ONE OF THE GREAT TOKENS OF GOD’S GOODNESS IS THE PREVALENCE OF EVIL IN THE WORLD

It may be said without paradox that one of the great tokens of God’s goodness is the prevalence of evil which we witness in the world. Pressure of suffering, which causes so many to cry out in their agony, to question His providence, to rebel against His holy will, is in truth a proof of His love, an earnest of His solicitude for our welfare.

God has our welfare in mind

It is because God, unlike ourselves, knows how to draw good from what is evil that He permits it, and by evil I do not mean merely physical evil but moral evil too. Whether we realise it or not, there is no evil that happens which God does not ultimately turn to good, to the profit of His own glory and to the advantage of His creatures.

Why does God permit evil?

The fall of man with our first parents [Adam and Eve, Genesis 3] is incomparably the greatest misfortune which has ever befallen the world; but it has been retrieved and more than compensated by the Incarnation and Redemption of Christ Our Lord.

There is no evil that happens which God does not ultimately turn to good

The personal sins of men are an evil the depth of which is unfathomable, and yet they show the patience, the longanimity, the infinite mercy, if not the justice of the Creator; and they may be for the sinner the occasion of practising penance and humility and gratitude.

Similarly, poverty, privation, sickness, bereavements, death itself, all the evils to which human flesh is heir, all the calamities that take place in the universe, are intended by God to detach our hearts from the things of earth, to raise our minds upwards to heaven, to afford us the opportunities of every virtue and the means of attaining the happiness of a future state.

The compensations of war

And thus it is that these great world wars through which we have passed were permitted by God for ends wise and worthy and ultimately productive of good. At a time like the present, there are not wanting those, Christians even, who cannot look ahead, whose feelings are harrowed by the desolation, the slaughter, the atrocities, the fearful disclosures of concentration camps, the apparent ruin of our civilisation, and are thereby led to doubt the goodness and providence of God, to condemn Him and His ways that He should allow such horrors, and perhaps to deny His very existence.

But they are only deceiving themselves; they are too shortsighted to see into the future; they cannot so much as look round them now and discern the hand of God actually shaping the course of events at the very moment they blaspheme His name.

Without a doubt, war is evil

Without a doubt, war is evil, it is a scourge that nothing can rival, save some pestilences which have carried away more than one half of the entire population of a country. And what an evil has been [the Second World War.] It may justly be considered the most devastating and destructive of all the wars ever waged, by reason of the many nations involved, the numbers of men thrown into the fighting line, the numbers of civilians not fighting who were killed or injured by the bombing attacks on their towns or villages, the destructiveness of modern weapons and the murderous skill with which they were used.

What in the past can you find to compare with the wholesale massacre of the people in Hieroshima, where more than 100,000 lost their lives as the result of one single atomic bomb?

War is an evil because it means the widespread sacrifice of human life, than which no gift of God in the temporal order is more precious. It means the mowing down of the youth of the country, those who are the promise and the hope of the future, and the consequent mourning, the unavailing tears of all who are left childless or widowed or orphaned. It involves the impoverishment of nations and individuals, the devastation of lands fair and prosperous, the destruction of churches and monuments of art.

The fierce animal instincts of our nature come to fore 

More awful than all, it is a time when the worst passions of men, the fierce animal instincts of our nature, come to fore and seek their satisfaction, when hell is, as it were, let loose, and grim spectres stalk abroad – hatred, cruelty, violence, blasphemy, drunkenness, lust, plunder, and murder, murder of even innocent children, of the aged, of defenceless women.

War undoubtedly is an evil, a vast, incalculable misfortune, and yet out of it all God knows how to draw good, great good, both in the natural and in the supernatural order.

“Like a breath of fresh, healthy mountain air”

And first of all, we know only too well how a long period of peace and prosperity begets in a nation a love of ease and comfort, a certain effeminacy of character, how it creates the need of luxuries and encourages the pursuit of mere pleasure and enjoyment. War suddenly arrests all these enervating tendencies: It braces the spirit of a people like a breath of mountain air: it brings into action all the more virile virtues – courage, endurance, determination, self-sacrifice, heroism.

Healing of divisions

Another blessing that comes to us through war is the welding together of a nation in unity. External peace often breeds interior dissention: party is arrayed against party, class against class: bickerings, jealousies, factions tear asunder those who should be one. As if with the stroke of a magician’s wand, war closes up ranks, heals divisions, knits together the entire social fabric: the nation stands before the world one, one in purpose, one in endeavour, one in mind and heart.

The spirit of benevolence

Yet another benefit we reap from war is the spirit of benevolence and mutual help which engenders. An immense pity seizes upon the people for the victims of the war, be they soldiers or civilians, wounded or prisoners, allies or fellow-countrymen. Charity never rises so nobly, human kindness never shows to such advantage. Money usually spent on selfish aims is poured out in lavish profusion; and still more do we see laid open the treasures of human affection and interest to all who suffer and are stricken. War has educated, improved and elevated the hearts of many beyond recognition.

The supernatural good

But the supernatural good that results from war is a no less striking justification of God’s providence. It is unfortunately in the times of continued peace that the hearts of many grow careless and indifferent in matters of religion. The need of God is less apparent, the attractions of earth are more seductive, the example of others is a factor all too contagious.

Popular “contagious” self-centredness spread through the example of “infected” individuals

It needs the touch of some calamity or misfortune – bereavement, impaired health, shattered resources, to sober us and raise our minds above the things of time.

And so it may be argued that, in many cases at least, war has the effect of bringing people nearer to God. The proof of this is in the larger number of people who frequent the churches and respond to invitations to join universal prayer.

Calamity has a tendency to bring people from selfishness back on to the carpet

We feel, as we never do in ordinary times, how utterly we are in the hands of the Almighty, how all our striving is in vain unless the Lord of Battles be with us; a prayer, a mighty call for help naturally rises to the lips even of those who for long had discontinued the prayers learnt in their childhood. Owing to the war, many a distressed mother, or wife, or child, or friend looked up to heaven through a mist of tears:

“Out of the depths I have cried to thee, O Lord; Lord, hear my prayer.”

