http://www.dailycatholic.org/issue/12May/5eastsun.htm#haydock

Through Christ our Lord

In today's Gospel of St. John, our Lord reaffirms His divinity in His discourse with His apostles in reminding them that He must return to the Father Who sent Him. But He encourages them that they shall know great joy and anything they ask of the Father in Christ's name, it will be granted. Quite a promise that has been fulfilled ever since to all who comply with all He asks.
In his epistle, St. James reinforces that sincerity is vital for God knows man's heart. Though man may preen as if looking in a mirror, only the penitent man who heeds God's law and will shall not fear. In other words, as great as the Corporal Works of Mercy might be, they are hollow if the Spiritual Works of Mercy are not applied. To work out one's salvation in fear and trembling, one cannot be passive, but rather active for the good of souls as God so wills.

Comprehensive Catholic Commentary
by
Fr. George Leo Haydock
provided by
John Gregory

Epistle: St. James 1: 22-27

22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

23 For if a man be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he shall be compared to a man beholding his own countenance in a glass.

Commentary on Verse 23: He shall be compared to a man, & c. The sense is, that it is not enough for a man to examine and look into his interior, and the state of his conscience in a negligent and superficial manner, no more than one that goes to a looking-glass, but does not take care to take away the dirt or spots which he might discover. Wi.
24 For he beheld himself, and went his way, and presently forgot what manner of man he was.
25 But he that hath looked into the perfect law of liberty, and hath continued therein, not becoming a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work; this man shall be blessed in his deed.

Commentary on Verse 25: The law of Christ, called here the perfect law of liberty, as it is distinguished from the Jєωιѕн law of fear and slavery, is as it were a looking-glass, which may make us know ourselves, and discover and correct our failings. Wi.
26 And if any man think himself to be religious, not bridling his tongue, but deceiving his own heart, this man's religion is vain.
Commentary on Verse 26: If any man think, & c. He here blames those hot disputes, which seem to have been frequent amongst the converted Jєωs, concerning the necessity of observing the legal rites. In vain, says he, do you pique yourselves upon the rigorous observance of the law, and your zeal to unite its ceremonial rites with the practice of the gospel. If you be void of the essence of Christianity, which is charity, prudence, and moderation, your religion will avail you nothing. C. - This may also be understood of those devotees who are fond of making a parade of their virtues, and who, as S. Gregory says, (hom. xii. In Mat.) afflict their bodies indeed with fasting, but for this they expect to be esteemed by men. A. - A man must not imagine himself to be religious, and perfect in the way of virtue, unless he governs and bridles his tongue from oaths, curses, calumnies, detractions, lies, of which more in the third chapter. Wi.
27 Religion clean and undefiled before God and the Father, is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their tribulation: and to keep one's self unspotted from this world.
Commentary on Verse 27:Religion pure and unspotted, & c. St. James may use the word pure, as a proper admonition to the Jєωs, who were generally mostly solicitous to avoid legal uncleanesses, such as were incurred by eating meats forbidden in their law as unclean, by touching a dead body, & c. He therefore tells them that the Christian religion is known by acts of charity, by visiting and assisting widows, the fatherless, and such as are under afflictions, and in general by keeping our consciences interiorly clean, unspotted, and undefiled from this world, from the corrupt maxims and sinful practices so common in this wicked world. Wi.

Gospel: St. John 16: 22-30

22 So also you now indeed have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice; and your joy no man shall take from you.

Commentary on Verse 22: The joy you will feel at My resurrection, shall ever be unalterable, and unremitting, because there I shall give you assurances and proofs of your future resurrection, and immortality. As you have been partners in my labours, in my ignominies, and in my sorrows, so also shall you have a share in my glory, in my resurrection, and immortal bliss. Behold, these will rise to your ever unalterable and permanent joy. This is the opinion of St. John Chrysostom, St. Cyril, Theoplyl. and others.
23 And in that day you shall not ask Me any thing. Amen, amen I say to you: if you ask the Father any thing in My name, He will give it you.
Commentary on Verse 23: In that day, or at that time, in that happy state, you shall not ask, you shall not need to ask Me any questions: nor even desire to have any happiness, but what you will enjoy. But now if you ask, that is, petition for any thing of the Father in My name, He will give it you, whatever graces or assistances you stand in need of: ask them in My name, as I am your chief Mediator, through whose merits all shall be granted you. This is the constant practice of the Church, to ask for all graces through our Lord Jesus Christ. Wi. - In My name. In consequence of this promise, the Church concludeth all her prayers, even those that are addressed to the saints, Per Christum Dominum nostrum, through Christ our Lord.
24 Hitherto you have not asked any thing in My name. Ask, and you shall receive; that your joy may be full.
Commentary on Verse 24: Hitherto you have not asked any thing in My name: by the merits of Me, your Mediator and Redeemer. They were not yet acquainted, says St. Cyril, with this manner of praying and petitioning, as they were afterwards. Wi.
25 These things I have spoken to you in proverbs. The hour cometh, when I will no more speak to you in proverbs, but will shew you plainly of the Father.
26 In that day you shall ask in My name; and I say not to you, that I will ask the Father for you:

27 For the Father Himself loveth you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came out from God.

Commentary on Verse 26-27: In that day . . . I say not to you that I will ask the Father for you, or shall need to ask the Father for you, though I am your Redeemer, your chief Advocate and Mediator, by dying for all the world. - For the Father Himself loveth you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God, sent to be your Redeemer. - I came forth from the Father, both as begotten of Him from all eternity; and I also came into the world, as sent from Him to become man, to become the Redeemer of the world, both as God and man. Now I am going, as man, to leave the world, and go to the Father, with Whom I am, and have always been, as God. Wi.
28 I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again I leave the world, and I go to the Father.
29 His disciples say to Him: Behold, now thou speakest plainly, and speakest no proverb.

