Pope Francis vs. Beelzebub: Round 2

I Posted a story about, and a video of, Pope Francis' homily from the Friday before last, which he offered at the Domus Sanctæ Marthæ.  The Gospel passage he preached on was Luke 11:15-26, where Jesus is casting out demons and is accused by the Pharisees of doing so by the power of the Evil One.  The Lord explains that this charge is absurd from the get go because a kingdom divided against itself can not stand.  Satan may be evil, but he isn't dumb; he knows that his only chance at wreaking maximum havoc is to maintain a disciplined unity among his minions (and these aren't the cute, yellow, goggle wearing weebles from Despicable Me we're talking about here).  The Holy Father went out of his way to say that neither Jesus nor the Evangelist were speaking metaphorically about possession, demons and the destructiveness of demonic powers.  

I bring this up because the Holy Father has raised eyebrows on both sides of the ideological divide since his election in March; some perplexed (on the right) others gleeful (on the left).  This divide has been a plague on the Church since at least the end of Vatican II, sapping us of our ability to truly put into practice the true aim of the Council; the evangelization of the contemporary world.  Too many of us within the Church are overly concerned about coming off seeming the most intelligent, most relevant, most enlightened or most orthodox, forgetting that all that really matters is that we all should be holy; which does means being bold and unafraid, but more to the point humble and simple.  

Satan is a real force, a personal being who made a choice to do evil; a choice that because of his angelic nature makes his an eternal option.  To paraphrase the Holy Father, his existence and mission are real not because I say it, or the Pope says it, but because the scripture says it.  How we understand the nature of demons may be a bit murky if we stick with the Old Testament, but by the time of Jesus things are made clear; Satan is not simply a jokster or some kind of cosmic prosecutor.  He is the Enemy who has set his back to The Lord, and is a murderer from the beginning.  This is not true because any earthly myth or legend says it's so, it is true because Our Lord and His faithful witnesses do.

There are those that in the light of modern psychology try to explain away these passages.  They are mistaken, as much as those who try to dismiss the Sermon on the Mount as some sort of pious impossibility.  Both are real and the challenge is to embrace them, along with accepting all the hard teachings required of a disciple.

If we do not learn to embrace the whole Gospel we will continue to be divided by idiological lines.  The Evil One is very happy with this.  While we squabble over the "true meaning of Vatican II" or the proper posture of the priest during Mass we are giving the devil a head start to steal souls.  Does this mean we shouldn't care about or discuss things like the direction the Church should be taking or how the liturgy should be celebrated?  Of course not.  But we have to understand that the average woman on the street doesn't care about how Lumen Gentium, 9 should be read or if the priest should be facing east or west during the Canon of the Mass.   Insignificant issues?  No.  But to a person on the outside, a person searching and poking her head in to the Church to see if Christ really will fulfill the longings of her soul these discussions probably strike her as navel gazing and more than a bit obtuse.  Rather than a refuge from an idiologicly confused and relativistic world, she sees nothing but a mirror image of the chaos she is trying to leave behind.

Unlike the Enemy we do not see the value in being united.  We are happy to be divided up, not only Protestants, Catholics and Orthodox, but also within our own tribes (high church, low church, evangelical, nondenominational or what have you).  While we argue and keep a distance, Satan is cleaning our collective clocks.  Are there not real issues dividing those who bear the name Christian that can't be airbrushed away?  Yes.  But when we can't even agree on who the Enemy really is, or if he exists at all, we are not as intelligent, relevant, enlightened or orthodox as we suppose.

The Pope understands that greatest weapons against the devil are humility and unity.  It's time for us to stop worrying about if the Holy Father will change this teaching or that, and if it will be to our liking, and stand with him in the battle for souls.