This has been a
most difficult post to write. I was
about to give up on it when I heard an ironic line in a film that spurred me on. A woman asked a man if he was religious. He said, "Yes--I couldn't tolerate not
having someone to blame for all this."
For ages, all of mankind used to blame his worst conditions and actions
on some kind of evil force. Today this same
force doesn't want to control world energy resources or claim first rights to the
moon. What this force has always wanted here
on earth cannot be bought or sold, only saved or lost. The enemy is a destroyer of souls. Many people today regard the enemy as a
feature of primitive cults, medieval scare tactics, old literature and the
horror genre. Only economics, politics
and even religion itself determine mankind's problems, they say. Modern people assume that reality is a known
quantity, based on matter, although the new physics is changing that. Still, science thinks it can explain, even
predict, human behavior, based on studies and research. Where does the "enemy" fit in then? This post was prompted by the news of a crime
committed near Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Fascinated by a "bogey man" on the Internet, described as a tall,
thin, faceless figure in a suit, with tentacle-like hands, two preteens began
plotting for months to kill another 12-year-old girl in order to win its favor. Said one, "Many people do not believe
Slender Man is real [and we] wanted to prove the skeptics wrong." The victim has survived 19 stab wounds, one landing
a millimeter from her heart. The two would-be
murderers will be tried as adults. One
of them said the entity had come to her in dreams and communicated with her telepathically.
She was surprised at how little remorse
she felt. The other said she "could
hardly believe it was really happening" as they carried out the plan. In Ohio, another young girl, 13, has just
attacked and injured her mother with a knife in their kitchen, under the
influence of the same meme, the mother suspects. "She wasn't herself," the woman
said. "I felt she was
acting." Trance-like behavior under
the influence of the adversary is par for the course, according to an elderly,
no-nonsense exorcist named Father Amorth who says that Hollywood-style
possession is rare; the enemy's chief aim is to succeed in temptation. Father Amorth warns that the adversary is
hiding in plain sight today. Yet the
discussion of evil 
is so unpleasant that most people shun it. They want any and all talk of "evil"
to just go away, or to slip into the pages of books, including the New
Testament. Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Jung
noted, "Filling the conscious mind with ideal conceptions is a
characteristic of Western theosophy, but not the confrontation with the shadow
and the world of darkness. One does not
become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness
conscious." In order to make
choices in the light, we must be aware of this darkness. Our media by now are drowning in it. What used to be considered unspeakable and sinful
has become prime time news and entertainment. Rather than society's taking the devil by the
horns, there are simply more Mr. Hydes emerging for every Dr. Jekyll. The enemy is taking advantage of our ignorance,
our arrogance, and our materialism. The
power of suggestion is powerful indeed. How
is it possible that young girls like those in the news stories above have become
willing to wield knives for a "bogey man"? We must wonder, what is going on in their psyches? Alas, too many people feel no need to answer
to God, much less acknowledge that an antagonistic force is forever trying to
pull the human race, and Planet Earth with it, towards chaos and ruin. Jung's term for this phenomenon is "the
shadow." He said, "The shadow
is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality." Jung and Amorth would agree that we must
admit that darkness exists. Jung says
it's in our unconscious; we have to face our shadow in order not to be overcome
by it. Every religion, past and present,
has recognized at least one such enemy. Even
in Buddhist philosophy, Mara, the tempter, wants to extinguish our spiritual
life. In Christianity, Satan, which literally
means "adversary," has been hell-bent on destruction ever since his expulsion
from Heaven for insubordination. No
matter what we believe, we need to be honest with ourselves and others. Inner enemies such as anger, ego, deceit, and
greed must be dealt with. Saint Pio of
Pietralcina (1887-1968), known as Padre Pio, was a spiritual combat veteran. He said, "Don't spend your energies on
things that generate worry, anxiety, and anguish. Only one thing is necessary: Lift up your spirit and love God." He had many encounters with the adversary. A tall, thin man in an elegant suit once entered
the confessional and began describing abominable acts, defending them like a
lawyer. After a few minutes of atrocious
"confession" and blasphemy, Padre Pio said with deliberate force,
"Say, 'Long live Jesus! Long live
Maria!'" Hearing those holy names, the
blasphemer vanished in a tongue of flame, leaving behind a fetor. The man in the suit, Padre Pio knew then, was
the father of lies. Padre Pio is known
to have said, "Fear 
is an evil worse than evil itself." Despite the presence of evil in the world, we
dare not live in fear. We need only be
careful not to do things that we know are wrong. Let us pray especially hard for young people
everywhere, that they will recognize traps and avoid them, not lose their souls
and become instruments of the enemy's war. May our hearts vibrate in accord with the words
Jesus taught us, "Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." Praise God!
There are many more angels than demons in the universe. UN'AMERICANA A VENEZIA
Nessun commento:
Posta un commento