January 31, 2021
Editor’s note: This reflection was originally published on Fr. Mark-David’s Facebook page.
Evil runs right at Jesus, not away from him.
I thought, seeing Jesus, God’s goodness in flesh,
Evil would run far away, but no, evil goes right at him :
“We know who you are…
We know what you are up to
Stay away, if you know what’s good for you!
Leave us to do our work alone.” Devils threaten him.
This would not be the only time evil would be after Jesus.
Evil came to Jesus when he prayed in the desert.
Evil came to him in the self-righteousness of religious people,
religious people you think would be on his side.
Evil came to him in people who did not believe in him.
Evil came to him in the Garden of Olives,
Tempting him to run away.
Evil came in the betrayal of Judas,
In the fear and cowardice of Peter,
In Pilate’s willingness to sacrifice anyone for power and control.
Evil tortured and killed him.
Evil was not afraid of Jesus.
Evil had its way with him.
Think about that for a moment…
It brought back a memory, 42 years ago,
I was ordained in this Church- afterwards,
The six of us were each at a different side altar
Giving our first priestly blessings.
I was surprised at the Assumption altar
by a little old nun, the unofficial spiritual director of delinquents
at the college I attended.
When young, she had some medical problem
And they had to remove a few of her ribs.
So she listed to one side.
Kindly boys, we called her Rita the tilt.
Sr. Rita the tilt received my blessing,
Clutched my newly anointed hands,
Staring me straight in the eye, said, “You watch out.
You can do good for the Church and the world with your life.
The only way the devil can stop that, is to get you.
The devil is going to come after you. Get ready.”
She was right.
No one is better than me,
From keeping me from doing good.
Of all the obstacles and evil that wounds people
In this world, the only one who stops me from the good, is me.
If the evil came right at Jesus to dissuade and hinder him,
And if the devil is a frequent visitor to this old priest,
How does evil come at you?
You are not tempted because you are bad,
You are tempted because you are good.
You are made in the image and likeness of God.
You are baptized “alter Christus” another Christ.
Good as you are, of course, evil is going to try
to stop you from being you.
Among evil’s arsenal are three classic attacks.
The most basic, selfishness,
the root of the famous seven deadly sins:
pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, sloth.
Beneath each of these rests the temptation
to shrink my world to me.
People are important only insofar as they meet my needs.
The world, the environment, serves me, first, if not me-alone.
The second temptation is the exact opposite,
Evil persuading us that we are not enough.
Unworthy, unlovable, compared to others,
We are less talented, intelligent, beautiful.
We are equated with our shortcomings.
The difference between ourselves and others,
Regarded as failure, not God given diversity.
If evil succeeds in keeping us from
Loving ourselves as God loves us,
Evil wins.
Apathy is a third temptation.
We simply do not see the suffering of others.
And if we do, are convinced.
It is either none of my business, or,
The evil is so strong, so pervasive, so systematic,
There is nothing I can do about it.
Martin Luther King, Jr., said in the civil rights battle:
“Shallow understanding from people of good will
is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will…the ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty
of the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.”
These are three attacks evil launches against you.
There are many others, tailored made to your personality
and circumstances of your life.
The point is, that whatever tempts you, does so,
not because you are bad, but because
you are capable of great good.
Jesus is not afraid of evil; he is not afraid of a fight.
Hearing about suffering he goes to it, confronts it, casts it out.
Nor are we to be afraid of evil and its suffering.
As the Body of Christ on earth
We must not be afraid of evil but confront it.
We move towards suffering, to alleviate it,
Casting out the evil that causes it.
We may not be successful,
Often it leads us, as Jesus, to Calvary.
What we know that evil doesn’t,
Is that Calvary is not the end.
Resurrection is our hope and courage.
Amen.
Paulist Fr. Mark David Janus is president of Paulist Press.