Owing to the war through which they were passing, we may be sure that many a poor soldier, sailor, or airman, under heavy fire or before going into it, called upon his Maker – in rude and unaccustomed accents, it may be – for protection and for forgiveness. If the truth were known, we may suspect that there were comparatively few who did not put up some kind of prayer at night.

“The surgeon’s knife that cuts that it may remedy”

Let us not say then that war is all evil. It serves a great purpose. It is the surgeon’s knife that cuts that it may remedy. Whichever of the contending sides conquers in the end, it is for both a winnowing, a punishment much needed, as we may well think. But in the hands of God it also purifies and heals and sanctifies. If it but draws the creature nearer to the Creator, then all the havoc we deplore, the ruin of so many lives, the sorrow wrung out of human hearts, is amply compensated and death may be said to be “swallowed up in victory.”

– From: Lift Up Your Hearts, Christopher J. Wilmot, S.J., The Catholic Book Club, London, 1949 

 

 

18th MARCH, BIBLE READING (ISAIAH 1:10, 16-20)

LEARN TO DO GOOD, SEARCH FOR JUSTICE.

Hear the word of the Lord,
you rulers of Sodom;
listen to the command of our God,
you people of Gomorrah.

“Wash, make yourselves clean.
Take your wrong-doing out of my sight.

“Cease to do evil.
Learn to do good,
search for justice,
help the oppressed,
be just to the orphan,
plead for the widow.

“Come now, let us talk this over,
says the Lord.
Though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red as crimson,
they shall be like wool.

“If you are willing to obey,
you shall eat the good things of the earth.
But if you persist in rebellion,
the sword shall eat you instead.”
The mouth of the Lord has spoken.

V. The word of the Lord.
R. Thanks be to God.

 

12th MARCH, BIBLE READING (JONAH 3:1-10)

THE PEOPLE OF NINEVEH RENOUNCED THEIR EVIL BEHAVIOUR.

The word of the Lord was addressed a second time to Jonah: “Up!” he said. “Go to Nineveh, the great city, and preach to them as I told you to.”

Jonah set out and went to Nineveh in obedience to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was a city great beyond compare: it took three days to cross it. Jonah went on into the city, making a day’s journey. He preached in these words, “Only forty days more and Niniveh is going to be destroyed.”

And the people of Nineveh believed in God; they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least. The news reached the king of Nineveh, who rose from his throne, took off his robe and sat down in ashes.

A proclamation was then promulgated throughout Nineveh, by decree of the king and his ministers, as follows: “Men and beasts, herds and flocks, are to taste nothing; they must not eat, they must not drink water. All are to put on sackcloth and call on God with all their might; and let everyone renounce his evil behaviour and the wicked things he has done. Who knows if God will not change his mind and relent, if he will not renounce his burning wrath, so that we do not perish?”

God saw their efforts to renounce their evil behaviour. And God relented: he did not inflict on them the disaster which he had threatened.

V. The word of the Lord.
R. Thanks be to God.

 

9th MARCH, GOSPEL READING (MATTHEW 4:1-11)

THE TESTING OF JESUS (TEMPTATIONS)

Then the Spirit led Jesus into the desert that he might be put to the test by the devil. After spending forty days and nights without food, Jesus was hungry.

[THE FLESH]

Then the devil came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, order these stones to turn into bread.” But Jesus answered, “Scripture says: ‘One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God’.”

[THE WORLD]

Then the devil took Jesus to a very high mountain, and showed him all the nations of the world in all their greatness and splendour. And he said, “All this will I give you, if you kneel down and worship me.” Then Jesus answered, “Be off, Satan! Scripture says: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him alone’!”

Then the devil left him, and angels came to serve him.

V. The Gospel of the Lord.
R. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

 

9th MARCH, BIBLE READING I (GENESIS 2:7-9, 3:1-7)

THE GARDEN OF EDEN

The Lord God fashioned man of dust from the soil. Then he breathed into his nostrils a breath of life, and thus man became a living being. The Lord God planted a garden in Eden which is in the east, and there he put the man he had fashioned.

The Lord God caused to spring up from the soil every kind of tree, enticing to look at and good to eat, with the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the middle of the garden.

The serpent was the most subtle of all the wild beasts that the Lord God had made. It asked the woman, “Did God really say you were not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?” The woman answered the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees in the garden. But of the fruit in the tree in the middle of the garden God said, ‘You must not eat it, nor touch it, under pain of death’.” Then the serpent said to the woman, “No! You will not die! God knows in fact that on the day you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods, knowing good and evil.”

The woman saw that the tree was good to eat and pleasing to the eye, and that it was desirable for the knowledge that it could give. So she took some of its fruit and ate it. She gave some also to her husband who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they realised that they were naked. So they sewed fig-leaves together to make themselves loin-clothes.

V. The word of the Lord.
R. Thanks be to God.

 

“BL***** B******!” – “I CAN’T STAND ‘THE ARCHERS’; IS IT A SIN TO HATE FICTIONAL CHARACTERS?”

QUESTION:

“‘I can’t stand any of the characters in the Archers [a British soap-opera-style radio series] and find myself yelling at the radio. But if I really hate the characters is this a sin? After all, fictional characters often display personality defects which we encounter in real people.’

ANSWER:

‘Fictional stories and drama have always given life to their tales by featuring evil characters, often exaggerated in their malevolence. At best, such creative writing can help us to form sound ideas of good and evil, and to explore more dilemmas, though sometimes fiction is also used deliberately to undermine moral principles. Although we are not hating real people in the ‘Archers’, we can use popular drama to examine and evaluate our attitudes to real people.

Our Lord tells us that we must love our enemies and do good to those who hate us. In the case of people with indisputably evil qualities, that love can in some cases even include the withdrawal of common courtesies in the hope of giving correction or showing our displeasure at evil. But we are not allowed to hate the person.

