The superstitious Catholics wears a scapular to escape hell - not as a sign of his constant life of prayer and faith. The superstitious Catholics says prayers and does penance to get God to give him what we wants. The superstitious person wears a talisman to ward off the evil eye. The magician or shaman kills a black cat to kill the evil powers that threaten.
With superstition, or what might be called magic, the practitioner is always manipulating the material world in order to manipulate the supernatural world for his own benefit. The other distinction between the superstitious and the supernatural is the direction of the interaction. All supernatural works of God in the world flow from, and return to Jesus Christ - Son of God and Son of Mary. God's working in the world always flows from and is oriented to his primary interaction - the incarnation of His son in human flesh. It understands that God's grace comes to us especially through the sacraments and we draw closer to him through sacramentals, but it rejects any magical interpretation, and always involves the human reason and human will in the interaction between this world and the next.įurthermore, while there may not be watertight categories and explanations for the working of the supernatural, there are theological reasons and rational interpretations of what happens. The truly supernatural view is based on the foundational belief that the grace of God is working in our world and through our lives. The true balance to superstition is not materialism, but supernaturalism. It is easy to think that the opposite of being superstitious is to be materialistic and dismissive of everything supernatural. If someone thinks just because they pray this novena or go through the motions to win that indulgence (but they are not properly disposed spiritually) that it will have an automatic benefit they're being superstitious.
If a Catholic is living like the devil but wears the brown scapular because the Blessed Virgin promises that anyone who wears it will be delivered from hell, he's being superstitious. The problem is, there are a good number of Christians - especially Catholics, I have to say - whose devotional practices verge on the superstitious. Similarly, carrying a rabbit's foot or some other talisman to bring good luck or blessing or to ward off evil is a form of magic that makes an irrational link between an object or behavior and the desired result. So a person may believe that by walking in a circle clockwise thirteen times and throwing salt over the shoulder will ward off the evil eye. The form of magic which makes an irrational link between certain behaviors or objects with their outcomes is just as dangerous. So, for example, you have a black cat, and you believe that black cat symbolizes evil, so you cast a spell which you believe transfers the evil to the black cat, then you kill the black cat in order kill the evil. Sympathetic magic links two otherwise unconnected things together - usually one physical and the other metaphysical and expects a causal result. It means, in some way, we are trying to manipulate things to produce an outcome that we desire. It involves sympathetic magic or an irrational link between certain behaviors and their outcomes. A magical understanding of religion is primitive, immature and dangerous. That's why movies are called "motion pictures."Įxorcism movies are popular, but when you see one what is your reaction? Will you respond with superstition or supernaturalism? Superstition is any sort of belief or behavior which is magical.
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