Linda Blair, Max Von Sydow and Jason Miller in the 1973 film The Exorcist (CNS Photo)
Posted on 11/06/2009 10:27:21 AM PST by NYer
An American exorcist has said the film The Exorcist led people to believe wrongly that the devil could "come and zap them" when in fact the devil is afraid of the power of Jesus inside them.
Mgr John Esseff, retired exorcist of the Diocese of Scranton, Pennsylvania, told an audience of 400 students at Bowling Green State University, Ohio that the power of Jesus within them was "enormous".
He said: "The devil is afraid of you - if you would just awaken to who you are."
In describing one of his exorcisms, he said: "As she came in, she saw me and she shrieked - and the language and the growls - and then she slithered across the floor and was going up the wall. Well, there was obviously a force here, a presence. And I just simply silenced her in the name of Jesus."
Mgr Esseff said that each baptised person was united to Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit. He read passages from the Gospels in which Jesus exorcised demons and then sent his disciples to do the same.
He said that Jesus ultimately defeated Satan through his death and Resurrection and then sent the power of the Holy Spirit to his Apostles at Pentecost.
"When God looks down, he sees Jesus in you," Mgr Esseff said. "You have that power as baptised, confirmed Christians. And so when he [Satan] sees you, he hates what you would discover about that power that is within you."
He suggested that each audience member had been tempted that day because temptation was the ordinary activity of the devil.
"Your soul is a battlefield because there is also someone who hates you," he said. "That one is the devil. The devil knows who you are and what you have. God passed him by. God did not choose to become one of the angels. God chose to be one like us."
But just as each person was tempted, Mgr Esseff said, another spirit also was at work.
"In your life today, this very day, has been the Holy Spirit," he said. "God is in you. God the Holy Spirit is operative in you. God the Holy Spirit wants to bring into your heart love. God wants to bring you peace."
Mgr Esseff also told students of the power of angels and encouraged them to renew their devotions to their guardian angels.
"His [the angel's] job is to protect you all through this world. And when you close your eyes, he wants to deliver you to God," Mgr Esseff said.
Earlier in the evening Mgr Esseff invited students to invoke angels to fill the area and make a perimeter around the talk for protection.
The event was hosted by St Thomas More University parish and Veritas, the Catholic student organisation at Bowling Green State University.
JonMarc Grodi, president of Veritas, said: "One of the ways I sold it [the event] on campus was that, regardless of what people believe about good and evil, the devil, etc, this is a guy that has been around the world and experienced some of the lightest and darkest moments of the human experience, and so his is a perspective that everyone should hear out."
In addition to serving as the official exorcist of the Scranton diocese Mgr Esseff has travelled extensively around the world, working in Latin America and Lebanon and accompanying Blessed Mother Teresa for a period of time.
It was Mother Teresa, he said, who directed him to his current work, which focuses on the formation of priests.
After the talk Megan Dowell-Howko, a first-year student, said she now had a better understanding of how she experienced temptation, and that she would remember she could say no to the devil.
She said: "I guess I'm taking away a renewed confidence that the devil only has as much power over me as I give to him," she said.
Before the event Mgr Esseff said he saw three indications of Satan's presence in the world: money, lies and war.
"I think one of the greatest things he has done is have people forget he exists. People deny he exists," he said
Very useful. Thanks for the lesson.
I saw it in the theater when in high school. Scared spitless.
Also read the book around the same time.
In the early 80’s became extremely interested in Christianity and committed a huge amount of time and effort into my studies. During one 3 week in residence seminar the movie was used as a training tool because of its authenticity. The Hollywood-isms were pointed out but there were many many lessons from it just the same. And during this time we had lectured from occultists, paganist, wiccans, etc. It was very intense to say the least but we all came out with significantly improved appreciation for what God through Christ accomplished and how we wrestle not with flesh and blood.
Some of those lessons would be quite valuable later but, as they say, that is another story! LOL
There is probably a reason why the Bible contains, in one form or another, the phrase, "Fear not" around 365 times. Proverbs 3:5 says, "Trust in the LORD with all thy heart, and lean not on thine own understanding." That's good enough for me.
Ahh, the golden years of SNL.
Our little nuns used to tell us to pray for the person using God's name in vain. I still do. It's automatic now, but I find I'm doing it a LOT more often now than I ever did then.
Guy’s got wrong.
The Devil is only afraid of God.
FYI...don’t burn black and/or orange candles either.
Lol!! Great post, Alex :-)
“God did not choose to become one of the angels. God chose to be one like us.”
Rather, I would say that God chose a being OTHER than the angels to be created in His likeness. Then, God chose to manifest Himself in our form and suffer the ultimate degradation to save us. God chose to humble Himself on our behalf and suffer out of love for us. God’s preference for us, flawed as we are, is what galls the angels who fell. We aren’t perfect and emotionless; we are flawed and yet capable of great love. God in His infinite mercy seems to prefer us to the perfection of angels. That is what they couldn’t accept: God loves us more than the angels. God loves something flawed by free will and its consequences. Lucifer was appalled. But no matter. God sent His son to love us and suffer for us and redeem us!
Thank you, Lord!
“Glory be to the Father, etc.”
What is the et cetera?
Glory Be Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. AMEN.
It’s also good to pray when one hears an ambulance or fire engine. Kind of off-subject, but thought I would just throw it in. My little boy is trained well in this and often reminds me when I forget. We say a Hail Mary and then Jesus, Mary and Joseph, please help whoever is in trouble.
Just yesterday, one of the ladies in our parish suffered a heart attack in the middle of Divine Liturgy. We were all praying for her, obviously, even though the Liturgy still proceeded.
How is that possible? Was she way in the back?
We have an extremely small parish which meets in a borrowed building. She was able to get up and walk to the vestibule, where her husband and concerned friends determined from the symptoms she reported that there was a good possibility she was having a heart seizure, and her husband put her into the car and rushed her to the hospital. No update yet, which (hopefully) might mean good news. It was all very low key.
Also read the book around the same time.
I have not had the guts to either see the movie or read the book. However, I have been reading a lot of Catholic books on the topic lately (on and off over the past 2 years, or so), and have been discussing the topic from time to time with various people. Very odd things are reputed to happen in this area. If even half of them are remotely true, it is quite scary. Either way, I have become courageous enough to read Malachi Martin's book, so maybe I will try the novelization of The Exorcist someday. However, I am in no rush!!
: )
It is the background info on that story that really gets spooky.
On the one hand, one can ‘know’ that the power of Christ is inviincible yet also realize how frail our human will can be, and that gets scary, too.
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