Beware of the secret bondage

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

WE have to be wary of this spiritual and moral anomaly that, sad to say, is a common affliction these days. It can easily take place when we fail to really give our whole selves to God and to the others, giving an opening for this most deceptive anomaly to enter and dominate our life in a hidden way.

Let’s remember that when Christ was asked what the greatest commandment was, he said that it was to love God with all our heart and with everything we have. And without being asked what the second greatest commandment was, he just said that it was to love our neighbor as ourselves. (cfr. Mt 22,34-40)

That is actually the ideal condition of our life, short of it precisely opens us to temptations, sins and other anomalies some of which can dominate us in a hidden way. What is worse is that we can easily cover them if we happen to appear normal outside, if we have talents that people appreciate, if we have good social skills, or if we happen to have some authority and enjoy a good standing in society.

And since these can be hidden with hardly anyone noticing them, we would always be tempted to just keep them to ourselves. That’s when they can fester to such an extent that they can become irreversibly incurable.

These cases of secret or hidden bondage can arise in the area of our human weaknesses. Thus, people can have this enslavement to pornography and sex, to drinks and drugs, or worse, to some evil spirits who can appear to them, as St. Paul warned us, as an angel of light. (cfr. 2 Cor 11,14)

In cases like this, the most important thing to do is to pray hard, offer a lot of sacrifices, and then open up with someone who can help those affected spiritually and morally. And if needed, some professional help from psychologists or psychiatrists who have good human and Christian formation may be availed of.

In today’s world, we can say that many are the elements and developments that can lead and even reinforce people to fall into this very sad predicament. There are now powerful ideologies that subtly but consistently promote this kind of bondage. And the many conveniences offered by the new technologies can make things easy to keep this enslavement—really a sweet poison—going.

The things that the AI (Artificial Intelligence) can do, if not used properly which can easily be done, can give us many distorted and totally false things that can appear true and credible.

Before, we used to say that “pictures do not lie.” Nowadays, that saying cannot be true anymore. Aside from not telling us the whole story of the event the picture shows, it can be totally made-up.

The other day, I saw pictures of prominent figures like Trump, Obama, The Rock doing things in Divisoria, Manila. They were completely made-up, and that’s why these images are rightly termed as “AI-generated hallucinations.”

People affected by secret bondages should first go to God, have a real conversion of heart, beg for his grace, and be totally sincere in their spiritual counselling and, if needed, in seeking the professional help of doctors.

We all need to be convinced that our true joy can only be had if we manage to rid ourselves of whatever secret bondage we may be bearing for quite a while already!

 Email: roycimagala@gmail.com