“We must obey God rather than men,” said St. Peter. This is certainly true — our one desire and choice should always be to follow the will of God. However, what God wants is not usually obvious. For example, we live in a time when terrorists do terrible things in the name of God. There needs to be a step before saying “we must obey God.” The step is known in the tradition as discernment of spirits — sorting through all of the spiritual impulses to see which ones are authentically from God. Remember, St. Ignatius reminds us, that Lucifer means “light bearer” and the devil (who is a fallen angel) has not forgotten how to disguise himself as an angel of light. One of the great helps in discerning the genuine will of God is the Church which has a long track record of being able to separate the genuine from the false.
APRIL72016
By Church Staff
