It is very difficult to imagine life without questions. Jesus asks his disciples: “Who do people think I am” (Mk 8:27)? But at the same time he asks: “And who do you think I am” (Mk 8:29)?

The Gospel says that Jesus becomes more and more known. The surrounding notices what he teaches, and his miracle es, confronts Jesus’ life with their own. Jesus begins to have more followers, but also enemies. In the crowd, they start talking about Jesus as John the Baptist, as Elijah, or as one of the prophets. They do not know why Jesus came into the world. He is considered by many to be one of them, with the fact that he is gifted by God with special graces. Only Jesus knows that the nation has not yet recognized that God is turning to them, that he is sending them his Son. The crowd occasionally meets Jesus.

Only the Twelve, whom Jesus himself chose from the crowd, remain with Jesus permanently. Jesus knows about his death to reconcile people with the Father. The cross – like a lengthening shadow, falls on Jesus’ path, and a serious and urgent need emerges for him to initiate his disciples into the mystery of his life and mission on earth. He must prepare the disciples to obtain an unequivocal judgment of himself. In the silence of the circle of the Twelve, he asks the disciples serious questions. To the second question: Peter answers him: “You are the Messiah” (Mk 8:29). Peter’s answer is a great moment in the history of mankind. With Peter’s answer, the veil of the mystery of redemption is torn for the first time. In the light of faith, what the Holy Spirit caused, man, Peter utters God’s mystery, which cannot be known by human senses, which can only be seen in God-given faith.

Jesus asks us to know how to say “no” to our “I”. Jesus wants us to always know how to say “yes” to God. Only the one who denies himself, who says “no” to himself, can begin to follow the Master and may confess to him. Jesus clearly expresses this before his martyrdom by comparing that we must take up the cross, as he did, and we are obliged to carry our cross. This is how we manifest our full union with the Lord. Our faith is in fulfilling the will of Christ, and then we share in God’s love.

Many people encounter the teachings of Christ. They know about his teaching, they know it, but do they keep it? Do they follow his orders? Do they live by them? Here is a place for serious thought. We understand – who is Christ? Knowing Christ does not mean believing in Christ. Believing is different from knowing. Whoever wants to be Christ must follow Christ. Christ came into the world to sacrifice his life for the whole world. Christ rightfully asks us to submit everything in the world, our life, to Him. With their actions, they proved what we know what we hear, and what we talk about. Faith in Christ alone is not enough. We know that even the devil knows who Christ is, but he does not act accordingly

We cannot be blind people who, with their unwisdom, will lead their wards into a lie, a mistake – into a pit. Let’s look at history, and how many misguided people lived in it, who were convinced of their private truth and at the same time lived in the darkness of lies. Just mention names like Napoleon, Hitler, St, alien, and many others.

Jesus tells the healed man: “Do not enter the village” (Mk 8:26).

Even nowadays, we have to be very attentive to many ideologies, we have to learn to distinguish the truth from the false truth, from private opinions, which, however, are presented to us so truthfully and believably as if they were the absolute truth. It is enough to look at the power of the media today, which also presents supposition, probability,y, and various unexamined currents of thought as a life path for every “normal” person, and if we do not follow this pattern, we are considered strange at best.

If today you are against abortion – you are unfashionable, if you are in favor of chastity before marriage – you are unfashionable, if you are in favor of the natural family – you are discriminatory, etc. We are truly surrounded by so many “offers” of different truths and teachings. / Here we can also mention and analyze what problems the Pope sees today, such as excessive subjectivism, practical materialism, religious indifference, consumerism, hedonism, and secularism./

In history and even today, among all the teachings, one thing stands out. This teaching gives answers to man’s various questions, this teaching makes a man free. This teaching would never allow any hatred. He does not want the fear of his followers, but their joy. He does not want to leave them in the darkness of ignorance, but to teach the Truth. It is Christianity. It is the teaching of the incarnate Word, the teaching of the Son of God himself, Jesus Christ, who came to this earth to reveal to us the truth about God and about ourselves, as Blessed John Paul II also says. in his first encyclical Redemptor hominis. The teachings of Jesus Christ were preserved for us by the apostles, and we still have them in the Holy Scriptures.

