The Exorcist on the Farm

     This past weekend, I went to a more rural part of Costa Rica and had the opportunity to spend two days and an evening at a small farm operated by the spryest 72 year-old man I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. During the evening, we were sitting in his living room, flipping through the surprisingly ample selection of channels he has access to in the middle of the forest (his farm grows coffee, cocoa (chocolate), bananas and yucca--a tuber vegetable similar to a potato). Eventually we settled on the 1973 horror classic The Exorcist. For the next two hours, we watched (aided by Spanish subtitles) as the devil possessed poor little Regan and caused her to do all sorts of grotesque and violent acts in her quaint little Georgetown bedroom.

   
     I think the movie continues to be so popular because evil has a very universal and recognized presence in the world. Regardless of your religious beliefs, I think most people agree that there is such an entity as "evil" that transcends people and even actions. How does one explain away an atrocity such as the Holocaust in anything but supernatural terms? Is it really plausible that one man could rile up such anger in a nation that they would be willing to become ignorant to the execution of millions of innocent lives? Can Germany's blindness to basic human decency be explained merely in terms of crowd psychology and the desire for revenge in the wake of the unfavorable peace terms of World War One? There must be something more supernatural at work in the world, as time and again throughout history, evil has reared its ugly head, bent on scattering the children of God and bringing them to the brink of self-destruction.

     So what then does evil do that is so tangible and often so effective? First of all, evil deceives. Just as God involves us in our own redemption through our acceptance of the free gift of salvation through Jesus the Christ, the devil seeks to make us participant's in our own damnation. He sows doubt and confusion in our minds, and lets them grow until he reaps our denial of God and refusal to live lives of holiness in accordance to the teachings of the Lord. If we are not aware and vigilant to these feelings growing inside us, then they can manifest into a full blown crisis of faith before we even realize there's a problem.
   
     This is made all the more easy if we do not actively make time for God in our daily lives through prayer and meditation. Just as one cannot hope to maintain a vibrant friendship without communication, a person who is shut off (meaning they shut themselves off) from God cannot seek His protection when the devil beckons.  That is not to say the devil does not tempt and deceive the prayerful. To the contrary, often it is those seeking holiness whom the devil most wants to claim as his own. A strong relationship with God, however, trumps the devil and renders him powerless so long as one holds fast to their faith.

     In much the same way that evil deceives, it also accuses. In the Book of Revelation, Satan is referred to as the accuser of our brethren. (Rev 12:10) Everyone hears from Satan daily: for he speaks in that inner voice that gives reason after reason why you cannot do something or attain something. He operates through lies that seek to obscure the truth that we all are created just the way we are so as to glorify God, who made us in His image and likeness and set us as the pinnacle of creation. He calls us stupid, fat, ugly, boring, lazy and unlovable. If we are to give money to a homeless woman, he accuses her of being an addict and us of being pathetically gullible. If we respect life, he accuses us of not respecting women. Worst of all, he calls us his child: a sinner unworthy of God's forgiveness. He reminds us of all our failings and asks us if we really believe we are worth saving. Unfortunately, many people buy into these lies and lose the will to keep trying (and often failing) to live good lives. Many accept his proposition that God could not possibly love them in spite of their blemishes, and so choose to go through life without God, filling the void of meaning with various fleeting ideals or causes or, worse yet, taking their sadness out on others. These people are the most dangerous, for they become human agents for evil, seeking to draw many away from God's loving embrace.

     Finally, evil scatters. In contrast to God and the Church, which seeks to unite all into God's infinite, singular love, evil seeks to scatter humanity in all sorts of perverse and destructive directions. Our modern society is fractured at a time when globalization should be revealing to us our common dignity and humanity. Why is this so? I believe the answer lies in the evil that occurred in the 20th century. Europe, the battlefield of two world wars, lost its faith and spiraled down a relativist, atheistic existence.    The Soviet Union took religion out of society. In general, the past 100 years has seen a decrease in religion and a rise in cultural relativism. Is it a coincidence that the time period was also the bloodiest ever? How does not explain the fact that an increasing number of wars are being fought by factions within countries? Evil is alive and well in our world. What began as a dismissal of God has morphed, most acutely in the past decade, into an assault on God. As we see in the Obama's Administrations attack on religious liberty, one of the fundamental rights dating back to this country's inception, it is now an expectation that religious organizations sacrifice their morality and discard their consciences as part of the new social contract.

     Evil has always existed, and will always exist until the end of time. It seeks to deceive us, to accuse us and to scatter us. Without a active relationship with God, we are at a heightened risk of falling prey to the devil's lies. With God, however, evil is no match and will be ultimately defeated. The decision is ours to make: to whom do we listen? We have seen the violence and sadness of evil. Perhaps it is time to see the peace and joy of the good that is found fully only through Jesus.