Why do evil spirits follow me

All of this might sound like bad news. We do not overcome spirits through better techniques or wiser social strategy. That way lies the way of the Dragon. And we do so with hope, because God has promised that he will not start a work unless he intends to finish it Phil.

The cross of Christ proves to us the lengths that God will go in redeeming his creation. And the resurrection of Christ proves to us that no power of darkness, however strong, gets the final say 1 Cor. There are still spirits of darkness at work in this world. And they do not limit their activity to one evening in late October.

But God has armed us with a stronger Spirit, and it is not a spirit of fear 2 Tim. The dark spirits at work in this world are bigger and stronger than we usually think. The battle we wage against them will take time. There will be losses and casualties along the way. But we cannot forget that the verdict on the ultimate battle has already been declared. The powers and principalities may continue to wreak havoc, but the apostle Paul reminds us that they are flailing in the death throes of defeat.

The powers were put to open shame by our Savior, who triumphed over them on Calvary Col. So we do not fight for victory; rather, with the cross at our back, we fight from victory. In the end, what irony could be more fitting? When facing the bleakness of death, it is the death of Christ that gives us hope. When overwhelmed at the powers of evil before us, we remember how the greatest powers of evil behind us could only unite to destroy themselves.

So bring on the darkness, the death, and the demons. Our God has seen all three before. To unlock this article for your friends, use any of the social share buttons on our site, or simply copy the link below. To share this article with your friends, use any of the social share buttons on our site, or simply copy the link below. On the other hand, the scribes are the one who affirm that Jesus is possessed by Beelzebub, and by the prince of demons He is driving out demons Mark Consequently, the demonic confession of the Christological identity exhibits a simple proclamation of the truth of His eschatological lordship which does not imply an embrace of faith, love, and trust in Jesus Distinctive of their behavior are the violent reactions, indicators of the overwhelming power emanated from Jesus that torments the unclean spirits.

The acknowledgment of Jesus' divine nature is expressed with a loud scream krazein in Mark , heightening the drama of pain which is an echo of the exorcisms of the demoniac of Capernaum see Mark The violent reactions continued while Jesus is present until the moment of his command of leaving the boy in v.

At the end of every encounter of the unclean spirits with Jesus the outcome results to be a liberating experience, a restoration of the wholeness that was lost because of the evil presence, which evidences the supremacy of the power of Jesus over the demoniac forces, e. This dominance can be seen overtly in the permission asked by the demons to go into the pigs in Mark , which was granted by Jesus causing the deliverance of the man who had been possessed, restoring his natural condition of being a social person capable of having a harmonious life again As a consequence of what was explained, it can be concluded that the demons' seeing can be regarded as meta-physical since they are considered spiritual entities who perceive what is proper of the supernatural realm, and therefore one can be in agreement with the words of Athanasius in his work entitled On the Incarnation of the Word The episodes of visual perception treated previously exhibit different semantic levels of comprehension connected with the aspect of seeing.

The demons, for example, who are the characters that function in the narrative as the antagonist of the hero, present a spiritual seeing capable of perceiving the divine manifestation hidden under the human condition; in the same way Jesus sees with the eyes of God catching sight of what is hidden to the human eye, but the outcome and the effects of their seeing are radically opposed.

The spiritual seeing of these personages, therefore, manifest diverse semantic levels that are incorporated in contexts of exorcisms, healing, divine manifestation of God, vocation, instruction, etc. For this reason, as manner of a conclusion, it is possible to highlight five lines of semantic dimension in which the action of the «spiritual seeing» remains intrinsically related to different fields of understanding of the text. Right from the beginning of Mark's Gospel the double celestial object of Jesus' vision and the hearing of the divine voice of God the Father established the pattern of the divine sonship of Jesus, a Trinitarian dimension that qualifies his Christological identity Mark The encounter with the demoniacs continue the same line of theological thought, manifested in the demons' voice as part of their characteristic reaction which starts always with a «seeing» that leads to the acknowledgement of the superior power of God.

Their proclamation expresses the truth about Jesus that begins with the spiritual visual perception. But their oral manifestation is not totally equivalent to the divine voice of the. Father in , because the demoniac reacts out of fear, expressing only the objective divine truth about the Son of God in Jesus, while the voice of the Father is expressed out of love.

In this manner the interaction becomes dynamic, producing effective results that have a positive outcome, thanks to the presence ofJesus who functions as the source of power and goodness In the cases where the initiative belongs to Jesus, the reader recognizes that his seeing implies a personal connection with his interlocutors that provokes a reaction manifested in distinct forms of responses positive and negative through the calling to experience a sequela Christi.

In the episodes of exorcism, the initiative of the seeing belongs to the demons, who are the first ones to recognize the divine presence of the Son of God in the human appearance of Jesus. The double interrelational movement starts with the demons, who always provoke a reaction in Jesus that ends up with the complete healing and restoration of the possessed person. The dynamic of the encounter narrated according to the human level manifests the divine reality hidden in the human appearances.

The episodes described in Mark ; ; display a clash of the two basic forces: good and evil, which at the same time transport the reader to an eschatological level that incarnates the eternal battle of the universal cosmic forces where always the power of God and of Jesus prevails against the evil forces that pursue the destruction of harmony and balance in the human state The demons destroy the harmonious balance of living and communication that a person had during the pre-possessed state, to the point of isolating him or her from other persons and from God himself.

Thus the context of exorcism becomes at the same time episodes of healing since they describe the re-establishment of the ideal state of communication and functionality in the social community and with the personal God of Jesus. Other episodes of healing are the ones characterized by the absence of demons: the paralytic man in Mark and the anonymous woman with hemorrhages in Mark In both cases the process of healing also begins with Jesus' seeing which implies more than just a physical perception of the reality in front of him.

