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| Marino Restrepo |
There is a man named Marino Restrepo, who was born in 1950 in Columbia. His family owned a large coffee planation and were quite well off. Although he was brought up Catholic, he stopped practicing at the age of fourteen. During his teens in the 60s he met up with two different American girls from California, who introduced him to the idea of ‘free love’, helping him to be sexually ‘liberated’ and to drugs. He eventually married the second girl when she became pregnant. They moved to Germany and later to the US. He became a successful producer, actor and songwriter, in Hollywood. Gradually he got into all kinds of New Age and pagan practice and an increasingly hedonistic lifestyle, a life of pleasure and drugs. Being promiscuous, sleeping around, was just part of his life-style and he said that this was the world of Hollywood.
In December 1997, at the age of 47, he visited his home in Colombia for Christmas. His sisters were going to mass and they invited him to come along, which he did, even though he hadn’t been in a Catholic church for 33 years. During the homily the priest was talking about devotion to the Infant Jesus and about a novena of prayer to the Infant Jesus which began on December 16th and concluded on Christmas Eve. The priest said that anyone who prayed this novena with faith would receive a special grace. Marino asked one of his sisters if this was true and she said yes. So he decided to ask for a special grace, but out of pure greed, not devotion. He prayed that the Infant Jesus would change his life and that he would be able to retire with great wealth to an Indonesian island he had seen pictures of, with at least three women. God did change his life, but not in the way he was expecting.
After partying with his family, he left to visit one of his uncles. When he got to his uncle’s house he found the gates locked, which was unusual. Just then he was surrounded by armed, masked men. He was kidnapped and after a couple of days found himself deep in one of the jungles not far from where he grew up. He had been kidnapped by FARC rebels, who were hoping to get ransom money from his family.
He spent the following six months bound, with a cover over his face, lying in a cave. He almost died from malnutrition and the psychological torture that he was put through. His kidnappers were not able to get the money they had hoped for from his family and he was sure they were going to kill him.
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| FARC Rebels |
One night during this ordeal, he had a spiritual experience which lasted about eight hours. He was given an illumination of conscience, where God showed him his whole life up to that point and how far he had separated himself from God. God allowed him to see the state of his soul before God. He was able to see the exact moment when he rejected God during his teens and began to live a sinful life. In the world’s eyes he was becoming liberated and very successful in his career, even though he was living a more and more sinful life. God showed him that if he had died at that time, he would have gone to hell, because of his total rejection of God by the way he was living. He had been living in mortal sin for thirty-three years. As you can imagine this experience brought about his conversion.
After six months in captivity he was unexpectedly released and reunited with his family. He was so traumatized that he wasn’t able to be with people in public for quite some time. Finally, after a time of readjustment, he went to confession and poured his heart out. After that, he gave up his career in Hollywood and has spent the last 27 years of his life travelling around the world giving his testimony.
During his illumination of conscience God also revealed to him in great depth, the nature and seriousness of sin, which he wrote about in a book called From Darkness into the Light. One thing that God showed him was especially how damaging sexual sin is. The ‘free-love’ movement of the sixties, which seemed to be progress and liberation in the eyes of our world, was in fact demonic, as it began to lead more and more people into serious sin and farther from God. What was once considered sinful, sleeping with someone outside of marriage—that is, fornication—gradually came to be seen as normal. Sin was normalized. But God showed him that sexual intimacy is only meant for marriage, something that would be considered old-fashioned today.
God made marriage a sacred bond between a man and a woman, which is meant to support them both and give them the security for new life in the right environment. When a child is conceived outside of marriage, it is usually seen as a problem. When a child is conceived within marriage it is usually seen as a gift. Marriage provides the right loving environment into which children can enter the world. The sacrament of marriage also has God’s blessing and grace, to help the couple. I know it does not always work out this way, but this is God’s plan for us.
Artificial contraception also encouraged fornication, which in turn leads to more and more abortion. I have no doubt that abortion is probably one of, if not the greatest sin against God, because it is the destruction of life which comes from God, at its very beginning. If sexual relations were kept within marriage, abortion would drop drastically, as would sexually transmitted diseases. God in his wisdom knows what works and keeps showing us what works, but we must listen.
The first step to ending abortion is to help our young people to understand that it is not ok to sleep around before they are married; that it is in fact a serious sin in God’s eyes and every time it happens we separate ourselves more and more from God.
When Mother Teresa came to the States in 1994, she was invited to speak at the National Prayer Breakfast. Most of her talk was about abortion and how it is destroying our society. ‘If we can accept that a mother can kill her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill each other?”
Why is sexual sin more serious than other sin? God made us in his image and God’s Spirit dwells within us from baptism, which means our body is a sacred thing. When a child is conceived God creates a soul for that new life, which is immortal. The love between a man and a woman has the potential to become another life, which is imitating God. The love between the Father and the Son, is another life, the Spirit. Human sexuality mirrors God, which is why it is so sacred. That is also why Satan attacks it so much. Satan does everything to try and lead us away from God, simply because he hates God and hates God’s creation.
The Lord also showed this to the Apostles, which is why they wrote about it. St. Paul writes:
“Avoid immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body. But the immoral person sins against his own body.” (1 Cor 6:18)
“Do you not know that neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor those who practice homosexual acts… will inherit the kingdom of heaven.”
(1 Cor 6:9)
The Apostles didn’t just decide this themselves. The Lord revealed this to them, just as He showed Marino Restrepo the exact same thing in his experience. It is easy to get the impression that these teachings just applied to cultures centuries ago and that they are no longer relevant, but that’s why the Lord continues to give people different experiences, like Marino Restrepo and many others, so that we will realize it is just the same today. What was sinful remains sinful. What used to separate us from God will still separate us from God and it is only in God we will find our happiness, which means that anything sinful we need to take seriously.
Marino Restrepo was not a bad person, but the life he was living was extremely sinful before God and would have cost him losing heaven forever if he had died then. The Lord does not want that for any of us.
One of the lines in Scripture which I believe we need to hear often, is this:
[Jesus said] “It is not those who say, “Lord, Lord…” who will enter the kingdom of heaven, but those who do the will of my Father in heaven.” (Matthew 7:21)
Everything that God shows us is to help us. God’s design works, which is why He gave us the Scriptures, to show us in detail what to do and what to avoid. God wants us to be with him when we die. That is what He has created us for. But for this to happen we must try and live as the Lord tells us to live.
“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own. You were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.” (1 Cor 6:19-20)
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