All of us who, in any way, have a responsibility to raise our children, but we also have a responsibility to ourselves so that we don’t fall into the pit. Do we know this source of knowledge, the source of Truth? Do we read the Holy Scriptures? Where else, if not right there, can we find answers to our questions and confront offers of different truths from the world? Here our eyes are untied so that we, as blind, do not lead others to blindness. We have heard how many evil lies have done in the world, the devil himself is the father of lies, and he is also the father of these mistakes and pains. However, we are children of light, we have a lamp that illuminates our paths.

The Gospel excerpt of the celebration of the holy Slavic confessors Cyril and Methodius (Mt 28, 16-20) contains the so-called missionary order that Jesus gave to his apostles before his ascension. This is the complete conclusion of Matthew’s Gospel. The whole scene has a festive character. The disciples ascended the mountain as once in the Old Testament, Moses ascended Mount Sinai, where God appeared to him. Now the resurrected Lord has appeared to his apostles and is handing them his spiritual testament.

With power
In a short speech, Lord Jesus first speaks about himself: “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” (Mt 28:18) These words echo the Old Testament prophecy from the Book of the prophet Daniel, where it is said about the Son of Man: “And to him was given the government and the kingdom, so that all nations, tribes, and tongues served him; his reign is an eternal reign that will not pass away, and his kingdom that will not perish.” (Dan 7, 14) We know that one of the titles that the Son of God used during his earthly ministry when he spoke about himself, was the precise “Son of Man “. The glorified Lord is appointed Lord of the world and Judge of all nations.

Emanuel
Matthew put his entire gospel into the awareness of God’s closeness, which in the person of Emmanuel – Jesus Christ received a new and permanent way. In the beginning, at the birth of Jesus Christ in Mt 1:23, the angel announces to Joseph: “Behold, a virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Emmanuel, which in translation means: God with us.” The newborn child was not named Emmanuel, but Jesus. The evangelist wants to show that in the case of the citation, it is not primarily about determining the name that the Son of God is to bear in human nature, but about the fulfillment of his mission on earth. The newborn baby will be “Jesus = God is salvation” and “Emmanuel = God with us”. At the end of today’s Gospel passage, in Mt 28, 20, an assurance is heard, which is the very last sentence of the entire Gospel of Matthew: “And lo, I am with you always, until the end of the world. The resurrected Christ is still present in the Church and teaches in it what he taught during his earthly life. Jesus’ last words before his ascension are the key to the entire Gospel according to Matthew. It is a source of hope and strength for believers that we are never alone on the journey of proclaiming the Gospel.

Evangelize and catechize
O someone I want to notice the command of Jesus himself. It contains four verbs: go, teach, baptize, and teach. Verbs have their logical order. First, the announcer must reach specific people. The second step is the act of faith, based on which it is possible to baptize. It is expressed by the verb “teach.” The Greek verb “mathetéusate” literally means “make disciples.” So it’s not some kind of disinterested announcement. the ascension is the key to the entire Gospel according to Matthew. It is a source of hope and strength for believers that we are never alone on the journey of proclaiming the Gospel.

Evangelize and catechize
I want to note the command of Jesus himself. It contains four verbs: go, teach, baptize, and teach. Verbs have their logical order. First, the announcer must reach specific people. The second step is the act of faith, based on which it is possible to baptize. It is expressed by the verb “teach.” The Greek verb “mathetéusate” literally means “make disciples.” So it is not some kind of disinterested announcement. After that, the next verb is “baptize”. Baptism is given in the name of the Holy Trinity. The baptismal formula is a synthesis of the entire history of salvation, which is the work of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Acceptance of baptism does not end the process of faith. The deepening in the truths of faith continues, therefore the fourth verb is used: “teach”.

We are dealing with two dimensions of the Church’s activity. The first is evangelistic or missionary activity. It is the proclamation of Christ’s gospel to those who have not yet heard of it. The second is catechetical activity, i.e. deepening the faith of the already baptized. Both activities are necessary for Slovakia. Some still have almost never heard of Christ and the Church. Often this is because parents have completely neglected Christian education. While school education in Slovakia has its structure and also at the parish level catechesis takes place in various forms, e.g. before receiving the sacraments, activities within the framework of experiencing the church year, etc., family catechesis is significantly neglected. At the same time, all church documents remind and emphasize that the first teachers of the faith are parents. The reality is that the child encounters the liturgy, prayer, and the basic truths of faith, often only when preparing for the 1st St. reception.

