The problem of evil.

"Be mindful of those who devote themselves to the service of their brothers. Do not let them be deterred from their goals by discouraging results or lack of support..."

This was from tonight's Evening Prayer in the Liturgy of the Hours, and it struck such a chord with me. I am both feeling discouraged and simultaneously on fire in my ministry and vocation tonight, and I thought taking a moment to sort out those feelings would help me to express what problem it is I am facing.

There is a particular case which has been on my mind, and it is honestly one of the most grueling I've worked on. Where most people come to us when they find themselves either in mild stages of torment or with the infestation of a building, object or place, this particular person is experiencing daily a type of torment which, quite honestly, seeks to utterly destroy not just her peace but her body and soul in the most vile and hateful way I have personally witnessed.
Ironically, she is the one person I have not been able to help thusfar, and this puts me in a state of distress.

Without divulging any details, I'd like to talk tonight about a problem which I (and my husband) have seen plain as day from the very beginning of our Christian walk, but which, to others, seem novel, or even outdated or hokey. You see, we believe that ALL OF LIFE comes down to the battle between good and evil. We do not think that "some people" experience torment and others are left alone, we see the influence of evil everywhere and in most situations, making the Devil, as scripture says, truly the "God of this world."

I have blogged about this for years, so it will be no surprise to you, for instance, that I firmly believe that Oprah Winfrey, the Abortion crisis, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Public Schools, and most public radio and television, to name a few, are strongly influenced by Satan and his demonic spirits. I say this not in a freaky-deaky, Westboro Baptist Church kind of a way but in a very basic, simple, unapologetic manner. I see evil. And I'm not afraid to call it like it is.


I've been accused in the past of being "a regressive thinker" for believing and seeing these types of things so many places, but I tell you that if you walked in my shoes for a day and experienced, on a daily basis, the weirdness and unnatural reality that is my life, you would get it immediately. Fortunately (and unfortunately, in my opinion) God has not chosen to reveal these things as "obvious" to everyone.

My husband and I have both seen great miracles at the hand of God, things which Science absolutely cannot explain. Likewise, we have seen great tragedies at the hands of Satan, things which, quite obviously, science could not explain. To deny God's existence (and Satan's) for us would be madness-- it is as plain as can be.

It astonishes me, then, that so many people who both follow and lead in our beautiful Catholic Faith somehow miss this point. The Catechism of the Church lays it out perfectly:

The whole of man's history has been the story of dour combat with the powers of evil, stretching, so our Lord tells us, from the dawn of history until the last day. This dramatic situation of the whole world, which is in the power of the evil one, makes man's life a battle."

--Catechism of the Catholic Church: 409

And yet it is as if it has been erased from our memory as "science" and "medicine" have advanced.

Our Lord Himself gave as a commandment to his disciples to cast out demons as the VERY FIRST sign of their authority and power in Mark 16:17:

"These are the signs that will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons;"

The biblical evidence for the Church's authority in the name and power of Christ to cast out evil spirits is overwhelming, and so is the historical information we glean from reading the Church Fathers. Cyprian writes:


"Come and hear the demons with your own ears. Come and see them with your own eyes, when, defeated by our entreaties and our spiritual flagellations, and by the torture of our words, they abandon the bodies that they had possessed.... you will see how they, whom you set in high places and honor as lords, are bound by our hands and tremble within our power." (address to Demetrianus, no. 15)

I quote Father Gabriele Amorth, the chief exorcist of Rome, when I say:

"I have given three reasons that explain, in part, the reluctance of our modern Catholic Clergy to deal with these realities, and they are: lack of formation, lack of experience, and widespread doctrinal errors.
The Magesterium, on the other hand, has never failed to teach what is right. In the last decades, the Church's unchanging biblical-theological doctrine about Satan and his activity has been reiterated in no fewer than eighteen texts of the Second Vatican Council, three speeches of Pope Paul VI, and twenty-two speeches of Pope John-Paul II. These voices are clear and authoritative, but as Homer would say: "my poor verses, thrown to the winds..." (An exorcist: more stories, p. 57)

Clearly, when it comes to understanding the activity of Satan, we have all gone astray. Those of us who remain aware of the problem, usually by no action of our own, find themselves in the uncomfortable situation of trying to protect and safeguard people who do not want to be kept safe.

Meanwhile, walking among you, you will also find those people who have had a brush (whether willing or unwilling) with evil so severe that they know, instinctively, that they need relief. Many of them do not know that this relief will come from Christ, and because of the lack of equipped Christians who possess the ability and gifting and skillset to deal with these types of issues, they find themselves instead turning to further occult practices (mediums, shamen, witches and healers) to rid themselves of these influences, compounding the problem.

Virtually EVERY person we have ever assisted as deliverance counselors has been tormented by something which they either invited in unknowingly or unknowingly fell victim to. Education, and the dissemination of information relating to the demonic world, then, is paramount in the protection of the people. Sadly, even in Christian circles, these topics are seldom discussed or addressed.

