Swami Kriyananda observed that persecution is inevitable on the spiritual path and should be completely accepted as such.His amusing words were - "sprinkle it on your cereal for breakfast". It seems that any good act generates a satanic backlash, often from those whose mission is supposedly to uphold the good. Who better to act demonically than a church executive, social worker, school principle, judge, petty government official, or military officer?
Padre Pio, the saintly Italian monk, well illustrates the principle. He was persecuted both by Satan directly and Satan via church administrators who did not want him disturbing the smooth running of "their" organization - the acquiring of new adepts, donations, buildings and power.
One particular passage has the Padre pointing out that Satan is not expelled using Satan's ways.
The Padre's miraculous life simply underlined how far those bureaucratically and administratively minded officials had strayed from following Christ rather than some book of rules and procedures, as illustrated in the recent DVD.
In the US, many Christian denominations seem to revel in harsh judgment and lack of mercy in their extreme focus on Old Testament passages, quite forgetting Christ and His new covenant of mercy, inclusion and love for one's neighbors. Their churches are seemingly always pristine, huge and wealthy no matter how poor the surroundings just as the whitewashed tombs Jesus referred to twenty centuries ago in Mathew 23.
Pastors like the progressive Joel Olsteen was hounded for his openness in failing to affirm that Jesus was the only way to God.
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