Peace and Good.
My name is Sebastiano and I have already written you other emails besides this. (…).
Since some time, I have been fighting with myself when I pass in front of Jehovah’s Witnesses who display their scriptures and their interpretations in the street. I live near a kingdom hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses and it saddens me every time I pass in front of it… even shutters, because my heart knows that they will reopen.
They have come to visit me several times knowing that I was looking for God, when still wandering for Him, and for a while and in my simplicity, I also exchanged emails with a boy, whose heart I saw some purity in, and I tried to warn and show him the way. But I understood that the real problem is about the Scriptures.
They do not accept the Catholic Scriptures because they distort them toward what they imagine, creating another God. The impetus of my heart would have burned those falsehoods but I know that it is not the right path because they themselves should burn them there.
I ask myself, following the past example of the saints who prayed and fought against heresies, how we can deal with this issue which is spreading and brings many families into disgrace, today.
In the desolation of her life, a cousin of mine found support in the “community” of Jehovah’s Witnesses and raised her children with that thought. Today she finds herself having left this kind of religion, which I dare call as a sect, and she found herself forced to remind her children that she is still their mother even if she is dissociated.
As a Christian, I ask myself how can I help these people who find themselves stuck in that reality which binds them and limits them to a thought that distances them from Jesus instead of bringing them closer? Their ears are closed to Catholic words because they have their own scriptures that are not Catholic indeed being such a hodgepodge (forgive my comparison). It is like the schism that occurred with Luther, as thereafter new ones were created, and new alternative processes of thoughts started…. like for the evangelicals. (…).
My heart is very troubled by these realities and, in my own small way, I try to do something but I am always afraid to go wrong and so I ask for advice from those who have chosen to live their life only for Jesus giving themselves to others…. This is why I am writing to you and asking for advice.
A big hug and may the Lord bless you all and, as soon as possible, call for new and numerous vocations for the harvest that is increasingly abundant and increasingly needy.
Again, peace and goodness, from a sinful father that the Lord wanted to love in His infinite mercy.
The Priest’s answer
Dear Sebastiano,
1. In my opinion, these people have got a veil drawn over their minds by Satan.
That is because of their pride in wanting to interpret the Scriptures in their own way, detaching themselves from the norm given us by Our Lord, which is to let ourselves be guided by blessed Peter.
2. The one who speaks of that veil is St. Paul.
St. Paul referred to the Jews. But it can also be applied to the people you mentioned in your email.
Here is what St. Paul says: “Rather, their thoughts were rendered dull, for to this present day the same veil remains unlifted when they read the old covenant, because through Christ it is taken away. To this day, in fact, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts, but whenever a person turns to the Lord the veil is removed.” (2Cor 3:14-16).
Just like the veil, which was lying over their minds, prevented them from seeing the splendor of Moses, so that same veil prevents these people from knowing Jesus Christ and living in Him through the Scriptures. The JWs do not even know what it means to live in Christ, as they are fully concerned with their calculations.
3. What can be done with these people?
Most times, discussions turn out useless precisely because one seems to face a wall, which is completely closed to listening.
So, since they are stubborn and sometimes even fanatical, the only ways are prayers and sacrifices.
4. About that, St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, who is also a doctor of the Church, writes in her autobiography: “Verily in prayer and sacrifice lies all my strength, they are my invincible arms; experience has taught me that they touch hears far more easily than words” (St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Story of a soul, p. 132).
5. Prayers and sacrifices require commitment and undoubtedly cost effort.
But with no shadow of a doubt, they are effective and bear fruit.
They are the same things that Our Lady indicated in Fatima when she asked for prayers and sacrifices for the conversion of sinners.
Wishing you will know how practicing them with perseverance and generosity, I bless you
Father Angelo