Moral theologians speak of three types of hatred: abomination, enmity and malediction. To make an enemy of someone or to wish harm to befall them cannot be justified, but antipathy towards the evil characteristics or actions of an individual can be justified if it is directed towards those qualities or actions. For example, we quite rightly abhor a sexual predator’s addictive nature which leads them to harm and abuse others. We have to be careful that this does not descend to the common hatred of enmity or wishing for someone’s death or ill health.

Popular drama, novels and films do have the function of acting as a safety valve. It is amusing to recall how previous generations used to boo and hiss at the dastardly villain, enjoying the venting of sentiments that would normally be unacceptable. The absurd modern phenomenon of people abusing soap stars in the street is a warning of the importance of making a clear distinction in our minds between how we respond to fictional characters and how we treat an unpleasant neighbour.'”
– This article – part of the feature “Catholic Dilemmas” – by Fr Tim Finigan was published in “The Catholic Herald” issue January 31 2014. For subscriptions please visit http://www.catholicherald.co.uk (external link).

 

THE SALVATION HISTORY OF ALL MANKIND AS REVEALED IN THE BIBLE: ABRAHAM, ISAAC, JACOB

“In this early history of the Chosen People we see the will of God, man and the devil striving for the souls of men. In the sins of the patriarchs and their children, in the sins of their neighbours we see the weak wills of men and the malevolent will of the devil who seeks to draw men away from God.”

THIS IS PART III OF THE SERIES ON MAN’S SALVATION HISTORY. IT CAN BE READ INDEPENDENTLY FROM PARTS I “ADAM AND EVE” AND PART II “THE PROMISE TO ABRAHAM”, WHICH ARE FOUND ON THIS BLOG.

THE CHOSEN PEOPLE

“God called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees. He chose Abraham to be an instrument in the divine plan for the salvation of all men. To Abraham, in return for faith and obedience, God made great promises. He promised that Abraham would become a great nation, with a land of its own, and through him all nations would be blessed.

The blessings which God promises to Abraham seem to be chiefly the good things of this world: many descendants, enough to form a great nation; land enough to enable himself and his descendants to prosper; kings of his blood to rule in this world; and the extension, through his descendants, of these same blessings to the other nations of the world. The nature of these promises, their apparent worldliness, show clearly the wisdom and mercy, we might even say the tenderness of God in His dealings with men.

GOD’S WISDOM AND MERCY

When God calls Abraham from Ur of the Chaldees it is clear that men have forgotten the one true God. They live in deep and dark ignorance of the existence of the infinite Spirit Who created them to live familiarly with Him. Abraham’s father, Thare, is a polytheist and an idolater. God has to reveal Himself to Abraham.

Ignorant of the very existence of the true God, the men of Abraham’s age were also ignorant of the holiness of God and of the holiness which man, the image of God, is called to practise. Their desires were focussed not so much on the beauties of the spirit as on the pleasures of this world. They thought not of heaven, but of the world. They did not dream of living with God, but rather of riches and possessions and of the children and servants who would bring these things to themselves and their race.

A WORLDY OUTLOOK

Abraham was no different from the men of his own time and place. It is for this reason that God, when He calls Abraham to reawaken in the world the knowledge of the one true God, stoops to the capacities and the dreams of Abraham. In His wisdom God knows how difficult it would be for Abraham to cast away entirely the worldliness which thousands of years of sinfulness had made the ordinary climate of all human thoughts and desires. In His mercy He calls Abraham with the promise of those blessings which He knows will bring forth the faith and obedience which He desires from him. To those who believe in God and His almighty power it is of course obvious that God could have given Abraham so great a gift of divine grace as to enable him at once to rise to the highest ideals of moral perfection. But God did not do so, and in this He shows us His great tenderness, both for Abraham and for all men. Just as God desired the free faith and obedience of Adam, so also He desires the free faith and obedience of Abraham. He will not overwhelm the soul and will of Abraham with His grace and power. He will entice it slowly from the long sleep of worldliness to the dawn of true religious spirituality. And so He promises Abraham, not the halls of heaven, the hush of a mysterious eternity, but the more modest space of and earthly land and kingdom, the rush and the bustle of an earthly nation.

Abraham was faithful and obedient to God, obedient even to the point of almost sacrificing his son Isaac to God. God rewards his loving faith and obedience. He makes Abraham the forefather of many descendants and He begins the work of blessing the whole world through the seed of Abraham. But while the fulfilment of the first blessing – the multiplication of the descendants of Adam – is a work of expansion, the fulfilment of the second blessing – the blessing of the whole world through Abraham – is a work of contradiction.

THE DIVINE BLESSING PASSES TO ISAAC

As Moses tells us the story of Abraham, Abraham begot children of Sara, his first wife, of Agar, the handmaid of Sara, and of Ceture, the wife he married after the death of Sara. But since the divine blessing passes only to Isaac, the son of Sara, the other children of Abraham appear in the story only for a moment and our attention is concentrated on Isaac.

THE ORIGIN OF TWELVE TRIBES OF ISRAEL

Isaac marries Rebecca, and has two sons, Jacob and Esau. Esau becomes the father of the Edomites, and Jacob becomes Israel, the father of the Israelites, the Chosen People of God. By his two wives, Lia and Rachel, and by their handmaids, Zelpha and Bala, Jacob became the father of twelve sons: Ruben, Simeon, Levi, Juda, Issacher, Zabulon, Benjamin, Dan, Nephtali, Gad, Aser and Joseph. These, in their turn, became the forefathers of the twelve tribes of Israel.

God fulfilled his promise to Abraham; He gave him many descendants and He made Abraham and his children rich in worldly possessions. Of Abraham, at the time when he sojourned in Egypt, Moses says: ‘He had sheep and oxen, and he-asses, and men-servants and maid-servants, and she-asses and camels’ (Genesis 12:16). Of Isaac we read: ‘And the man was enriched, and he went on prospering and increasing, till he became exceedingly great. And he had possessions of sheep and of herds, and a very great family’ (Genesis 26:13-14). Jacob is wealthy enough to send to his brother Esau a gift of ‘two hundred she-goats, twenty he-goats, two hundred ewes, and twenty rams, thirty milk camels with their colts, forty kine, and twenty bulls, twenty she-asses, and ten of their foals’ (Genesis 32:14-15). Joseph, one of the sons of Jacob, becomes ruler over the whole of Egypt. This proved fortunate for the descendants of Abraham. When Jacob and his sons and their families were stricken with the same famine which afflicted Egypt and the adjacent countries, they descended into Egypt where they were well received by Joseph and saved from the famine.