The permanent formation of the already baptized becomes perhaps even more urgent. The number of baptized but non-practicing believers is increasing. It is a challenge for the Church to reach those who profess to believe but are not in any contact with the parish community. As a priest, I can address those who, for example, come regularly to the Sunday St. Mass. The challenge remains, how to speak to those who “need” a priest and the Church literally a few times in their life: at their marriage, at the baptism of their children, who will then hopefully still join the 1st St. reception and confirmation.

The solemn feast of the Slavic saints to proclaim the faith sets before us the task of being comprehensible by our faith. I don’t just mean the means of expression. I mean intelligibility by the authenticity of our faith. Whoever sees our life according to the gospel will feel that it is not something formal, customary, or theatrical, but sincere and true.

No wonder the Lord Jesus sighed inwardly… He left them there, got back into the boat, and left. How could those who a moment ago witnessed the miraculous multiplication of bread, and in general, admire so many extraordinary healing, ask him for a sign? However, according to their expectations, the Messiah was to boast of some more spectacular, more showy act, some astronomical feat; but the Lord Jesus did not allow them to put him on the level of a magician.

Even today, some think that some miracles would happen that would dazzle and convince atheists.

But, first of all – they certainly would not convince, because today’s man would not be able to explain them rationally.

Secondly – they happen even today, e.g. healing that doctors cannot explain by natural causes; we had many such extraordinary healing during the Renewal in the Holy Spirit congresses (e.g. in May 1993 in Czestochowa, Warsaw, Kielce, and Lublin), which society, in general, does not even know about, because our publicists were not at all interested in these phenomena.

And thirdly – if we understand a miracle as a phenomenon against nature or above nature, then nature after all – it is not only paralyzed bodies, broken arms and legs, but also paralyzed souls, defeated consciences, and broken hearts; and how many such healing, enlightenment, conversions take place during exercises, missions or visiting the image from Jasna hora! These signs can convince people of goodwill, although for others they are no signs.

And aren’t the sacraments of Jesus Christ the seven most miraculous signs – but commonplace? And isn’t the Sacrament of the Altar – the Eucharist, the most miraculous sign among them?

He often speaks to us. He shows us his love in the sacraments, prayer, and Holy Mass, but also in other acts of Christian spiritual and corporal mercy. It is up to each of us to accept these gifts with faith and obtain graces and gifts for natural and spiritual life, for life here on earth and eternal. Jesus healed the body of the deaf and mute and through the body, he also touched the soul.

The sick man from yesterday’s Gospel expresses this by saying that even though Jesus commanded him not to speak about it, because his hour had not yet come, the sick man did not remain silent and the more “he commanded them, the more they announced it and with the greater admiration they spoke” (Mk 7, 36-37). Today the situation is the opposite. Jesus expects us, rightfully so, to talk about his help, and his love for us, what is the reality? The Christian is deaf and dumb. He is silent when he should speak about God. He is silent when God speaks to him. What is our faith? Faith is not only spoken by the mouth but our whole life, our deeds.

We realize that the patient belongs to the doctor. The sick person must be helped. And when we can understand it in connection with the body, it shouldn’t cause us any more difficulties in the area of ​​the soul. The essence of our faith is that we have all our hope in God, who sees into our hearts and does not see only our exterior. Faith comes from faithfulness to what man knows and who died for man. Our effort is to meet with faith the only one who can heal our body and soul, not only for a time but for all eternity. It is right that we all lead children to prove with their lives that God wants those who believe in him – not only with knowledge but also with deeds, to profess and live their faith. The world today needs educated Christians, but also saints. Not only children, let’s remind ourselves of the requirement of holiness.

We can also use an example. Several painters and artists have incorporated a special technique into their works. In London – in the church of St. Paul, is a painting called “The Light of the World”. It depicts the text from the Revelation of the Apostle John: “I stand at the door and knock”. Jesus in the darkness of the day, with a lantern in his hand, stands in front of the door. The masterful technique means that when the viewer looks at the picture from any side, Jesus is always a person As the viewer moves while watching, he has the impression that Christ is also moving at the same time.

It is our memento. God is always looking at us. And it only depends on us whether we want to be….  In…de, a person remains sick. Pride is an obstacle to receiving God’s gift. Pride is a hindrance to God’s healing.

