If it is true that we are, with God, stronger than all of hell put together, why turn to superstitious practices?
Newsdesk (22/11/2022 18:47, Gaudium Press) It is recorded that in the lands of Alexandria, in the third century, there lived a beautiful young maiden named Justa. Her parents, once pagans, were converted to Christianity through the mediation of a deacon named Prailio. Dazzled by the missionary’s preaching, the young girl always stood at the window of her house to hear him speak. Little by little, that sweet name of Christ, so often preached by his servant, became the joy of her soul, and Justa was ecstatic to contemplate the wonders she heard about that God who had become incarnate to save men.
The family, having received many graces, decided to ratify their conversion and sought out Prailio, who sent them to a bishop to be baptized.
As time went by, the young woman grew more and more fervent.
A nefarious onslaught
Now, there was a man named Aglaida, who was enchanted by Justa’s beauty and, in love, asked for her hand in marriage. In vain did this foolish man seek to take the beautiful maiden for himself, for Jesus Christ had won for himself that noble and virginal heart.
Blinded by passion, Aglaida used all his efforts to no avail; however, he decided to set out on a nefarious onslaught: magic.
There lived in Alexandria a famous sorcerer named Cyprian. He was skilled in the art of magic and swift in evoking demons. To him was entrusted a spell to attract the heart of Justa to Aglaida. Accustomed to this type of request, Cyprian soon summoned a demon who provided him with a magic potion to be poured around Justa’s house. This done, the young woman would soon fall in love with Aglaida.
According to the chronicles, once the procedure was completed, the devil himself stood there waiting for Justa to leave to go to church and feel the effects of the spell. But, on leaving the house, the virgin felt the repugnant presence of the infamous enemy and immediately made the Sign of the Cross. Terrified at the exorcistic action of Our Lord, present in some way in Justa, the demon ran to Cyprian to tell him of his failure.
The sorcerer tried in vain to evoke another, stronger demon, but this one also failed… Astonished at the power possessed by the girl, he decided to cast upon her the most powerful of his magic, that is, to evoke the father of demons.
Assuming a female body, Satan presented himself to Justa as a young woman who intended to follow her steps and her example. Approaching her to converse, he soon, however, began to launch arguments contrary to virtue, founding them on seemingly logical premises, most often based upon some passage from Scripture.
With remarkable fortitude of soul, Justa made the Sign of the Cross and rebuked the evil one, who soon fled from her presence.
Upon learning of the failure, Cyprian could not hide his perplexity: indeed, did the Crucified One have more power than hell?
In fact, this same Crucified One was already winning in Cyprian’s soul.
Cyprian is converted
Seeing the power of the Cross and the excellence of Justa’s virtue, Cyprian decided to abandon the evil life he was leading. The devil immediately tried to possess him to prevent him from escaping from his hands, but following Justa’s example, he exorcised him with the Sign of the Cross!
He quickly went to Bishop Antemios to ask for catechesis and baptism. In no time at all, Cyprian rejected what he had adored and gave his love to what he had previously persecuted, becoming one of the most fervent Christians of Alexandria and, in less than ten years, Antemius’ successor.
At the end of his life he merited the palm of martyrdom under the persecution of Diocletian, dying together with the one who had been his mother in life in Christ, Justina, so renamed by him.
Practices contradictory to the love of God
How sad it is to look around and see that not a few Christians follow exactly the opposite path to that of St Cyprian when he embraced the Faith.
If it is true that we are, with God, stronger than all of hell put together, why turn to superstitious practices?
The Catholic Church teaches us what is the only position we should take in the face of them:
“All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, evocation of the dead, or other practices supposed to ‘reveal’ the future. Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palmistry, the interpretation of omens and fortunes, clairvoyant phenomena, recourse to ‘mediums’, all these encapsulate a desire to dominate time, history and ultimately mankind, at the same time as they are a desire to collude with occult powers. All these practices are in contradiction to the honour and respect, penetrated with loving awe, that we owe to God and to Him alone.”
“All practices of magic or sorcery, by which one pretends to tame occult powers in order to place them at one’s service and to obtain supernatural power over one’s neighbour – even if it be to obtain his health – are gravely contrary to the virtue of religion. Such practices are even more reprehensible when they are accompanied by the intention of doing harm to others or when they have recourse to the intervention of demons” (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, Nos. 2116-2117).
It is a pity that there are still “Catholics” who insist on mixing the good of Religion with the harmful evils of superstition…
By Jean Pedro Antunes
Compiled by Roberta MacEwan
Works consulted
LEONARDI; A. RICCARDI; G. ZARRI (dir.). “Diccionario de los santos”. San Pablo; Madrid, 2000, p. 500-502.
CATECISMO da Igreja Católica. 11. ed. São Paulo: Loyola, 2001.
ROHRBACHER, Padre. “Vida dos Santos v. XVII”. Editora das Américas; São Paulo, 1959, p. 34 a 35.