God fulfils His promises. Through His descendants and their possessions Abraham is growing into a great nation. Under God’s providence, however, this movement of expansion is accompanied by a movement of contradiction. God has promised not only to bless Abraham and his descendants, but also to bless the whole of mankind through Abraham: ‘In thee (Abraham) shall all the kindred of the earth be blessed’ (Genesis 12:3). But this blessing is not to descend to mankind through all the descendants of Abraham. The channel through which God’s blessing will come to all men is not the whole race of Abraham but only a certain chosen stock, and even within this chosen stock the channel is constantly narrowing. God changes the name of Abram to Abraham to signify that Abraham is to be the father of many nations (Genesis 17:5). Of the children of Abraham God chooses Isaac to be the bearer of the divine blessing to mankind: ‘…my covenant I will establish with Isaac’ (Genesis 17:21). ‘In Isaac shall thy seed be called’ (Genesis 21:12).

THE DIVINE BLESSING IS PASSED ON TO JACOB

Isaac passes on this divine blessing to his son Jacob (Genesis 27:28-29). God Himself ratifies the choice: ‘I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac. The land, wherein thou sleepest, I will give to thee and to thy seed. And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth: Thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south. And in thee and thy seed all the tribes of the earth shall be blessed’ (Genesis 28:13-14). This blessing Jacob gives only to Juda of his twelve sons: ‘Juda, thee shall thy brethren praise. Thy hands shall be on the necks of thy enemies: the sons of thy father shall bow down to thee. Juda is a lion’s whelp: to the prey, my son, thou art gone up. Resting thou hast couched as a lion, and as a lioness. Who shall rouse him? The sceptre shall not be taken away from Juda, nor a ruler from his thigh, till he come that is to be sent: and he shall be the expectation of nations. Tying his foal to the vineyard, and his ass, O my son, to the vine. He shall wash his robe in wine, and his garment in the blood of the grape. His eyes are more beautiful than wine: and his teeth whiter than milk’ (Genesis 49:8-12).

The blessing of all men is to come through Abraham, but through a channel which is continually growing smaller. From Abraham it descends to Isaac, from Isaac to Jacob, from Jacob to Juda, and from Juda it will descend to one individual who is the one ‘that is to be sent… the expectation of nations.’ Jacob’s prophecy about Juda seems to imply that finally the salvation of the world will be brought about by a single descendant of Juda. Through one specific descendant of Juda the divine plan for the reconciliation of man with God will take place.

THE RECONCILIATION WILL TAKE PLACE THROUGH ONE DESCENDANT OF JUDAH

From Abraham to the twelve sons of Jacob and their children, the family of Abraham is growing in numbers and in wealth and power. And hidden in the midst of this growing multitude is the seed of human salvation. The seed of salvation lies cradled in the growing race of Israel.

In the growing race of Israel God is preparing the salvation of the world. But this salvation means the reconciliation of men to God. It means therefore that men who are disobedient to God will become obedient to Him, that men who do not believe in God will come to faith in Him. God said of Abraham: ‘Can I hide from Abraham what I am about to do: Seeing that he shall become a great and mighty nation, and in him all the nations shall be blessed? For I know that he will command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord, and do judgement and justice: that for Abraham’s sake the Lord may bring to effect all the things he hath spoken unto him’ (Genesis 18:17-19). Through Abraham men will keep the way of the Lord and do judgment and justice. But the obedience which God seeks is a free obedience, the obedience of love, and men have for generations, for thousands of generations, been binding their wills over to the devil and sin.

POLYGAMY AND OTHER SINS ARE RAMPANT

Through Abraham the world of men will be reconciled to God. But the preparation of mankind for this reconciliation will be slow. This is apparent even in the behaviour of Abraham and his immediate posterity. Abraham himself allows the Pharaoh of Egypt to take Sara under the illusion fostered by Abraham, that she is only the sister of Abraham. He is a polygamist, taking Agar to wife while Sara is still alive. Jacob lies to his father Isaac and so steals the divine blessing which Isaac meant to bestow upon Esau. Jacob, too, is a polygamist, taking to wife Lia and her sister Rachel, and their handmaidens, Zelpha and Bala. Dina, the daughter of Jacob, was ravished by Sichem. The sons of Jacob, her brothers, were righteously indignant at this horrible crime, but they wreaked an even more horrible revenge upon the Sichemites. Juda sinned with Thamar, who had been wife to two of his sons and was promised to Sela, his third son. The brothers of Joseph sought to kill him, and finally sold him into captivity to the Madianites.

THE FIRST FAINT GLIMMERING OF THE DIVINE LIGHT RETURNING TO MAN

In the midst of a people as sinful as this, God is preparing the salvation of mankind. In their sins the evil wills of the devil and of men are clearly seen. But we can also see the first faint glimmering of the divine light returning to man. Through Abraham the knowledge of the one true God is returning to the earth. Abraham believes and his faith is reputed to him unto justice. Isaac believes and Jacob and the sons of Jacob. It is not easy to keep this faith alive in the minds and hearts of the people. Jacob has to take measures to destroy idolatry and polytheism among his people: ‘And Jacob having called together all his household, said: Cast away the strange gods that are among you, and be cleansed and change your garments’ (Genesis 35:2).

FAITH AND OBEDIENCE

In this faith Abraham and his descendants are obedient to God. In obedience Abraham leaves Ur and goes to Haran, and then to Egypt, and thence back to Palestine. In obedience to God Abraham circumcises himself and all the males in his household as a sign of the covenant between God and the race of Abraham. In response to God’s command Jacob leaves Mesopotamia, where he had become rich, and returned to Palestine. In fact, so great does the reliance on God of this Chosen People become that Jacob and his sons will not go down into Egypt to escape the ravages of the famine until God assures them that He will protect them and bring them out of Egypt safely in due time. In a world that has forgotten the one true God surely this faith and obedience are already a sign of the mercy of God slowly working out the divine promise of salvation.