Let’s explain it with an example: The gardener grafted a new scion onto a branch. When it grew, beautiful apples were born on the branch. The branch snapped. He declared to the trunk and roots of the tree that he did not need them. So the roots and trunk decided not to supply nutrients and moisture to the branch. What followed? We can imagine. The branch did not bear fruit the following year. He dried up.

When we have disappointed God, God may or may not give us another opportunity

The Lord Jesus often encounters the unbelief of the natives and states: “Not a single prophet is rare in his own country” (Lk 4:24). The teachers of the law and the leaders of the nation not only do not accept his teachings, they cannot be addressed by the miracles and signs that he performs, but on the contrary, they cut into his life.

The opposite is a woman from the region of Tire and Sidon, which is the land of the Gentiles, whom the Jews despise. The buckwheat woman turns to Jesus. He is addressing a Jew. The dialogue that echoes on that occasion is interesting. Jesus does not answer the woman. It would seem that Jesus has a hard heart towards this distressed woman who pleads for the healing of her daughter who is terribly afflicted by an evil spirit. It would seem that the apostles are more inclined towards her when they intercede for her. This was just so that they would have peace from the woman because the woman was calling loudly. However, Jesus fulfills the promise that God the Father gave to Abraham for his faith. Jesus does not reject the woman. Jesus wants the woman to express herself like Abraham, that is, to express her faith in God, in the Deity of Jesus Christ. The cold attitude of Jesus does not deter the woman. He does not give up on Jesus. She believes that Jesus can fulfill her request and heal her daughter. Syrians and Jews lived in enmity.

What attitude to take towards them? How to treat him? What to do, because we must not remain silent…
A woman comes to Jesus and begs: “… to cast the devil out of her daughter” (Mk 7:26).

Let us think about the difficulty of faith of those who stand outside the Church – who do not believe and do not want to believe; who say they believe and do not practice their faith; who have already departed from God, live as heathens, unbelievers; who laugh at faith even though they “believe”; who left Christ and today are members of sects, followers of various movements and cults. But also those who profess another religion.

Jesus wants the woman to show the Jews what is decisive, what God asks of us. Total devotion to God. Man’s dependence on God. To trust in God more than in oneself, belonging to a family, language, nation, or homeland. Jesus’ words addressed to the woman are not an insult to the woman, but a test for what the woman will say so that Jesus can give an explanation, a lesson to the Jews present based on her words. The firm faith of the woman amazes the crowd. She believes that children have the right to bread first and then puppies. But she only begs for the very crumbs that the Jews despise. The woman believes that Jesus is the Messiah. And such a woman, full of faith, should Jesus have rejected? After all, she asked Jesus as God to heal her daughter, so that the evil spirit would no longer have power over her. Jesus praises the woman’s faith.

The woman agreed with Jesus, and Jesus agreed with her. She honored his will as holy, and he fulfilled her will. His goodness did not lag behind her faith. He called her faith significant. Such faith is great, which seeks great grace from Christ. 

Let’s remember yesterday’s reasoning. Let’s repeat something from him… Jesus says: “…that which comes out of a man defiles…” (Mk 7:20). After all, Jesus did not tell the apostles not to observe the law about washing. This is what caused the Pharisees and the scribes to conflict when they asked Jesus: “Why don’t your disciples follow the tradition of their fathers and eat bread with defiled hands” (Mk 7:5)?

Jesus knows that the washing regulations originally applied only to the priests who performed the sacrificial service. The validity of these words expanded also because a blessing had to be said at each meal, meaning that a religious act was performed here. So they began to add human commands to God’s word, and more emphasis began to be placed on human commands than on God’s word. After all, even human orders were essentially correct if they fulfilled their purpose – the removal of pollution. Washing hands before eating was proper, and especially when they returned from the market, where there was plenty of dirt at that time. It was right that upon return, the emphasis was placed on bathing or washing the hands up to the wrist. It was right to emphasize the washing of cups, jugs, basins, and beds. However, it was not right when these human oral orders, later confirmed in writing, came to the forefront of what God commanded. The Pharisees and scribes placed great emphasis on the fulfillment of these human commands, and failure to fulfill them was a serious crime.

