Apparitions - ‏FATHER FRANK’S RANTS

Rant Number 327 13 November 2008

Faustus: ‘Who are you?’

Mephistopheles: ‘That power I serve that wills forever evil and does forever good.’

Will vocations to the priesthood shoot up because of Apparitions? The current BBC drama series starring talented Martin Shaw as an exorcist. Not quite as glamorous a hunk as young Richard Chamberlain in Thornbirds (groan…that dates me) but still pretty charismatic a servant of the Lord. But you aspiring seminarians, have no illusions: cups of tea with old ladies, yes, plenty; doing battle with the forces of darkness, well, unless that means standing up to a liberal bishop, unlikely.

Mea culpa. This is no subject for frivolity. ‘Fr Frank, do you believe in the power of evil?’ a certain lady imperiously demanded of me. ‘Madam, I do. But much more do I believe in the power of good!’ That puts the problem of programmes like Apparitions in a nutshell. They emphasise the dark side too much. Tonight’s episode showed a possessed boy being flayed alive by a demon in a gay sauna. Pretty nauseating. For one thing, the Christian life is not a hypnosis of evil. God is light, not darkness and His chosen servants must reflect something of that light, not its opposite. Second, dwelling on such nastiness is dangerous. Maybe that is one way in which demons ‘get in’ – by exploiting the over-stimulated subconscious mind of vulnerable people.

Apparitions made much of the name of the unforgettable Mother Teresa of Calcutta. That holy woman served Christ by serving the lowliest and poorest of the poor. Her ministry was one of practical, hardest work. No doubt Mother Teresa knew all about evil – a society which allows human beings made in the image of God to fall into such wretchedness must be quite evil in the social sense – but she countered evil in the way Christ called her: by tough, unselfish labours of charity, of love. She did not mess about with the occult. Instead, she went about helping the suffering, doing good. Is God trying to tell the BBC something?

A little girl also starred in tonight’s episode. Martin Shaw, I wonder how happy he is about that. ‘Never work with children and animals’ an old, wise piece of advice to actors ran. I agree. Also, I think there is a theory about poltergeist phenomena being linked with the presence of a pubescent girl. Why that should be, I haven’t a clue. Can’t help feeling children should be left out of horror movies, though. Terribly old-fashioned, I know, but…I stand by that.

There is no question that Jesus’ ministry included exorcisms. All the three synoptic Gospels witness to that. If the Master did it, so must the disciple be willing. So the possibility, indeed the necessity, of that healing work can never be ruled out in the life of a priest. I myself have conducted a few. Nothing glamorous. Prayers are what an exorcism consists of. Any Christian can do that. In the Church of England there is usually a diocesan exorcist appointed by the bishop. I was happy to pass on exorcising jobs to him. Why? Self-preservation, naturally. Truth is, the person most at risk during an exorcism is the exorcist himself. By nature not heroic, the thought of the devil possibly entering into me was…well, a bit distressing. That is why I really did admire monks like those of an Orthodox church in Kiev whom I saw casting out demons out of shrieking females in church. Huh! How brave! What if the critters had invaded them? A thought too creepy to contemplate.

Before you charge me with abject cowardice, I will add that in some cases I did not shirk my duty. One delicate example touched upon the late Princess of Wales but, forgive me, having refused to discuss it with Scotland Yard, I can hardly chat about it online. On another occasion, it was someone whose children were plagued by strange voices. The house in which they lived was next to one that had been lived in by Fred Mercury, the singer who died of AIDS. My sceptical nature at first was inclined to dismiss the matter but when I received independent reports of similar situations in other homes nearby, I relented. So, I trudged along, with my exorcist’s kit (won’ tell you what that is), and dutifully did the job. The weird voices were never heard of again. Happy ending.

Of course, let us be blunt about this. Most of the putative cases of demonic possession today can be better explained and treated by medics and medications. In other words, the root is not supernatural but natural. If tomorrow you saw a person falling to the ground in the street, twitching and foaming at the mouth, I hope you would conclude the chap had had an epileptic seizure. You would send not for an exorcist but for a medical doctor. Our thought forms and those of first century Palestine are not the same. However, there remains a smallish percentage of cases which resist scientific explanation. I know of a doctor who himself turned to an exorcist for help. He had tried all the medical resources at his disposal without success. Did the exorcist do better? Actually, he did.

The demons tonight spoke Albanians. Tough on the good people of Albania? Well, it depends. Had the fiends spoken perfect English, would you have concluded English is the devil’s own language? I hope not. Be that as it may, extraordinary, non-natural knowledge of things is one of the criteria of demonic possession. If a friend who had never studied Mongolian, started declaiming fluently in that language, beware! Hmmm… I myself have been mugging up Arabic for years now and still I can hardly speak it: I am safe!

Knowledge of things distant, abnormal strength, those too are signs the Evil One may be at work. Please, don’t get turned on by the heady possibilities. Screenwriters endow their demons with too much cachet. Goethe grasped the gist of the matter admirably. It is set out in my quotation above from Faustus. Evil and his minions are doomed to never-ending frustration. Because the Light has ordained ab aeterno that even the evil willing of the rebel angels should be subservient to the highest good.

It serves them right.

Revd Frank J. Gelli

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~