Moreover, through this Chosen People the name of the one true God is becoming known to the other peoples of the region. To rescue his nephew Lot from captivity Abraham made war on Amraphel, the king of Senaar, and Arioch, king of Pontus, and Chodorlahomor, king of the Elamites, and Thadal, king of nations. After his victory Melchisedech, the king of Salem, offers a sacrifice of bread and wine to the God of Abraham. When Abimilech, the king of Gerara, unknowingly took Sara, Abraham’s wife, for himself, God appeared to him and commanded him to give Sara back to Abraham. When Jacob, with his wives, children, servants and flocks, seeks to flee from Laban, his father-in-law, God appears to Laban and commands him not to deal harshly with Jacob. In all these instances at least an intimation of the existence of the one true God was given to other peoples through Abraham and his descendants.

A VERY SLOW BUT SURE PROGRESS TOWARDS GOD’S PURITY AND HOLINESS

But the return of man to God is slow. Both God and man move slowly. Man, at his time, is so far from God that his progress to God is a long road, with many turnings, even some delays or cutbacks. But constantly God is leading man upward from the darkness and ignorance and turmoil of sin and unbridled passions to the purity and holiness which is his birthright as the image of God.

This slowness of the divine plan is strikingly illustrated in the captivity of the children of Abraham in the land of Egypt. A great famine afflicted Egypt and Canaan, the land in which Jacob and his sons and families were dwelling. But in Egypt, Joseph, the son of Jacob who had been sold into slavery by his brothers, had risen to the position of ruler of Egypt under the Pharaoh. Under the divine inspiration he had wisely provided ahead of time for the famine. Egypt was plentifully supplied with food. Under divine guidance Jacob and his sons and their families go down into Egypt. And here they remain several hundred years before God leads them out to seek possession of the land which God has promised them.

The length of their sojourn in Egypt is a proof that God is working slowly to mature them into a nation fit to be the chosen people of God, fit to be the channel through which salvation would come to all the world. First of all, their journey into Egypt is a divine test of their faith. Jacob and his children are reluctant to go into Egypt. But God says to Jacob: ‘Fear not, go down into Egypt, for I will make a great nation of thee there. I will go down with thee thither, and will bring thee back again from thence…’ (Genesis 46:3-4).

Then in Egypt God fulfils his promise to make Israel a great nation. In Egypt through the kindness of Joseph they escape the dangers of the great famine. They are given the land of Gessen for themselves. There ‘the children of Israel increased, and sprung up into multitudes. And growing exceedingly strong they filled the land’ (Exodus 1:7). In the course of time so numerous and strong do they become that the Pharaoh fears them and begins to oppress them ‘lest they multiply’ (Exodus 1:10).

It is legitimate to imagine that their long dwelling in the land of Egypt helped to prepare them for their ultimate conquest and rule of the land promised by God in Palestine. When they went down into Egypt they were semi-nomads, making their livelihood by herding sheep, cattle and goats, and by some agriculture. From the point of view of civilisation and culture they were inferior to the great empires of Babylonia and Egypt which flourished on either side of them. But in Egypt they came into close contact with a flourishing civilisation. From the Egyptians they may well have learned the arts and crafts, from building and sculpture to war and government, which were to help in the making of the Kingdom of God in the Promised Land.

GOD WORKS TOWARDS THE DELIVERANCE OF MEN FROM SIN AND THE DEVIL

In this early history of the Chosen People we see the will of God, man and the devil striving for the ssouls of men. In the sins of the patriarchs and their children, in the sins of their neighbours we see the weak wills of men and the malevolent will of the devil who seeks to draw men away from God. But, in the revelations of God to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob we see God beginning to save man in spite of man’s sinfulness. In the hidden ways in which God is working with mankind, choosing one race to be the channel of salvation, and in fact one of the weaker races of men, in the patience and forbearance which He shows to the weakness of His Chosen People, in the long time He takes to prepare His people for the ultimate deliverance of men from sin and the devil, we see both God’s tenderness with men and the strong and sure way in which He will fulfil His promise to bring men victory over the devil, sin and death.”
– Martin J. Healy S.T.D., 1959

 

“JESUS’ POWER OVER THE SEA HAS A DEEPER MEANING… JEWISH PEOPLE BELIEVED THAT THE SEA WAS A RESERVOIR OF EVIL FORCES”

HOWEVER WE MAY PICTURE EVIL, THE IMPORTANT THING IS TO REMEMBER THAT GOD WILL WIN IN THE END, AND THAT HIS VICTORY HAS ALREADY BEEN PROCLAIMED

“There are a number of miracles throughout the Gospels in which Jesus shows His mastery over the forces of nature contained in the waters. He calms the seas, he walks on the waters and even calls Peter out of the boat to join Him. Jesus knows where to cast the net for a miraculuos catch of fish, etc. On the surface, all of these stories show that Jesus can perform nature miracles. This was one of three types of miracles in the ancient world. They were nature miracles in which one had the power to change the rules of nature, exorcisms in which one could free a person from bondage to the power of Satan, and healings in which one could heal someone or possibly even raise that person from the dead.

A PERFECT IMAGE OF CHAOS FOR THE HEBREWS

But Jesus’ power over the sea has another, deeper meaning. One has to realise that the Jewish people were afraid of the sea. They believed that the sea was a reservoir of evil forces. They spoke of the ancient sea creatures which dwelt there. They gave names to those creatures: Leviathan and Behemoth. These were creatures that tried to destroy all the order that God had established in the universe. Many peoples in the Middle East spoke of similar gods of chaos. In Lebanon, that god of chaos was called Lothan (which is actually closely related to the word Leviathan); in Babylon it was Ta’amat.

