As per usual, I tried to sneak the Zeteo blog in at the last minute this Thursday. It did not go so well for me this time. The truth is, I have been avoiding writing the blog all day. Mostly because I feel completely uninspired today. But in obedience, here I am.
God bless you all, I hope you are all having terrific weeks as we get ready for spring - already, I know. Is it just me, or does it feel like we have barely had winter yet. Do not get me wrong, I really do not mind.
Olivia Fischer
Week 2: Whom Shall I Fear
Father Michael started his talk on angels and demons with an interesting thought. While most people admit to the reality of the demonic, and have a fear or even fascination with the forces of evil, God is more likely to be pushed aside. As Matthew Kelly says in his book, Rediscover Jesus: "Our culture seems intent on placing Jesus in the same category as Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny." (Page 30)
I remember learning about the reality of the demonic world when I was a kid - I think after I watched a Padre Pio movie and Father Pio is physically chased by a demonic dog. I became terrified by this stunning realization that there were such evil forces at work in the world, and would sometimes be almost paralyzed with fear of it.
I was blessed to have a wise mother who taught me something very important, which has stuck with me throughout my life. In those times of fear, she told me to say Jesus, over and over. The name of Jesus literally means, "God saves." Just in saying the name of Jesus, we are professing an integral theology of the Catholic faith: God saves. There is no word more powerful than this, and the evil we can be so terrified of, is terrified by just the mention of it.
As Father Michael explained, the demonic world is actually very weak. Unlike God who has infinite power, satan has only the power which God permits. Just as God created us, God created all spiritual beings, as we pronounce in the Apostles Creed: "I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible."
A huge realization for me came from an answer to a question asked of Father Michael following his talk. It was asked whether the demonic world has a type of hierarchy as the angelic does. Father Michael explained that it does not. The demonic world is much weaker than we give it credit for because of the inherent disunity by which it is run. Where God seeks to unify and to gather, satan attempts to scatter and divide. This results in a structure that is void of rational thought and order, as these things can only be found in God.
It is easy to divide or unbalance something that is not rooted in God. Which is definitely something that rings true for me. Satan wants us to feel unbalanced, disunified, confused, alone - he wants us to feel like this world is hopeless, so that we can accompany him in his misery.But we as Catholics know the truth, and we can proclaim it every time we say the name of Jesus. God saves, and as Jesus said on the Cross: it, the battle between good and evil, is finished. Evil is overcome, and despite how it may seem to us as humans, it is powerless at just the mention of the name Jesus.
I know I need to remember this as I go about my daily life and am tempted to be overwhelmed by doubts, fears, the feeling that I am trying to sort things out on my own. The answer is so simple, something I seem to have grasped so much more readily as a child: Jesus. And He is not some figment of Christian imagination, as Matthew Kelly puts it. He indisputably walked on the Earth, He indisputably performed miracles then, and continues to work them today.
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