Diabolical Disorientation vs Radical Reorientation: Part I

By: The Unknown Centurion

Many have lamented how far and fast our once-Christian culture has fallen into a state of mass irrationality and idolatry, unmoored from the truth of our faith and untethered from its divine Author.  Rather than complain or contemplate material solutions to such a cosmic, civilizational upheaval, we must approach our situation urgently, and through a scriptural and spiritual lens, beyond the prevailing two-dimensional, modern mindset. If we do, it can be said with near certainty that we are in the depths of a period of diabolical disorientation, the solution of which requires a radical reorientation toward our triune God.

Let’s begin by defining our terms. Disorientation means a state of confusion, especially regarding time, place, or identity. Diabolical disorientation is when the devil directly or indirectly causes confusion about who we are, where we are, and where we are going. Orientation is the determination of the relative position or direction of something or someone. At its deepest level, that means our position and direction are relative not to a landmark or location, but to God Himself. Radical reorientation means an overriding return to the right orientation. In the present age, this means a near-total about-face from the ways of the world and toward God, calibrating both our position and our direction relative to God and His will.

Who can deny that we’re living in unprecedented times of mass confusion as to who we are, why we are here, and to Whom are we going?  The preternatural purveyor of this diabolical disorientation not only deludes us into ignorance of and indifference to God but often successfully plants within the targeted person a perception quite different from reality, while at the same time making them pridefully and irrationally confident that the planted lie is the truth. How else can one explain how formerly normal, rational people have devoured the diabolical delusions of the day and live in an alternate, inverse universe where good is evil and lies are their truth? Is there any viable explanation outside of the spiritual realm to account for such an irrational, exponential, inversion and upheaval of the accepted bedrocks of our Christian civilization, such as truth, faith, morality, justice, freedom and authentic human flourishing?

Sister Lucia, the last of the Fatima seers, several times wrote about a diabolical disorientation, which seems to be the cause of the “great apostasy” foretold by Our Lady in the third Fatima secret. To an orthodox priest, Sr. Lucia wrote: “There is a diabolical disorientation invading the world and misleading souls! It is necessary to stand up to it. She decried that so many priests “let themselves be dominated by the diabolical wave invading the world,” and are “blind men leading other blind men.”

Scripture also points to a coming grand delusion which seems to perfectly comport to the present period of mass disorientation. In doing so, Paul diagnoses that the widespread delusion, disorientation, and unbridled evil are the result of man’s ingratitude, indifference, and prideful rejection of God. It’s a diabolical darkening of the intellect, a clouding of conscience, and an emptying of grace from the soul, which prevent man from living up to his potential as the pinnacle of creation on earth.

For although they knew God they did not accord him glory as God or give him thanks. Instead, they became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless minds were darkened … Therefore, God handed them over to impurity through the lusts of their hearts for the mutual degradation of their bodies… Their females exchanged natural relations for unnatural… Males did shameful things with males and thus received in their own persons the due penalty for their perversity. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God handed them over to their undiscerning mind to do what is improper. They are filled with every form of wickedness, evil, greed, and malice; full of envy, murder, rivalry, treachery, and spite. They are gossips and scandalmongers and they hate God. They are insolent, haughty, boastful, ingenious in their wickedness, and rebellious toward their parents. They are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless (Romans 1:21, 24, 26-31).

St. Paul later wrote to the Thessalonians:

the one whose coming springs from the power of Satan in every mighty deed and in signs and wonders that lie, and in every wicked deceit for those who are perishing because they have not accepted the love of truth so that they may be saved. Therefore, God is sending them a deceiving power so that they may believe the lie, that all who have not believed the truth but have approved wrongdoing may be condemned (2 Thessalonians 2:9-12)

Diabolical disorientation has been a most effective and often used tactic in Satan’s playbook. In simplest terms, it is the demonic strategy to distract and disorient us so that we turn away from God and pursue perishable, often corrupting and harmful things, living our lives without any reference to the One who created us out of love and for love. Radical reorientation, its antidote, means returning our gaze toward God and striving to accomplish His will over our own.

Diabolical disorientation deludes us into believing that it’s all about us, that we are in control, and that we can decide for ourselves what is good and true, without any reference to God. Radical reorientation is knowing our place before God, the high calling we have as His beloved sons and daughters, and the love and obedience we must show to be united with God forever.

Radical reorientation requires humility, gratitude, prayer, silence, spending time in a relationship with God, receiving his graces, breaking through from worldly attractions and distractions, thinking about God and accomplishing His will often, asking for His help to know and do His will and draw closer to Him. Diabolical disorientation on the other hand is all around us; its distractions are the purpose of many digital devices, its ideologies emanate from almost every modern institution, and it is the default setting of our post-Christian culture.

Orientation of Christ

Another way to characterize this critical concept of orientation and disorientation is the way the Bible does. Scripture uses the metaphors walking with God or walking away from God to capture the same idea as being oriented toward God or oriented to the world respectively. God created man for communion with Him. The Baltimore Catechism says we were created to know, love, and serve God in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in heaven.