Even the primordial state of the created world, that it was formlessness and void, is described in terms of the sea. This was before God divided the waters from the dry land, so it was in the middle of the sea. The spirit of God hovered over the waters. This phrase could also be translated as the God wind (or maybe the God-awful wind) blew over the waters. Furthermore, there was no light as of yet, for it had not yet been created. Thus, before God ordered creation, it was as if it were in the middle of the sea, in the middle of a great storm, in the middle of the night. That was a perfect image of absolute chaos for the Hebrews.

GOD AS CREATOR

The ancient peoples spoke of battles between the forces of chaos and the forces of order. What they were actually commenting on was what they saw around themselves. Sometimes the world seemed to be falling apart, on the edge of a precipice. These were times such as when there were hurricanes or earthquakes. In those moments, it seemed as if the powers of chaos were winning. At other times, things seemed to be going fairly well, with flowers blooming and birds singing. Those days it was clear that the order that God had established in the universe was prevalent.

There was even a religion in Persia (modern day Iran) called Zoroastrianism which spoke of the continuous battle between the good god and the bad god. The good god wanted to establish order and good in the universe while the bad god fought to destroy that order. The followers of this religion believed that these forces were more or less equally matched and the battle would continue until the end of times when good would finally win.

Among the Jewish people however, this battle was always a bit one sided. God is the creator, and the forces of evil are only creatures. God is bound to win the battle. The forces of evil might rage and rove around upon the earth, but they are fated to lose the war. In Psalm 82 we even hear how God would order all the minor gods who had mistreated the peoples upon the earth to give up their divine authority and to die like any mortal. In one of the psalms, the psalmist even speaks of how God has turned the great dragon, Leviathan, into a play thing. It is as if evil has been defanged and declawed. Thus, for the Jews, it was never a question of there being a battle between equal forces. For them, God would always win in the end.

THE LAKE OF FIRE

Thus, when Jesus is able to calm the sea or determine where and when to catch fish, it is not just a question of His only being a wonder worker. He is continuing the battle between the forces of good and evil which had been going on ever since the devil rebelled against God. The sea represents that reservoir of evil where Leviathan and the other sea creatures of chaos live. Jesus, by exercising power over nature, is defeating the forces of chaos and evil which are still trying to attack and defeat His beloved people.

Obviously, even though Jesus defeated the power of Satan on the cross, the battle goes on. Satan tempts us and tries to get us to reject the love and sacrifice to which Jesus calls us. This is why the Book of Revelation speaks of two defeats of Satan. The first defeat has already occurred. Yet, we need a second defeat at the end of time. While we died to sin when we were baptised, and while we promise every time that we renew our baptismal promises that we will reject Satan and all his evil ways, we nevertheless fall into sin. Satan is already defeated, but he still fights on. At the end of time, God will definitely destroy the power of Satan. He will cast Satan into the fiery lake (notice the word play, Satan will still be in a lake, but instead of it being a lake of water, it will be a lake of punishing fire). And there will be a new heaven and a new earth. Yet, there will be no sea. We will no longer have to worry about Satan rising out of his sanctuary of evil.

LOVING THE SEA

All of this sea imagery is basically negative. It speaks well to a desert people like the Jews. The farthest they ever wanted to go to sea was to fish on the Sea of Galilee, where you could see the other shore at all times. They would never think of sailing to the ends of the earth such as the Greeks did.

Many of us, however, love the sea. We find the crashing of the waves on the shore to be calming. We love to feel the power of the sea by walking or swimming through the waters. We dive into the coral reefs to see the incredible beauty of the underwater gardens. What do we do with all this negative imagery?

We have to remember that the Bible was written in a particular time and in a particular place. The imagery used was intended to speak to that particular people. It should not be interpreted too literally when all the author intended was to give a particular impression. At times we have to interpret its imagery and re-apply the message, saying the same idea with different imagery. For the Jewish shepherd, paradise was to be led to verdant pastures beside restful waters (Psalm 23). If for us paradise is to be standing alongside the majesty of a thundering waterfall or sitting on a beach during a storm that reminds us of the power of God, so be it. The important thing to remember is that God wins in the end, and the victory has already been proclaimed.”
– This article by Jude Winkler, OFM Conv. entitled “Images of Evil” was published in “Messenger of Saint Anthony” issue April 2013. For subscriptions please contact: Messenger of Saint Anthony, Basilica del Santo, via Orto Botanico 11, 35123 Padua, Italy

 

WHAT INFLUENCE DO EVIL ANGELS HAVE OVER MAN, BOTH IN THE BIBLE AND IN TODAY’S SOCIETY?

EXTENT OF ANGELIC POWER OVER MAN

[Angels, including the fallen angels, are so powerful that it is easier to list what they can’t do than what they can do. Cardinal Lepicier here writes about the influence angels can have over people. Paragraph numbering in the Cardinal’s work (1) has been retained; brackets indicate insertions and ellipses show omissions in the text.]

“1. Having thus considered the power which angels possess over material elements, (2) we must now enquire what the extent of that power is over man. And, in order to be able to solve this further question, we have to consider man under a twofold aspect: first, as a being having a body composed of material elements common more or less to all material beings; and secondly, as a creature endowed with sensitive and intellectual powers, for which reason he is called a rational being. It is our purpose to investigate, first of all, what power an angel can have over the members of the human body; secondly what influence he can exercise over our sensitive and intellectual faculties.

2. If we consider man under the first aspect, we must say that an angel has, naturally speaking, the same power over him which he has over, say a stone, a plant, or an animal. He can lift, therefore, or transfer him to whatever place or distance he may desire. (3) He can also to some extent, alter his outward form and so modify his internal physical constitution as to produce in him health or sickness or even death. He can, moreover, make use of a man’s limbs for purposes of his own, he can move his tongue to speak, his feet to walk, his hand to write. And all these things can be effected by the operation of both good and bad angels, but always, of course, subject to the condition that God, the Lord and Master of angels no less than of men, ordains or at least permits such a thing.