Among those who DO believe, I find that they would much prefer to leave the problem up to "specialists" in the field.... pastors and priests who are called to minister to the public. Those who accept, however, quickly realize that the intricacies and bizarreness of these types of cases too often require patience as one would need when dealing with a physically or mentally ill person. This job is messy and uncomfortable, and requires that we step outside our comfort zone and into something that is basically selfless-- often requiring that we lay down our lives (sometimes literally) for another.

In protestant charismatic circles, the idea is usually taught that every believer is able to, by the power of Christ, cast out demons (these signs will follow those who believe) and most protestants who find themselves considering an authentically demonic problem recognize it is their born duty, as a child of God, to go in and battle the Enemy for the sake of the soul of the person before them. I've never known a truly believing protestant to back down from a spiritual battle they recognized as being "authentic."

Catholics, however, have two tendencies which override this zeal for the Lord's work. The first is to place all "ministry" in the hands of the priest. Now, do not get me wrong, and I must say this: WE NEED OUR PRIESTS in the battle against evil. The BEST defense against Satan is the Word of God, which we receive through the Church, the AUTHORITY of God, which we receive through the Church, and the SACRAMENTS of God, which we receive through the Church. There should be NO question: spiritual warfare is not a one-man show. However it is greatly depressing to me to see the apathy in today's layperson, not recognizing that they, in a special way, have also been called to minister to God's people.

The second tendency is rather connected to the first: out of fear of being "bothered" by Satan themselves, or being set offtrack from their "real life," people avoid those persons with obvious demonic problems like the plague. It is very, very common for people to seek to protect themselves by neither hearing, nor seeing, nor speaking about the work of Satan. Scripture is a source of great wisdom to temper this tendency. While it admonishes us to meditate only on what is GOOD, it reminds us also that we ARE engaged in the battle, whether we like it or not, by virtue of our baptism, which is, in itself, an exorcism.

In other words, we are called neither to avoid demonic issues nor to embrace them, but only to deal with them when we discern their presence. Let me say that again: we are called not to AVOID demonic problems, nor to INVITE and embrace them, but only to deal with the problem of evil as it presents itself in our lives, walks, and ministries.

In my particular situation, which I recognize to be quite different from those who are called to minister by singing in the choir or by providing spaghetti dinners for the Senior Socials, I am by nature of my vocation called to pray for and assist both persons who experience demonic torment and those persons who assist them (namely, priests and priest exorcists and deliverance counselors.)

For you, the task may be entirely different and you may never see or hear the things which I am made daily aware of. However, and this is what I wish I could convey to everyone, that does not negate your responsibility, as a believer, to fight the battles God has engaged you in. After all, the BATTLE is the Lord's, not our own. We may feel totally ill-equipped to deal with evil of the magnitude we may encounter, but we then forget that it is not "I who live, but Christ who lives in me."(Galatians 2:19,20)

Again, scripture tells us, each of us, how we are to deal with the Enemy when we encounter him. By nature of our baptism, we are all guaranteed such a meeting, and we must not be fooled that our "regular life" is the most important thing. The most important thing is not our comfort but our openness to be used of God. Our willingness to, like Mary, say "YES, Lord, may it be done to me according to thy Word," even when it seems to make no sense.

It astonishes me that in a Church full of people who pray DAILY for the intercession of such powerful saints as the Cure D'ars, or Padre Pio, or Teresa of Avila, the common people refuse to recognize in these very saints the most important aspects of their lives.... that they were not only brutally attacked and tormented by the Evil One on a regular basis, but that they, despite the discomfort that that brought, persisted in teaching others how to find liberty in Christ, which made them a target and painted a gynormous bull's eye on their backs.

We are called to be saints. Saints must fight. The battle is the Lord's. This does not mean that I intend for you to go out right now and shout a challenge to every evil spirit in sight from your front porch. NO! It means that you must look around at what has been placed on your plate, see where the Enemy is at work blocking God's will in your life and the lives of those around you, and to minister to them with full yieldedness to God, allowing Him to use you however He sees fit.

Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.- James 4:7

God knows what you need and He is the giver of all gifts. If you must face an intense battle, do not fear it, but yield to God. He will see you through to victory.
If you seem to have no big battles around you, ask God to reveal to you where He wants you to fight, and how.

If you do not discern the presence of evil somewhere in your life, then you are not looking hard enough. Remember that the catechism states that ALL OF LIFE comes down to this great battle between good and evil. You will not deal with this particular temptation and then have total peace. You will not find liberation that extends from now until Christ's return. You will not have rest, true rest, until you do the will of your Father-- and the will of God is to go out, leaving no rock unturned and no shadow left untended, destroying all the evil you find by the mighty Hand of the Lord.

Meditate on His Word:

"Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves." -- Matthew 10:16.