Battles with Demons

The Gospel readings for the coming Sundays record the activity of demons in human persons, with Jesus' power to cast them out.  Some people try to explain this away, but the Gospel record is clear - demons exist, and we better know their strategies in order to shore up our defenses, and rely not on our own power, but the power of Christ to conquer!

As the NFL season has wrapped up, I've been thinking of how much dedication goes into a Super-Bowl-winning season.  How much sacrifice players make to discipline their minds and bodies, to study the film and tactics of their opponents so that they can be ready to defend their goal and attack their defense.  Are we that dedicated to Jesus?  Are we that single-hearted in our study of how the devil, "the enemy of human nature," as St. Ignatius Loyola puts it, works?  We better study and be prepared, so we can fight intelligently!

St. John of the Cross wrote that the devil is "the hardest to understand," and causes the ruin of a great multitude who set out to follow Christ, and no human power can be compared to him (Spiritual Canticle, 431).

How does the devil tempt us?  Mostly, he exploits our fallen instincts and passions, our pride, and the weakness of our will to induce us to rebel against what our reason and revelation tell us is true and good and right.  And once we're in the clutches of this internal division between our reason and will, our reason and passions, he works to induce us to despair: to lose heart, to give up the battle.

Demons use our imagination, our memory, and our sensory desires to get to our intellect and will.  This is how it's been from the beginning: "So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and gave some to his husband who was with her, and he ate" (Genesis 3:6).

Most commonly, the demonic deception is through our memory: conjuring up images, past experiences, and sensory desires that then affect our emotions, which then can carry us away from acting according to reason and what we know to be good.  Instead, with my weakened will, I choose to do "what I feel like" doing.  I lose the battle,

More to come, but let's together reach out in faith and pray to Christ Jesus, visit him in the Tabernacle, and humbly beg him for his power and strength to conquer!