It can be seen from the Gospels that even in the time of Jesus, these regulations were strictly binding and their non-observance was punished with even harsh punishments. Jesus proves how far they have deviated from the truth. He explains that: “Nothing can defile a man that enters him from the outside, but that which comes out…” (Mk 7:15). He does not say that they should not maintain natural hygiene, but he reminds us of the importance of spiritual purity. Jesus teaches that food cannot be distinguished from “pure and impure”, but that the root of evil is found in the spiritual-spiritual area of ​​the human “I”, from which all evil comes as an evil seed to poison people in the world. Eating or washing cannot create the right relationship with God.

Can we receive the Eucharist in a state of grave sin? Not! And yet Christ’s body is pure even when we receive it in sin, but it does not benefit us and harms the soul. We understand that Jesus’ words about what defiles a person are clear. It is about the inside of a person, about the soul, about the relationship to God, to the neighbor, and oneself: “For from within, from the human heart, evil things come…” (Mk 7:21-23).

The inside of a person decides whether a person is clean or unclean. Every sin, already committed in thought, causes damage to a person’s peace, joy, and happiness. A sinful thought is already a personal guilt. When we are aware of this reality, we allow the purifying and sanctifying grace to penetrate more deeply into our soul, which results in a more thorough and vigorous treatment of our interior. And that’s what Jesus wants with today’s gospel: to heal our insides. How wonderful and necessary it is: to accept Jesus’ words about the purity of our hearts.

Exorcist Imrich Degro

Some communities and priests have been promoting the theory of healing ancestral roots in recent years. In short, it is about freeing oneself from the sins of one’s ancestors through prayer or the Eucharist. 

“It’s very tempting. Basically, I don’t have to make any effort to change, I don’t have to take responsibility for my actions. So I’m not to blame for what’s happening to me, because my ancestors and their sins are to blame, “ exorcist Imrich Degro explains in an interview. “​If we have any mental illnesses, then with the shortcut of the root healing prayer, we avoid treatment and our problems can deepen further. Perhaps psychological or even psychiatric treatment would be necessary. “ 

Priest Imrich Degro advises going with caution even to the so-called liberation prayers. “It’s quite widespread and I consider it a bit of a national sport. I don’t recommend it unless people have objective difficulties and problems. “ 

Today, the modern practice of healing ancestral roots is not recognized by church tradition

About the controversial theory of healing ancestral roots with the exorcist of the Archdiocese of Košice, priest Imrich Degro. 

This belief does not come from the Catholic Church. Neither in the Bible nor in theology can we find anything about the healing of ancestral roots. It appeared in the last century. Psychiatrist McAll wrote the aforementioned book in the 1980s, and his theory began to spread widely. Both he and his parents were Anglican missionaries in China and there he encountered a very strong Chinese ancestor cult. He also saw there how the Chinese cast out evil spirits from people, so when he returned, he tried something similar on his patients.

In Slovakia, the controversial theory of healing ancestral roots is popular, the author of which is the psychiatrist McAll. According to this theory, we can free ourselves from the evil deeds of our ancestors with the help of prayer and the celebration of the Eucharist. What is its tradition?

Since 2002, the Catholic priest Imrich Degro has been commissioned by the Archbishop of Košice to perform exorcism in the Archdiocese of Košice. At the same time, he works as a university teacher at the Catholic University in Ružomberok. He also wrote a pamphlet on the subject, Do we suffer for the sins of our ancestors?

He chose patients who did not respond to any therapy. He researched the family trees of these patients and found that there was an ancestor in their family trees who died a mysterious death or was not found, could not be properly buried, or his survivors could not say goodbye to him.

Since he was a practicing Anglican, he began to pray with these people, so he chose prayer as therapy. In the interviews, he discovered that these patients had some sort of unresolved attachment to dead people in their family. He called it Occult Entrapment Syndrome. He found the Holy Mass to be the most effective form of detachment.

What is problematic about this view, apart from the fact that it is apparently unscientific? 

He also published studies about his patients, which are clearly based only on examples he has experienced. He did not base it on any theory or theology. Even he himself admits that he is not a theologian and that it only seems to him that this is how the healing grace of God works, as he describes it.

Later, this theory of his was taken over by an American Claretian, who applied it to mentally healthy people, and it became a popular practice, especially in the charismatic movement, and it still is today.

