Given Over to an Unclean Spirit for Blasphemy

I knew one of the brothers, and I heartily wish I had never known him, since he later allowed himself to be burdened with the responsibilities of my own order. He confessed to a most admirable elder that he was being attacked by a terrible sin of the flesh. He was inflamed with an unbearable lust, the unnatural desire to suffer a shameful act rather than to commit one. The elder, like a true physician of the spirit, at once saw through to the inner cause and origin of this evil. Sighing deeply, he said: “The Lord would never have allowed you to be handed over to so foul a spirit unless you had blasphemed against him.” When this was uncovered, the brother at once fell to the ground at his feet, struck with the utmost astonishment, as if he saw the secrets of his heart laid bare by God, and confessed that he had blasphemed against the Son of God in evil thoughts. [a]

From this it is clear that anyone who is possessed by the spirit of pride, or who has been guilty of blasphemy against God, is stripped of his uprightness and perfection, and does not deserve the sanctifying grace of chastity. For he does wrong to the very one from whom the gift of purity must be looked for.