that monk from the Patericon: “Lord, who am I to see miracles?”

Do you understand? We see that only the desire to remain unseen, to be a normal person and to follow the well-trodden path of the Church saves us. Humility, brethren, humility! Remember St. Anthony who saw all the traps of the devil spread on the ground and asked God, “Who will deliver us from all these?” and he heard a voice that said, “Humility!” Brethren, let us not hunt for miracles, for then the enemy will serve them to us! If God gives, it will shown by the fruit in the disposition of humility and obedience.

Let us seek the glory of God on the well-trodden path of the Church, and if the time is right, God will show us His grace through the blessings of those whom God validates before us and not through our selfish will. Let us be normal, let us be humble, let us not seek excitement, and let us submit to the consensus of the Church fathers. Remember what happened to St. Simeon Stylites, how they tested him. They sent the fathers of the skete to tell him, “Come down from the pillar!” and when St. Simeon submitted and said, “May it be blessed!” then the fathers of the monastery realized that his struggle was from God and allowed him to continue his ascesis as a stylite; if he had resisted, they would have forcibly brought him down.

Brethren, let us be normal, let us be humble, let us allow ourselves to be led towards the humble, let us not try to grasp with our minds the high, the extraordinary, the exciting, and when the time comes, God will grant us the true miracle of heaven which is gentle, beautiful, and loving – humble – and not a clever exaltation that by various pretexts and means tries to do its will and place itself above other people.

Let’s be normal, with the gift of God! Orthodoxy is the path to normality and through the normality of humility to holiness. Not through exaltation. True zeal is not exaltation. Extremes are from the devil. Virtues are gentle and humble like Christ.

Thank you for staying with me for so long! May the good Lord help us! Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us! Amen.

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