Ancestral healing can also seem scientific by referring to the renowned psychiatrist Jung, who also theorizes that the actions of our ancestors fundamentally influence us. 

Although it has an air of science, Jung’s theories are now obsolete. What Jung says about the subconscious and temporal simultaneity is no longer accepted today.

Psychiatrist McAll, however, describes clinical cases where fundamental changes took place in patients’ lives after the healing of the ancestral roots. That is, people on whom no psychiatric treatment worked suddenly felt much better. How do you explain it then? 

It can be a phenomenon of the placebo effect or a psychological effect where a person really believes that he will reconcile with himself through this ritual.

Why is it important for people to believe that through prayer we can resolve the past and thereby influence our present? 

Because it is very tempting. Basically, I don’t have to make any effort to change, I don’t have to take responsibility for my actions. So I am not to blame for what is happening to me, because my ancestors and their sins are to blame. Just do some prayer and I don’t have to do anything else. It’s a quick solution and today’s time is very instant, we want everything right away.

The first instruction for this was issued by the Vietnamese bishops’ conference half a year before the French, because missionaries were coming from America to preach it. A few years ago, the Polish bishops also commented on this. It is very widespread all over the world and it is necessary to be clear about it. 

The Czech and French bishops’ conferences have issued an instruction on the topic of healing ancestral roots, which condemns this practice. So does this phenomenon seem to be fashionable in other countries as well? 

So the teaching of the Catholic Church claims that we do not pay for the sins of our ancestors? 

Definitely not. We do not inherit the sins of our ancestors, and we do not inherit the guilt or punishment for the sins of our ancestors.

However, the theory of the healing of ancestral roots refers to statements from the Bible, which speak of punishments for the sins of the fathers up to the third or fourth generation…

Yes, it is mentioned in several places in the Old Testament, where it is written that God punishes sins up to the third and fourth generation. But advocates of the healing of ancestral roots take these states out of context.

We must perceive the texts within the framework of the entire Revelation, that is, the Bible. And the intention of the Scriptures is to speak especially about the great mercy of God, which is written that it can last until a thousand generations, while the punishment of God is very small compared to his mercy. This practice refers only to the Old Testament.

So the statements of the Old Testament about punishments for future generations do not apply? 

They apply in the sense that the sins of the fathers are repeated as the fruit of the example, the education of authority. So when I, as a child, see the sins of my father or grandfather and see the consequences of their actions, and yet I do the same, then the punishment for such actions can be greater. It is understood in this spirit, and this is also how Saint Thomas Aquinas explains it.  

In the New Testament we find no mention of punishments for the sins of our fathers? 

If there was a problem in early Christian times, Saint Paul would certainly have written something in the New Testament in his letters that he wrote to many Jewish communities. After all, we know that the Jews who converted to Christianity carried the great heritage of their fathers. However, Paul speaks of the inheritance of Abraham as a blessing rather than a punishment.

In the Gospel of John (chapter 9) we have a story about a blind man who was sick from birth, Jesus healed him and the disciples ask Jesus why he was born like this, if his ancestors sinned or if he himself sinned. Jesus answered that neither he nor his parents sinned, but he was born so that God’s power, God’s glory, would be shown in him. By this, Jesus, on the contrary, shows that seemingly unfortunate destinies are not the inheritance of sins. Sin is always personal, it cannot be transferred. 

Original sin probably has nothing to do with this theory…

We inherit original sin, we call it Adam’s sin, but this sin is not our personal sin. That is the state, and that is what the church calls it in the catechism. 

Some time ago, the country was shaken by the suicide of Dušan Pašek Jr., whose father died in the same way. How should we then understand such recurring sins in families?

On the spiritual side, nothing like this is inherited. We will probably never know if there were any genetic predispositions to depression. I see it more as a model, an example of authority, we cannot refer to anything else.

If something like this is repeated in families, it is usually taboo, there is no talk about what is wrong. I think that it is necessary to openly talk about it, even with the children, that your father committed this, but it is not the right solution to problems, it must be pointed out. 

How does the church view suicide today?

She perceives it as a sin against God’s fifth commandment, but it is no longer like before, when she refused to bury suicides. The Church perceives suicide as a manifestation of self-loathing, as cutting off relationships with others and rejecting the gift of life. But the church recognizes that a person at such a moment probably did not see any other solution, there could be a clouded mind or a mental illness, which significantly reduces the seriousness of such a sin.