[DIFFERENCES BETWEEN GOOD AND BAD ANGELS]

3. We have named both good and bad angels. Before proceeding further, however, we must note a marked difference between their actions. The good angels never act in such a way on man’s body, or indeed on any other substance in creation, except by the command of Almighty God, Who is their beloved Lord; while, in the case of evil spirits, on the other hand, simple permission on God’s part is a sufficient motive for such action. Let us try to understand as clearly as possible the difference between the first and the second case. Since God is the essential Good, His every wish and intention must always be good. But from this it does not follow that He cannot permit evil. God cannot command evil, otherwise He would co-operate directly with it; but He can permit it to take place, leaving the malice of the action to the perpetrator himself.

The permissive will of God, therefore, although good in itself and ordained to good, implies in the agent that executes a sense of abuse and of moral culpability which God could prevent, but which in reality he does not always prevent. Therefore, a good angel while executing God’s orders is like an instrument in His hand; an evil angel, on the contrary, while acting on his own initiative and for his own perverted end, is like a principal agent and consequently claims a personal responsibility in the work he is effecting.

From this follows that, while those visible productions with which we are here concerned are miracles if performed by good angels, they are but mere imposture and evil doing if done by evil spirits of their own accord. We shall, however, return to treat this subject more fully later on.

4. It happens at times that evil angels are allowed to exercise their power to a fuller extent over a man’s body, so as to sway and dominate it according to their will. It is then that that phenomenon takes place which is termed possession or obsession, the individuals who fall under such influence being called energumens. We have many instances of this cruel tyranny exercised over man by evil spirits, not only in the Sacred Scriptures, but also in the records of history, both sacred and profane, ancient and modern; and Holy Church has a special rite for freeing man from this diabolical intervention. (4)

[TO WHAT EXTENT CAN ANGELS INFLUENCE OUR SPIRITUAL FACULTIES?]

5. We have thus far spoken of the extent of an angel’s power over man when considered merely as a material being, that is to say, his power over the body. We must now investigate what power he may exercise over our sensitive and intellectual faculties, I.e. what power he possesses over the soul. This second point is far more difficult than the first and requires in consequence serious and attentive examination.

As man is a rational being, endowed with a sensitive nature that aids him in the use of his spiritual faculties – of the intellectual, namely, and of the will – in order to know just how far angelic power may extend with regard to the immaterial part of man, we must investigate not only whether he can in reality influence our spiritual faculties, but also to what extent he may exercise this influence. And, as the sensitive faculty is distinct from the intellectual, so we must inquire, first, whether our senses can be moved or modified by angels; and secondly whether these pure spirits can act upon our intellect and will according to their own desires.

6. Let us in the first place consider the senses. We have to distinguish between the internal senses such as the imagination and the sensitive memory, and the external senses such as sight, touch, hearing and the like. Now the question is this: can an angel act upon us directly with regard to both these sources of sensitive knowledge?

We must reply in the affirmative. [Yes.] And since these faculties are common to animals as well as to men, so an angel can act directly even upon the senses of animals, whether internal or external.

It must be observed, however, that in man the sensitive faculties are intimately connected with the intellect and are ordained to it. So while an angel influences our senses he can in consequence influence, to a certain extent, our intellect, as we shall show.

This is due to the fact that the perceptions of our internal and external sensitive organs depend on the motion of our nervous system. Now this system, however vital and subtle it may be, is always a material element. It can therefore be subject to the direct power which an angel possesses over the local motion of matter.

7. There can be no doubt that the peculiar disposition of our body as regards nerves, muscles, blood, spleen, and the like, is under the influence of natural agents such as light, heat and so forth, these being the essential condition of those processes of the imagination which either keep our brains busy during sleep, or engross our attention while awake. And the angelic beings, having a perfect knowledge of the elements of our nervous system, can make them work together in such a manner as artificially to produce in us phantasms similar to those produced naturally.

The peculiar disposition of our external organs, moreover, may also be the cause of certain sensations.

[HOW OUR ‘PERCEPTION’ GETS INFLUENCED]

A weakening of the optic nerve, for instance, may cause in us amblyopia or even amaurosis; a modification of the retina may prevent a man from distinguishing colours (as in the case of those affected with daltonism), and to a feverish tongue everything may taste bitter. All such modifications of the nervous system an angel can cause in our external and internal organs by the exercise of his own natural powers over matter. So we can easily imagine how deeply our sensitive nature can thus be impressed by the action of an angel and how far-reaching such modifications introduced into our organism and vital functions may be.

8. We must add, however, for the sake of completeness, that the angelic power over our sensitive faculties is limited in particular in regard to the formation in our imagination, of the phantasms of objects placed altogether beyond the reach of our external senses, the latter being the natural sources from which the phantasms of the imagination originate. Thus no angelic power is capable of imparting to a man born blind the conception of colour, or of conveying to a deaf man an accurate notion of sound. All an angel can do is to lead the imagination, by an ingenious combination of phantasms previously obtained, to picture what it could otherwise learn by study, the teaching of others or other suchlike sources of knowledge.

9. Thus it is not beyond the power of an angel to act so vividly on the imagination of a person as to make him imagine an object which he has never seen or heard of before or persuade him that he has actually been transferred to a distant place and is conversing with persons out of sight as if they were present, as happens in the case of those phenomena styled telepathy. An angel can also modify the imagination of an individual to such an extent as to enable him to describe with exactness the topography of a particular place he has never seen or the peculiarities of a determined person he has never known, as happens in those phenomena called clairvoyance.

10. From all this we may easily infer, then, how very wide an angel’s field of action is where man’s sensitive nature is concerned. Science has not yet spoken its last word on the subject of our physiological possibilities, but the minute construction and working of our organs of sense and imagination are so perfectly known to the angelic substances, that we can hardly conceive to what an extent they may be capable of exercising their activity within the sphere of our animal sensitive nature.

We can well determine, however, what an angel cannot do. We can say with certainty, for instance, that an angel cannot cause the eye to hear or the ear to see, because such an effect would be contrary to the nature of the senses of sight or hearing respectively. But we cannot determine with any great precision the angel’s field of action in regard to our vegetative and sensitive faculties, since theses may be subject to an infinite variety of modification and we do not know precisely the nature and mode of action of angelic substances.

