Here are the last few points condemned by the Church on Quietism. I hope this little review has been helpful to some who either have fallen into errors, or for those who, like me, have come up against these in the past few years. I feel with the impending global events, we shall see a return to these false ideas, as some people cannot face reality, and retreat into passivity in the face of crisis.
40. The Blessed Virgin never performed any exterior work, and nevertheless was holier than all the saints. Therefore, one can arrive at sanctity without exterior work.
Mary's Fiat allowed Redemption to enter the world. It is time for the Pope to declare her Co-Redemptrix and Mediatrix of Grace. These ideas are part of our Tradition and informed by the dogmas on her Immaculate Conception and Assumption.
41. God permits and wishes to humiliate us and to conduct us to a true transformation, because in some perfect souls, even though not inspired, the demon inflicts violence on their bodies and makes them commit carnal acts, even in wakefulness and without the bewilderment of the mind, by physically moving their hands and other members against their wills. And the same is said as far as concerns other actions sinful in themselves, in which case they are not sins, but in them (because with these) the consent is not present.
This is a great perversion of the idea of free will. We cannot sin without consent, but God does not will our sinning. That the evil one can make us sin against our will is an odd way of denying free will and the Perfect Will of God, Who desires that all are saved. Here, Molinos gets into some type of belief that we are not in control, with grace, of our actions and that God wants to humiliate us. Not so. The Will of God is always for good and it is the will of humans which creates evil. This point shows almost a denial of reason, as some of the other points have done. Also, after repeatedly sinning, one can fall into a habit of sin, which is hard to break. By denying our part in sin, Molinos returns to dualism and a pseudo-Manichean like false thinking, the never-ending heresy.
42. A case may be given, that things of this kind contrary to the will result in carnal acts at the same time on the part of two persons, for example man and woman, and on the part of both an act follows.
We will to sin, period.
43. God in past ages has created saints through the ministry of tyrants; now in truth he produces saints through the ministry of demons, who, by causing the aforesaid things contrary to the will, bring it about that they despise themselves the more and annihilate and resign themselves to God .
Demons bring us to perdition, not sanctity. The evil ones desire only our eternal damnation. God desires our eternal bliss. Again, a perversion of the idea of free will and the idea of a Loving Father, as caused, partly, this confusion. To compare the martyrdom of the early Christians with the so-called present "ministry of devils" is so weird. However, this idea borders on a type of satan-worship, giving more power than is due to the evil spirits, "who roam about the world seeking the ruin of souls." Saints are those among us who cooperate with grace, who love God with their entire hearts, minds, souls. Mary is our example.
I end with the introduction to the Letter against Quietism, a complicated and returning heresy.
IN ORDER to free the world, prostrate in darkness and bound by numerous pagan errors, from the power of the devil who held it a wretched prisoner after the fall of our first parent, the heavenly shepherd, Christ our Lord, by his ineffable mercy, condescended to take flesh and, as a living victim, offer himself to God for us on the wood of the cross, nailing the guarantee of our redemption to the wood of the cross as a proof of his love for us. Then before returning to heaven he left on earth the Catholic Church his bride, as a new city, a holy Jerusalem, coming down from heaven without wrinkle or spot, one and holy, protected by his mighty weapons against the gates of hell. Its government he entrusted to the prince of the apostles, Peter, and his successors; they are to preserve whole and entire the teaching drawn from his lips, lest the sheep redeemed by his precious blood feed on poisonous ideas and fall back into age-old errors. This power sacred Scripture teaches us he entrusted especially to blessed Peter. For to which of the apostles but Peter did he say: "Feed my sheep." And again: "I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail; and when once you have turned, strengthen your brothers." Therefore, we who occupy Peter's throne and possess power equal to his, not by our own merits but because of almighty God's inscrutable wisdom, steadfastly desire that the Christian people embrace that faith proclaimed by Christ our Lord through his apostles in a continuous and uninterrupted tradition; the faith which he promised will endure to the end of the world.