We don’t know if the person regretted it at the last second, that’s between the person and God. That is why today the church buries suicides. 

Repeated sins in families apparently lead many to seek questionable rituals for healing ancestral roots. Is there a special way to cut through such a series of unfortunate events in the family? 

There is no need to cut it somehow. I don’t inherit it, there is nothing to cross spiritually. It is important to talk, to educate, to show correct solutions to problems. Suicide can be a kind of escape from problems. 

However, it is necessary to distinguish another phenomenon in this topic, and that is occultism and curses, which can be crossed. 

What do you mean?

If a person still persists in grave sin, if he tried occultism, he could open himself up to the action of evil spirits and let them into his family, that is, open the door for them, as it were. The practice of exorcists says that these spirits can appear in different forms.

We usually call them by the name of the sin they lead us to, such as the spirit of suicide, and this one can also tempt the descendants in the family, but only tempt. However, everyone has free will and can refuse this temptation. 

Here we are already moving into a purely theological debate. How to find out if a family is tempted by such a spirit? 

Discerning whether an evil spirit is at work in the family is a difficult process, it must be well researched with an exorcist priest. Here people can be helped by prayer for deliverance or exorcism if there is a real presence of evil spirits. But that is another matter, it must be distinguished from the healing of ancestral roots, which the Catholic Church tradition does not recognize. 

The curse is mostly associated with fairy tales such as About the Wicked Brothers. Does the Church really recognize the effect of the curse? 

Yes, she calls him a curse. This curse can be effective if God allows it, without God’s permission it is not possible. 

Why would God allow man to curse people? 

God allows this only for our spiritual good, so that we can, for example, change, convert, for example, forgive and reconcile in our families. God is always after some spiritual good. If God allows an evil spirit to operate, He will not allow it to do as it pleases. He is limited by God’s power, he can only do as much as God allows him to do.

But it is important to say that the curse only works among the living, not among the dead, it is not transferred to those who have not yet been born. That is, if, say, my grandfather cursed me with a family curse, it only applies to living descendants, it is not passed on to future generations. Today it is popular to say, someone must have cursed me, but it is not so simple, it needs to be investigated in detail.

What spiritual dangers are there if the mentioned ancestral healing is practiced?

We may be in danger of simplifying the whole reality, throwing the responsibility for ourselves onto our ancestors, and then we no longer look for other solutions. It is necessary to go deeper and examine your way of life.

We often cause difficult situations in life by ourselves with a sinful lifestyle and do not make amends. If we have any mental illnesses, then with the shortcut of the root healing prayer, we avoid treatment and our problems can deepen further. Perhaps psychological or even psychiatric treatment would be necessary.

There is also a danger when the mediator of root healing becomes a kind of shaman for us, a guru on whom we become too attached. 

Furthermore, thanks to this theory, a certain malice towards our ancestors can be “born” in us, hatred that they are responsible for something that I am currently experiencing. Such an attitude is against God’s fourth commandment. We are to honor our parents.

We thus allow unnecessary negativism and sin into our lives. Too much digging in the past, for example in family trees up to the fourteenth century, can take us away from reality and from our life, for which we are responsible.

But do you admit that personal sin can also affect those around us?

Sin always has an effect on our surroundings. A bad example is, even if I hurt others, I influence them, I hurt them. John Paul II. he also talked about the structures of sin, that is, that sin creates certain structures in the world. Take, for example, the sin of corruption.

We know the practice of whole villages or towns praying for the forgiveness of the sins of their ancestors. Whether for sins from the period of Nazism, which dominated almost an entire generation in some areas. Do such collective prayers have any meaning?

Apologizing for sins is important. In the Bible, the Israelites apologized for the sins of their ancestors, but not in the sense of my parents or grandparents, but for the sins of the nation or the nation’s representatives.

John Paul II also called us to do something similar, he himself prayed for the church and apologized for the sins of the church committed by church leaders in the past. This makes sense, because unforgiveness is a great obstacle for God’s grace to work in a person’s life.

Therefore, we should forgive not only those closest to us, but also the representatives of the states, those who may be responsible for the situation in which we find ourselves.

How is it different from a disputed root healing prayer?

