An increasingly popular notion today is that there is no such thing as evil--and certainly not Evil personified. I think the idea that there is no such thing as evil, or the Evil One, can only be credibly entertained in this western society, at this time. We have virtually everything we could ever want at our fingertips. Most of us have roofs over our heads, food in our kitchens, cars in our driveways, hundreds of television channels in our living rooms, and an entire world at the click of a mouse. It is easy for us to come to the conclusion that evil does not exist, because most of us have not had to come face to face with it.
But evil does exist.
When the government that you elected, turns against you systematically, and finally decides that everyone of your religion and ethnic group must die, that is no mere "policy" or "choice". That is evil. When vast numbers of your countrymen go along with it, turn you in to the authorities, put you in concentration camps, treat you less than animals, kill your people by the tens of thousands, and then go home to their families at night and play with their children as if nothing happened, that is evil. There is evil in the world. There was evil in the 1930's and there is evil today. Just because this type of thing is not happening throughout Western culture right now, doesn't mean it is not happening.
The good news is that if Evil exists, then Good must exist. If Evil can be personified, then so can Good. All does not lie within humanity alone. We are created as God's children by a loving Father. We are given the graces by God to overcome our challenges and survive in this world.
Perfect Love exists and God is Perfect Love.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
This post of yours reminds me of a very famous interview with Fr. Amorth:
ReplyDeleteI quote from the interview:
30 Days: But if one does not believe in the existence of Satan, does one's faith remain intact, is it still the Catholic faith?
Fr. Amorth: No. I will tell you a story. When I met Don Pellegrino Ernetti for the first time, a celebrated exorcist who had practiced in Venice for forty years, I said to him, "If I could speak to the Pope, I would tell him that I meet too many bishops who do not believe in the devil." The following afternoon, Father Ernetti came back to see me to tell me that that same morning he had been received by John Paul II. "Holiness," he had said to him, "there is an exorcist here in Rome, Father Amorth who, if he met you, would tell you that he knows too many bishops who do not believe in the devil." The Pope answered him briefly: "He who does not believe in the devil does not believe in the Gospel." That is the reply which was given to him and which I repeat.
I like that. It makes sense. Jesus cast out many demons during His time here on earth. Our Lord believed in the personification of evil--why not us?
ReplyDeleteThe problem with today is that the existance of evil is being denied. How? By explaining every evil action as a mental disorder.
ReplyDeleteThere is NO evil in todays world only mental disorders. This is an INSULT to those who do suffer some form of mental disorder, they are NOT evil and many suffer with true greatness of heart.
I do not understand this need to explain great evil by claiming that the evil done was really NOT the instigators fault because he/she was mentally ill!
Evil exists, but the devil laughs when we deny or explain it away.
Excellent topic 4HisChurch.
Yours in Christ,
Marie
Thanks, Marie. Mental illness does exist, even severe mental illness. Interesting, though, that many mental health advocates take great pains to rightly point out that a great majority of those who are mentally ill are not violent at all--at least to others. But, at any rate, evil does exist, and I think, often does not have much in common with mental illness.
ReplyDelete