10th Sunday after Pentecost (EF) 2021 - Divination vs. Divinization

A few years ago, I received a phone call from my dear Aunt. She called to ask for my prayers and to share a story.  She had been renting out a building to a local business, a small gift shop, and the gift shop owner decided it was time to retire.  So my aunt advertised for a new tenant, and got a call from a lady who was very excited about the location and wanted to move in.  

My aunt asked, well, what kind of business do you run.  And the lady said, well, I offer “astrological services”—she does horoscopes, and palm readings, and crystal attunements.  My aunt, said, “I’m going to have to call you back.”  So, my aunt drove to church and made a holy hour and prayed before the blessed Sacrament, and asked the Lord’s help, to give her the words she needed to handle this situation with charity.

The next day, my aunt called the astrologer back, and told her that she was not going to rent the building out to her because astrology and occult practices are against her religion.  The astrologer asked her, “well what religion are you?”  My aunt said, “well, I’m Roman Catholic”.  And all of a sudden, the astrologer explodes about how the Church is filled with hypocrites and bigots and unloads all this hateful stuff about Catholics.  And my aunt says, “I’m sorry you believe but, may God bless you” and she hangs up.

I think she handled the situation quite well.  

So, she calls me up her nephew, the priest, and asks for prayers for the astrologer and also for herself, that she may be protected from any sort of demonic attacks that might be coming her way.  I said of course.  

I told her about how I used to pray to the Blessed Mother every time I passed this other astrologer-psychic medium shop in my hometown, and, after five years it closed. My aunt said, I wasn’t alone: a couple ladies from the parish went in that shop with some blessed salt and holy water, and were also praying, for a number of years. 

Astrology and horoscopes and occultism, are based on the idea that one can find guidance for which to order ones life by harnessing hidden knowledge or power—what scripture and the catechism calls divination. Thomas Aquinas says, “Divination takes its name not from a rightly ordered share of something divine, but from an undue usurpation thereof.” Like Adam and Eve in the garden, Divining is human grasping of what properly belongs to God.

So, The Catechism says, “All forms of divination are to be rejected: consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, recourse to mediums, recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead, contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone.”

So why do souls turn to these things? Adam and Eve thought the forbidden fruit would satisfy them, just as Everyone who steps inside of an astrologer’s shop is looking for truth—is looking for happiness. In a sense they go to the astrologer’s shop for the same reason enter the Church. GK Chesterton said, “Every man who knocks on the door of a brothel is looking for God.” But the big difference, obviously, between the astrologer’s shop and the church is that God is really here! The bread of life that truly satisfies is here. God incarnate, feeds us with the bread of life, his flesh and blood, here.

In the Epistle, St. Paul explains to the Corinthians, that prior to their conversion to Christ they too, like the pagans, turned to dumb idols, he calls them, simulacra muta, dumb idols—idols that do not speak truth. But, now that they have opened their minds and hearts to Christ, the true word of wisdom, Paul says, the true word of knowledge resonates in their life, infusing the Church with diverse and manifold gifts.

The astrology shop, the fortune teller only offer an artificial, demonic substitute to God, as do all of the sin peddlers of our culture, and leaves us emptier, sadder, more confused. Many people who have fallen into the occult have opened their lives to terrible dark forces and diabolical influence—disordered and damaged psyches and souls that come from cavorting with evil. We do well to pray for young people to be kept safe from these things. For it seems like again occultism is on the rise. There’s a fortune teller on Lorain down the street, a witchcraft store in lakewood, a coven that meets in rocky river. 

If they but knew and would acknowledge that God is here, the incarnate word who says, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst” their lives would be changed forever. So we certainly have a duty to invite them to this holy place—to help them hear the call of the Word who calls all men to Himself.

The difference between astrology and the Eucharist is the difference between divination and divinization.  By divination man grasps out into the stars for the truth, but in the Eucharist, truth has come from heaven to transform man from the inside, to make us like himself.

In the Gospel of the pharisee and the publican, we see a similar dichotomy. The Pharisee thinks that through sheer human effort he grows in holiness. But notice, St. Luke, says that the Pharisee stands in the temple and “se orabat”, he prays to himself, he is turned in on himself. He has put himself in the place of God, he trusts only in himself, and instead of being filled with Christ-like love, he despises others. The publican on the other hand, humbles himself, he does not grasp at what does not belong to him, particularly mercy. Luke tells us he even refuses to lift his eyes to the heavens. But as he bends low, so does God, who bends low to the humble with his mercy and grace.

At Holy Mass, we kneel like the publican, we bow our heads and strike our breasts. As we do, may our hunger and love for the Bread of Life be purified, and strengthen us against all tendencies to seek satisfaction in inordinate ways or places, that we may come to the fullness of life through Him for the glory of God and salvation of souls.