The difference is that this practice is based on the assumption that we inherit the sins or punishments of our ancestors, which is false. Plus, this practice is based on the fact that we can free our ancestors, that they are in the power of the devil and we free them. But that is not possible.

The Church speaks very clearly, at the moment of death the soul either dies in friendship with God and goes to heaven or purgatory, or it is damned and goes to hell. And we can no longer free the damned soul. 

So the indulgences we talk about during November belong to a different category.

These belong only to souls in purgatory, they do not apply to damned souls. We pray for the souls in purgatory that they may reach heaven and meet Jesus as soon as possible. 

The prayer of root healing leads us to the fact that we are not focused on God and the souls in purgatory, but on ourselves. I want to get some relief for myself to ease my troubles, and as a side effect I am trying to save the ancestors.

In the history of Catholicism, we do not know that the church served a mass for the healing of ancestral roots. The church serves the mass for the living, for their complete healing, and if the mass is served for the dead, then for their salvation. 

So if the healing of ancestral roots is not in accordance with the practice of the church, how can a person of faith heal the wounds of the past in accordance with the teaching of the church? 

We are to pray for our dead regardless of whether they are in hell, purgatory or heaven. But we pray for them. If they happen to be in hell, then God will use these prayers for someone else. If they are already in heaven, they no longer need them either, but God will use them again for another soul who needs them.

We also believe that souls pray for us. The Church talks about the exchange of spiritual gifts, it is also true that the more we pray for them, the more effective their prayers are for us. 

We can also pray prayers of supplication. In them we ask God for the sins of our ancestors and all people who have sinned. An example can be the prayer on the first Friday of the month.

If we hold grudges against our ancestors, they need to be forgiven, and that forgiveness must be specific. We must clearly name whom I forgive and what I forgive. My prayer might go something like this: “Lord Jesus, at this moment I forgive my father for abandoning me, for committing suicide. Please give him eternal salvation.’

You claim that so-called ancestral healing leads us to think that the souls of our ancestors still wander among us and have some influence on us…

Yes, this erroneous practice speaks of wandering souls who need our deliverance. But that is not true, the church teaches us that immediately after death the soul stands before God and there the reward or punishment occurs. It is true that some exorcists say and have such experience in exorcisms that sometimes the evil spirit appears to them as the soul of a deceased member of the person’s family. But it’s a lie.

An old ritual of exorcism warns exorcists at one point that they must not believe the devil if he presents himself as the soul of the deceased. Even Thomas Aquinas, the greatest teacher of the church, says very clearly in his theological summary that the soul cannot act on another body, only on its own body. Thus, after death, if the soul is separated from its own body, it cannot affect another person. Souls are not wandering, they are either in heaven, or in hell, or in purgatory. 

The Roman exorcist Matteo La Grua claimed that it is possible that some souls serve out their purgatory in the place where they lived to see the effect of their actions on their family. But that is his opinion, it is not the official teaching of the church.

Can the prayer for liberation recognized by the Catholic Church be a solution to certain problems in people’s lives? 

In the Catholic Church, we distinguish between exorcism and prayer for deliverance. The essence of exorcism is a direct command in the name of Jesus to the devil to leave a given person, place or thing. Prayer for deliverance means that we are not commanding the devil directly, but just asking Jesus to come and deliver the person from the evil spirit. 

As part of exorcisms, we know minor exorcisms, major exorcisms and pre-baptismal exorcisms. The big one prays for the possessed and can only be prayed by an exorcist. The smaller ones are prayers for liberation and are used during the preparation of adults for acceptance into the church. Any priest and even a layman can pray these if he has the permission of his bishop.

These deliverance prayers can also be prayed in evangelistic meetings. And then, not everyone knows, but before the baptism of children, a “pre-baptismal” exorcism also takes place in the form of a prayer for deliverance from original sin and from the devil’s influence.

Today it is very fashionable to use these prayers for deliverance quite en masse. That’s all right? 

It is quite widespread and I consider it a bit of a national sport. I don’t recommend it unless people have objective difficulties and problems.

Why don’t you recommend it? Can it have any negative impact?

People then focus more on the devil than on God, and this is not God’s will. Our mission in life is not to fight the devil, but to live with God. When the devil comes into my life, I should resist him, I can do that by prayer, good deeds, reading the Scriptures. If we pray these prayers often, it happens that we see the devil everywhere, even where he is not.