[IN WHAT WAY DO ANGELS INFLUENCE OUR MIND AND WILL?]

The further question to which we shall now turn our attention has reference to the manner in which angels can influence our intellect and will.

There can be no doubt that an angel can illuminate our intellect. But the way in which he does so differs essentially from the way in which one angel illuminates another. In this second case the angel does nothing else than direct himself or turn towards the intellect of the other angel… But the human intellect cannot perceive truth except through the medium of sensible images and so it is necessary for the illuminating angel to suggest to us what he wishes us to know under the likeness of those sensible images which it is in his power to form, either in the sphere of our external senses or in that of our imagination. And this he accomplishes by bringing into operation the latent energies of our nervous system, which are ordained and subservient to mental operations and aid in the fulfilment of the same.

12. But although an angel can thus illuminate our mind so as always to obtain the desired effect, he cannot act upon our will in such a way as to induce it infallibly to obey his bidding. This is a power which belongs to God only, Who, being the Author of our rational nature, is therefore the primary cause of that natural inclination which flows from it, and which is nothing else but our will. God alone, being the Author of this inclination, can move our will to choose effectually and freely all that He desires, and Hedoes so in the most gentle and quiet manner imaginable. It suffices for Him to wish it, and there is nothing that the will of man will not spontaneously embrace and with the greatest freedom.

13. But the same cannot be said of the power of an angel over the human will. The influence which an angelic spirit can exercise over the will of man is confined to external influence. He can suggest to us the object he desires us to embrace, presenting it in such an alluring form as to entice us to strive after its possession. Besides that since, as experience teaches, our passions are very powerful in moving our rational will, and, on the other hand, our sensitive nature. Is in its motions somewhat subject to the influence of spiritual agencies, it follows that an angel can also move our will by exciting in us violent emotions, such as love, hatred, anger and the like, which have their seat in some determinate organ of the body. In this way an angel can determine within us violent impulses towards some given object, presented by him to our imagination. But in all these cases our will always remains intact, and it remains in our power to resist the angel’s influence, whether this influence be exercised for a good purpose or for an evil one.

“…NOT AGAINST FLESH AND BLOOD, BUT AGAINST PRINCIPALITIES AND POWERS…”

14. The conclusion of all this reasoning is deduced spontaneously. If it is true that pure spirits of a perverse nature exist, inflamed with hatred for man and thirsting for his ruin, since they do not lack the means of harming us, our position with regard to them is anything but a safe one. The Apostle St Paul, writing to the Ephesians, expresses this ar follows:

‘For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in high places’ (Eph 6:12).

But, thanks be to the mercy of God, if there be spirits who lie in wait for us, others there are given us by His Almighty Providence to assist us, and their power is not inferior to the power of the evil spirits. They are bent upon protecting us and benefitting us in every manner for again it is written:

‘For He hath given His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. In their hands they shall bear thee up, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone’ (Ps 91:11, 12).”
– Alexis Henry M. Cardinal Lepicier, O.S.M.
1. Taken from ‘The Unseen World: An Exposition of Catholic Theology in Reference to Modern Spiritism’, Sheed & Ward, 51 Paternoster Row, E.C., UK, 1929, 332 pp.
2. The Cardinal writes: “[W]e may infer from the fact that angels can move bodies wherever they wish, that they also possess a mediate power in causing substantial and other intrinsic changes to take place in the universe. The wonders wrought by Pharaoh’s mgicians, and recorded in Holy Scripture, are ample proof of what we advance… As, on the one hand, these pure spirits possess a knowledge of physical and chemical laws far surpassing our own knowledge, and as on the other, their power is of such vast range, we must assume that there are hardly any phenomena in the world which they cannot produce in one way or another.”
3. See the transfer of Habakkuk to Babylon by the angel’s power. (Dan 14:35)
4. cf. ‘Rituale Romanum’ tit. X, cap. 1, De exorcizandis obsessis a daemonio.
– From “Christ to the World”, N 3, May-June 2008, Vol 53.

 

“EVIL IS SELF-DEFEATING; WE CANNOT TURN FROM GOD WITHOUT HURTING OURSELVES”

TRIALS AND CATASTROPHES IN EVIL TIMES ARE INTERRUPTIONS OF THEIR GODLESSNESS

“Because the signs of our times point to a struggle between absolutes we may expect the future a time of trials and catastrophes for two reasons: firstly, to stop disintegration. Godlessness would go on and on if there were no catastrophes.

WHAT DEATH IS TO A SINFUL PERSON, THAT CATASTROPHE IS TO AN EVIL CIVILISATION

What death is to a sinful person, that catastrophe is to an evil civilisation: the interruption of its godlessness. Why did God station an angel with a flaming sword at the Garden of Paradise after the Fall, if it were not to prevent our first parents from entering the garden and eating from the tree of life, which, if they ate, would have immortalised their evil?

GOD WILL NOT ALLOW UNRIGHTEOUSNESS TO BECOME ETERNAL

God will not allow unrighteousness to become eternal. Revolution, disintegration, chaos must be reminders that our thinking has been wrong, our dreams have been unholy. Moral truth is vindicated by the ruin that follows it when it is repudiated. The chaos of our times is the strongest negative argument that could ever be advanced for Christianity.

A TESTAMENT TO GOD’S POWER

Catastrophe becomes a testament to God’s power in a meaningless world, for by it God brings a meaningless existence to nought. The disintegration following an abandonment of God thus becomes a triumph of meaning, a reaffirmation of purpose.

THESE DISORDERED TIMES ARE THE WAGES OF SIN

Adversity is the expression of God’s condemnation of evil, the registering of Divine Judgment. As hell is not sin, but the effect of sin, so these disordered times are not sin, but the wages of sin. Catastrophe reveals that evil is self-defeating; we cannot turn from God without hurting ourselves.”
– Archbishop Fulton Sheen (Communism and the Conscience of the West, Chapter 1, ‘The Decline of Historical Liberalism’ (capital headings added).