30 Now we know that Thou knowest all things, and Thou needest not that any man should ask Thee. By this we believe that Thou camest forth from God.

Commentary on Verse 29-30: In this we believe that thou camest forth from God; that is, we are more confirmed than ever, that Thou art the Messias, the true Son of God. Yet St. John Chrysostom, St. Cyril, and St. Augustine take notice, that their faith was but imperfect, till after Christ's resurrection, and the coming of the Holy Ghost; and therefore Christ answered them, (v. 31. & c.) Now do you believe? The hour cometh, that you shall be dispersed, & c. Wi.

http://www.newadvent.org/summa/1114.htm#article4

Article 4. Whether demons can lead men astray by means of real miracles?

Objection 1. It would seem that the demons cannot lead men astray by means of real miracles. For the activity of the demons will show itself especially in the works of Antichrist. But as the Apostle says (2 Thessalonians 2:9), his "coming is according to the working of Satan, in all power, and signs, and lying wonders." Much more therefore at other times do the demons perform lying wonders.

Objection 2. Further, true miracles are wrought by some corporeal change. But demons are unable to change the nature of a body; for Augustine says (De Civ. Dei xviii, 18): "I cannot believe that the human body can receive the limbs of a beast by means of a demon's art or power." Therefore the demons cannot work real miracles.

Objection 3. Further, an argument is useless which may prove both ways. If therefore real miracles can be wrought by demons, to persuade one of what is false, they will be useless to confirm the teaching of the faith. This is unfitting; for it is written (Mark 16:20): "The Lord working withal, and confirming the word with signs that followed."

On the contrary, Augustine says (83; [Lib. xxi, Sent. sent 4, among the supposititious works of St. Augustine): "Often by means of the magic art miracles are wrought like those which are wrought by the servants of God."

I answer that, As is clear from what has been said above (Question 110, Article 4), if we take a miracle in the strict sense, the demons cannot work miracles, nor can any creature, but God alone: since in the strict sense a miracle is something done outside the order of the entire created nature, under which order every power of a creature is contained. But sometimes miracle may be taken in a wide sense, for whatever exceeds the human power and experience. And thus demons can work miracles, that is, things which rouse man's astonishment, by reason of their being beyond his power and outside his sphere of knowledge. For even a man by doing what is beyond the power and knowledge of another, leads him to marvel at what he has done, so that in a way he seems to that man to have worked a miracle.

It is to be noted, however, that although these works of demons which appear marvelous to us are not real miracles, they are sometimes nevertheless something real. Thus the magicians of Pharaoh by the demons' power produced real serpents and frogs. And "when fire came down from heaven and at one blow consumed Job's servants and sheep; when the storm struck down his house and with it his children--these were the work of Satan, not phantoms"; as Augustine says (De Civ. Dei xx, 19).

Reply to Objection 1. As Augustine says in the same place, the works of Antichrist may be called lying wonders, "either because he will deceive men's senses by means of phantoms, so that he will not really do what he will seem to do; or because, if he work real prodigies, they will lead those into falsehood who believe in him."

Reply to Objection 2. As we have said above (Question 110, Article 2), corporeal matter does not obey either good or bad angels at their will, so that demons be able by their power to transmute matter from one form to another; but they can employ certain seeds that exist in the elements of the world, in order to produce these effects, as Augustine says (De Trin. iii, 8,9). Therefore it must be admitted that all the transformation of corporeal things which can be produced by certain natural powers, to which we must assign the seeds above mentioned, can alike be produced by the operation of the demons, by the employment of these seeds; such as the transformation of certain things into serpents or frogs, which can be produced by putrefaction.

On the contrary, those transformations which cannot be produced by the power of nature, cannot in reality be effected by the operation of the demons; for instance, that the human body be changed into the body of a beast, or that the body of a dead man return to life. And if at times something of this sort seems to be effected by the operation of demons, it is not real but a mere semblance of reality.

Now this may happen in two ways.

Firstly, from within; in this way a demon can work on man's imagination and even on his corporeal senses, so that something seems otherwise that it is, as explained above (111, 3,4). It is said indeed that this can be done sometimes by the power of certain bodies.

Secondly, from without: for just as he can from the air form a body of any form and shape, and assume it so as to appear in it visibly: so, in the same way he can clothe any corporeal thing with any corporeal form, so as to appear therein. This is what Augustine says (De Civ. Dei xviii, 18): "Man's imagination, which whether thinking or dreaming, takes the forms of an innumerable number of things, appears to other men's senses, as it were embodied in the semblance of some animal." This not to be understood as though the imagination itself or the images formed therein were identified with that which appears embodied to the senses of another man: but that the demon, who forms an image in a man's imagination, can offer the same picture to another man's senses.

Reply to Objection 3. As Augustine says (QQ. 83, qu. 79): "When magicians do what holy men do, they do it for a different end and by a different right. The former do it for their own glory; the latter, for the glory of God: the former, by certain private compacts; the latter by the evident assistance and command of God, to Whom every creature is subject."