We were created for orientation to and relationship with our Creator. He is our omnipotent guide, friend and ultimate end. Scripture portrays the repeated pattern of turning away from God, repenting, and reorienting toward God, which will continue until the end of the age. Because Israel was never capable of following God’s laws, the Son of God took on flesh and walked among us, not simply showing us the way, but becoming the way, and giving us His own Flesh, Blood and Spirit so that we might not fail.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). Before time and before creation, the eternally-begotten Son was with the eternal Father. The word “with” from this famous opening verse of John’s Gospel means much more than it does in our English translations. The preposition “pros” in ancient Greek denotes both direction and relation. Some scholars have even translated the relevant portion of the above verse as “the Word was toward God” (Leon Morris, The Gospel According to John: Revised Edition. The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, Mi: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1995) 67-68), because toward unlike with carries a connotation of both accompaniment and relationship.

If we look at the times and the context in which the word pros is used in the New Testament, we begin to understand the Father’s perfect plan of salvation accomplished through, with, and in Jesus. Jesus uses the word pros several times in His emphatic Eucharistic discourse in John chapter 6. In calling Himself the Bread of Life, Jesus urges His hearers to come to Him (John 6:35) and they will not be cast out (John 6:37), and those whom the Father sent who come to Him will be raised up by Jesus on the last day (John 6:44). But we must not only come to Him to eat His Flesh (6:56), but also to drink (John 7:37). The many disciples who refused to accept this hard Eucharistic teaching not only didn’t come to Him, but they walked away from Christ and returned to their former ways of life (John 6:66).

Jesus used the same word pros in prophesying when and how He would give us this promised bread of life and living water: “When I am lifted up, I will draw all men to myself.” (John 12:32). At Holy Mass, Jesus is lifted up just as on Calvary as we are drawn to come forward to receive His Body and Blood in the Eucharist, so that we are in relation and oriented to God, enabled to accomplish His will undeterred by the distractions of the world.

Jesus lived His entire earthly existence perfectly oriented to the Father. He spoke the words the Father told Him (John 14:10), taught and guarded those the Father gave to Him (John 18:9), and accomplished to the fullest the will of His Father (John 6:38) in perfect love and complete obedience. The way He lived was the perfect model for how one is to walk with God. But more, the way He died was an unattainable example of how to walk to the Father alone and unarmed with superhuman resoluteness against the powers of the world to face unimaginable abandonment, betrayal, mockery, torture and crucifixion. Isaiah predicted it: “Therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame (Isaiah 50:7). And Luke recorded its fulfillment: “When the days drew near for him to be received up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.” (Luke 9:51).

Orientation of the Body of Christ

The three orientations which are true for each member of the Body of Christ are also true for the Body of Christ itself, only with far greater consequences. For if the Ark of Salvation is only a few degrees off course, its passengers will never reach their destination which is deification in heaven without a course correction. The Church can turn toward Christ, travel with Christ, or turn away from Christ and toward the world. Sadly, since Vatican II, she, in her bishops, priests and people, is not merely a few degrees off course but has made a dramatic turn in a decidedly worldly direction. This means that for the far fewer number of Catholics who desire to authentically follow Christ and accomplish His will, they not only have to be counter-cultural but also to a certain extent, counter-ecclesial.

Those worldly men who lead the Church have done great damage to the faith and morals of the millions for whom they are responsible. Whether it is the sexual abuse of minors, rampant acts of sodomy, homosexual grooming, predation, and protection by priests and bishops, the complete lack of transparency, accountability, contrition, and courage, the promulgation of ambiguity, heterodoxy, and even heresy, and the blurring of lines between the profane and sacred, including the unnecessary suppression of the most sacred form of worship, many powerful priests and bishops at the helm have turned the Barque of Peter on a course toward the world and its Prince.

Against the cultural headwinds and the never-ending errors of those worldly, cowardly clerics entrusted to lead it, many find it harder and harder to maintain a spiritual worldview and a traditional Catholic morality, faith, and liturgy. This puts the more ardent and earnest Catholic followers of Christ to essentially eliminate the middlemen, ignoring their words, actions, and inactions, while frequently and fervently seeking out the storehouse of her graces, partaking in the Church’s sacramental life, and participating in the sole, salvific, sacrifice of Christ.

It’s easy to point to obvious outrages like women priests, clown Masses, and homosexual priestly predation, as proof that the Church is heading in the wrong direction, but it’s a lot harder to discern the diabolical deviations in the ambiguities, the hypocrisy, the cowardice, the concessions, the cover-ups, and the lack of any meaningful opposition to the anti-Christian spirit of the world, which are far more prevalent, pervasive, and pernicious. For why would a bad bishop, priest, or Pope come out in full-throated support of heresy, when he can remain safely under the radar, living an unseen, immoral double-life, sowing confusion through intentional ambiguities and aiding the Enemy covertly though his unspoken, tacit approval? For example, rather than directly contradicting Church doctrine on human sexuality, the Enemy’s ecclesial allies can have Queer Masses, LGBTQ ministries, bless same-sex couples, cover up homosexual activity within seminaries and the priesthood, proclaim that so-called “sins below the waist” aren’t that important, and remain silent in the face of sodomic sacrileges recently seen by billions.