Christian Resistance to Evil

CHRISTIAN RESISTANCE TO EVIL – Session 66

The ordinary Christian knows something the unbeliever does not.  When Christians, especially Catholics, look at the state of the world, they know the primary source of evil is not cultural, political, or sociological.  It’s spiritual.  “For our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens. Therefore, put on the armor of God, that you may be able to resist on the evil day and, having done everything, to hold your ground.”  Eph 6:12-13

As Catholics, we do not believe that anyone is born evil.  God creates us good.  We are, however, born wounded in the integrity of our nature because of the first sin.  The original harmony and unity between us and God, between us and others, between us and creation, and finally, the harmony within ourselves was lost as a consequence of this first sin.  And the battle between good and evil in our lives was directly engaged from that moment on. 

This leads us to reflect that if the grand conflicts in life, in our time, are spiritual, then the answers to resolving them must likewise be spiritual.  What would be some of the ways then that we, as believers, can offer effective resistance to evil? 

The Holy Father gives us a good place to start.  He recently shared a reflection on a German religious sister who died in the Auschwitz concentration camp, Angela Autsh. “Even before being arrested, when the evil looming over the world was already evident, she invited her nephews, who were approaching Holy Communion for the first time. She invited her relatives who had strayed a little, and she also invited those who had remained devout to rebel against that evil with simple and, in some places, dangerous gestures, to come as close as possible to the Sacrament of the altar, to rebel through Communion.  For her, to urge frequent communion, especially in prayer for the Pope and the Church, which was persecuted at that time, meant finding in the Eucharist a bond that strengthens the vigor of the Church herself, a bond that strengthens this vigor between her members and with God, and for her, it meant to “organize” the fabric of a resistance that the enemy cannot unravel because it does not respond to a human plan” -Pope  Francis

Read that again!  Are fervent communions a source of resistance to evil?  What a powerful insight into the workings of grace and into the real needs of those who have fallen sway to the enemy.  Fervent Communions, something the enemy loathes, actually disarm the enemy; they make him powerless. So, he constantly seeks to keep us from the Mass and worthy Communions because it is indeed one of the most powerful weapons we have precisely because it is the “source and summit” of our whole lives of union with the Lord.

Jesus confirms in the Sermon on the Mt that resistance to evil is not what we think. “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ “But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.” Mt 5:44-45

What are other ways the Christian is called to resist evil?  Fervent prayer, of course.  Fasting, considered a form of exorcism by the early Church, is especially powerful, as Our Lady tells us it can suspend the laws of nature and even end wars.  Simply refusing to comply with evil in the midst of those who embrace it, even if it leads to Martyrdom is another compelling way in which evil is resisted, and the faith is spread exponentially.  

But these are not the normal, vengeance-based responses that most people make to evil. Ours should follow the direction of St. Paul, wherein we repay evil with good instead of evil for evil. “But if your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap burning coals on his head” (Rms 12:20). That’s the way of God with us and it should be our way with others as well.

1.    Normally speaking, what is your first reaction to evil?

2.    How have you experienced evil in your own life?  

 

3.     Most of the time, we are not aware of the spiritual significance of our behavior and how it will play out in time.  How do you understand the consequences of the way we respond to evil in our lives?

4.     Can you think of other ways to resist evil that Jesus would approve of?