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Dec. 8, 2021 / Immaculate Conception
Reference: Pope
Benedict XVI / Josef Ratzinger, “Farewell to the Devil”
[__00-a_] Recently,
I had the experience of accompanying my mother to a doctor or medical
appointment. It was my father and I. Sometimes it's one of my other brothers
and my father, but usually one of my siblings or I and my father go to these
doctor medical appointments, at which my mother is sometimes questioned.
[__00-b_] And
in this appointment, she was questioned a lot about the medicine she's taking
for her Parkinson's symptoms. The doctor and the nurse were, of course trying
to be helpful, but due to the complexity of the situation, and my mother's
uncertainty, the appointment ended up taking almost three hours. My mother, due
to her age and infirmity was not a great and reliable on the “witness stand” to
all these questions.
[__00-c_] And
yet she did pretty well under the circumstances under the incessant
questionings. As a joke, later, I told my siblings – especially because the
appointment was in New York City -- that the whole “episode”reminded me of a TV
/ Law & Order police interrogation, in which in this case, the suspect or
perp, (patient / Mom) would admit to just about anything to have the
interrogation over and get a sandwich.
Under
the pressure of all the doctor's questions, my mother was not really prepared.
For all of this, my father and I were there to help. Fortunately, my mother knew
that we were on her side.
The doctor
and the nurse who seemed to be the adversary, were also on her side. But
sometimes we need help to see who was really for us, and who is against us.
And
sometimes we judge in superficial ways, who is really for us and who is against
us who's good, who's evil.
Sometimes,
we judge what's good simply based on what's comfortable or convenient at that
particular moment. For example, just because the doctor asks difficult
questions, or puts us through a difficult course of therapy, that doesn't mean
the doctor is against us, This could ultimately be for our own good.
Just
because we have some difficult homework to do, or soul searching to do, this could
also be for our own good for our benefit.
In
the 3rd chapter of Genesis, Adam and Eve might wonder who was really
for them, who is against them.
Adam
and Eve were being interrogated, questioned by the devil by Satan. Now,
shouldn't this have been obvious to them?
That
the devil was against them that the devil Satan didn't have their best
interests at heart that he was tempting them with this forbidden fruit.
Shouldn’t that have been so obvious? It's obvious to us.
And
it's even this is even made even more blatantly obvious in the very beginning
of the New Testament. What does Jesus do in the very beginning of the New
Testament, Jesus knows that Satan is out to get him. And Jesus fully aware of
this, Jesus goes out into the desert and he knows he's going to be tempted in
the desert by Satan for 40 days. And,
Jesus does not eat what Satan tempts him with.
Jesus
goes out there anyway, but he knows what he's getting himself into.
Adam
and Eve could have known – but did not what they were getting themselves into.
In
the Book of Genesis and other books of the Old Testament, as Pope Benedict XVI points
out, Satan the Devil is often concealed or hidden.
In
the Garden of Eden, the Satan appears as the serpent who bites with the
temptation of pride and power to Adam and Eve. Satan doesn't tell them
explicitly to disobey God. He doesn't say I want you to disobey these rules.
Satan
doesn't tell them to disobey
but he sells them on what
they're going to get by eating the forbidden fruit. In this these instance,
Satan is concealed.
In
another instance – in the Book of Exodus - Satan is concealed, for example, in
the creation of the golden calf idol. This happens at the base camp of Mount
Sinai when Moses goes up Mount Sinai and the Jewish people are nervous, because
Moses is far from them. They feel alone they feel anxious, and the Jewish
people melt down all their gold and jewelry. And they create this golden calf
and they start worshipping the golden calf.
Now
the Jewish people are not I'm told
to disobey God, but they are being sold,
that the idol in front of them is better than the God they cannot see. Satan is
hidden in the idol.
What
is the idol in which Satan hides Himself to you or to me is that idle
convenience is that idol -- wealth is
that idol, popularity, wealth, popularity, security, these are not bad things,
but sometimes we turn them into idols and we worship them instead of God or we
expect them to deliver goodness to us if we sacrifice for them. They will not.
B16 point
is that our unity with Jesus Christ via baptism leads us to be one with Him in
battle, and in freedom, and the more visible and power and when we really are
aware of holiness, then, when we're really aware of holiness and goodness, then
the devil cannot conceal himself to us.
In
this respect, if we were to go through life, saying that there's no demon, or
that there's no evil, or that there's no evil spirit. Unfortunately, this leads
us to the idea that there's really no holiness either. We're truly in danger if
we don't acknowledge evil in the world.
Consider
the person who goes to the doctor, I'll use the person who goes to the doctor
as an example, somebody who goes to the doctor for somebody who refuses to go
to the doctor better based on the fact that he or she doesn't want to be
questioned or examined or poked or prodded. Nobody wants to be poked or
prodded. In that way.
One
thing my grandfather said, he said, I don't want to go to the doctor, they
might find something. Now, that worked out OK for my grandfather, for a while
he lived to be 101, by this philosophy, but even he didn't live forever.
There
is still 100% mortality rate on planet Earth, we're all going to die. Yet we
all have the potential to live and to live for eternal life right now. The
“copay” is in our baptism and discipleship.
Because
Christ died for us and gives us a path to holiness, and a standard for
holiness. Through His incarnation and by the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary
and her revelation as the new Ark of the Covenant, in this regard, we need not
fear being questioned. Jesus is our personal Savior, he's real. Who then is
Satan, who is this evil spirit we read about in the book of Genesis?
B16 offers
this definition. But the specific character of the demonic becomes clear. By
anonymity that this Satan is by definition kind of anonymous, is someone asked
whether the devil is a person we'd really have to say, well, the devil is the
opposite of a person. Because what the devil is the devil's power is not in his
prominence, but in his hiddenness, and that we have trouble recognizing him.
And if you think about the evil that can sometimes get between a husband and wife in a marriage, or between a parent and the child, in a relationship in the family, or between any two family members, or any two friends, that evil is sometimes anonymous, it doesn't announce itself so clearly, or it's hidden in an idol. But when we live each day, in holiness, in honesty, and integrity, by love of God, love of neighbor, we have no need to fear the evil. The evil is going to be clear to us. We don't even have to fear the questions of evil, because we have Jesus as our as our Savior, the Holy Spirit as our advocate and the church as our home. [__fin_]
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