The narrative does not describe a context of exorcism or healing. Jesus simply observes «how» the people were putting their offering. His persistent and spiritual contemplation of the human condition motivates him to impart an instruction to his closest friends, the disciples a.

The purpose of the didactic communication described in a direct style discourse of b , is to educate the disciples to «see» as God «sees», this means to grow in the capacity to perceive the reality with the spiritual eyes in order to discover what is hidden to the human sight, because man looks to the outward appearance of every situation, but Jesus, which is the evident proof of God's seeing, perceives the soul and heart.

This attitude of Jesus echoes the instruction of Yhwh to Samuel during the moment of choosing David, when the Lord said to Samuel, «do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart» 1Sam The pragmatic reading leads us to the point of the purpose of the text, this means, for what were these narrations written for?

What is the importance for the modern reader? What do the episodes ask the reader to do? The Gospel narratives were written to inform about the truth of the event of Christ, so they have a fundamental informative dimension, but also the written kerygma has the purpose to persuade the reader to act and believe in what is recounted, so it has also a practical aspect that motivates to act upon what is communicated.

These particular Gospel episodes must be considered, consequently, under the content and the finality that implies an active participation of the readers, independently of the place and time in which they can be situated Therefore the episodes that described Jesus' seeing have a «directive function» which is also called a «conative».

Such narrative dimension motivates the reader to act by way of imitation and identification with the character of the narration The pericopes present to the reader a pragmatic way to follow and practice, in daily life, the spiritual seeing that is portrayed in Jesus. In this line of thought, the author of Mark makes explicit this intention with the didactic instruction of Jesus to his disciples, regarding the situation of the poor widow He makes the emphasis in the event so the disciples will learn how to perceive the human reality according to the mindset of God.

In the same manner, the author wants to transmit this way of seeing to his markan community, which incorporates every Christian community through the path of time that reads and meditates the kerygmatic episodes of visual perception.

At this moment, it is quite useful the application of the criteria established by Origen that found echo in the thoughts of Bonaventure and Ignatius of Loyola. Through the practice of the spiritual senses, especially the spiritual sense of sight, a person can obtain experiences of the divine immersed and hidden in the human condition.

The Sources of Catholic Dogma trans. Roy J. Deferrari; St. Louis n. A theological Aesthetics New York I, I Chadwick, Elder Mullan; New York SIMON, eds. Berlin ; [ Links ] J. Marc Paris Analisi linguistica e commento esegetico Assisi I, Testo greco e traduzione Brescia I, Kittel dir.

Greig; Edinburgh ; [ Links ] J. Mark Edinburg 56; [ Links ] M. A Commentary Louisville - London HALL, eds. Servicios Personalizados Revista. At his meditation and study of the Scripture, Origen establishes: «Anyone who looks into this subject more deeply will say that there is, as the scripture calls it, a certain divine sense which only the man who is blessed finds on this earth. Thus Solomon says: 'Thou shalt find a divine sense' there are many forms of this sense: sight which can see things superior to corporeal beings, the cherubim or seraphim being obvious instances, and a hearing which can receive impressions of sounds that have no objective existence in the air, and a taste which feeds on living bread that has come down from heaven and gives life to the world.

So also there is a sense of smell which smells spiritual things, as Paul speaks of 'a sweet savour of Christ unto God', and a sense of touch in accordance with which John says that he has handled with his hands of the Word of life. The blessed prophets found this divine sense, and their vision and hearing were spiritual; in a similar way they tasted and smelt, so to speak, with a sense which was not sensible.

And they touched the Word by faith so that an emanation came from him to them which healed them» 6. According to Origen, these divine things can never be reduced to a mystical unity without modes, but, rather, they possess fullness and a glory that far transcend the lower fullness and glory, of which material multiplicity is only a distant reflection and likeness» 7.

I say the corporeal place, as for instance, a Temple or Mountain where Jesus Christ or Our Lady is found, according to what I want to contemplate.

The first Prelude is the composition, which is here to see with the sight of the imagination the length, breadth and depth of Hell. Second Prelude. The second, to ask for what I want: it will be here to ask for interior sense of the pain which the damned suffer, in order that, if, through my faults, I should forget the love of the Eternal Lord, at least the fear of the pains may help me not to come into sin» The first Point will be to see with the sight of the imagination the great fires, and the souls as in bodies of fire.

Second Point. The second, to hear with the ears wailings, howlings, cries, blasphemies against Christ our Lord and against all His Saints. Third Point. The third, to smell with the smell smoke, sulphur, dregs and putrid things. Fourth Point. The fourth, to taste with the taste bitter things, like tears, sadness and the worm of conscience. Author Newsletter. Piracy Reporting Form. How to Manage your Online Holdings. Sales Managers and Sales Contacts. Ordering From Brill. LibLynx for Selected Online Resources.

Discovery Services. Online User and Order Help. MARC Records. Titles No Longer Published by Brill. Latest Key Figures. Latest Financial Press Releases and Reports. Annual General Meeting of Shareholders. Share Information. Specialty Products. Catalogs, Flyers and Price Lists. Frank T. McAndrew does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Historians who study and catalogue ghostly encounters across time will tell you that ghosts come in a range of shapes and forms.

Some haunt individuals, appearing in dreams or popping up at unexpected times. Others haunt a specific location and are prepared to spook any passersby. Some are the spitting images of what were once real humans.

And then there are the noisy and troublesome poltergeists, which appear as uncontrollable supernatural forces instead of people. What might explain such discrepancies?