A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint Luke. Jesus was casting out a devil which was mute. And when the devil was cast out, the dumb man spoke. At this, the crowd was amazed. And some of them said, it is by Beelzebub, the prince of devils, that he casts out devils.
On the other hand, others said to test Jesus, they were demanding of him a sign from heaven. Because he knew their thoughts, Jesus said to them, every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste. Any house torn by dissension falls, and that applies to that little word home. If Satan is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand? Since they say it is by Beelzebub that I cast out devils.
If I cast out devils by Beelzebub, by whom do your people cast them out? In such case, let them act as my judges. But if it be by the finger of god that I cast out devils, then the reign of god is upon you. When a strong man fully armed guards his courtyard, his possessions are undisturbed. But when someone stronger than he comes along and overpowers him, such a one carries off the arms on which he was relying and divides the spoils.
The man who is not with me is against me, and the man who does not gather with me scatters. And this is the gospel of the lord. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit. Amen. At the end of the nineteenth century, when Karl Marx and company were flourishing, a man by the name of Feuerbach wrote a book called The Essence of Christianity.
And this book was hailed as the last word in the destruction of this myth of Christ, and this business of life called Christianity. That was supposed to be the end of it. And Marx and the rest of the atheists, they they were convinced in all sincerity that a death blow had been dealt to Christianity and this religion based upon the myth of Christ, which they interpreted of course as being a projection of human consciousness. Well, it's a strange thing that almost a set well, a century later, here we are on this this very cold, I must remind you, beautiful day of spring, and here we are gathered. I think most of us are pretty much alive.
And Christianity is very much alive. It's a heck of a lot more alive than Karl Marx is, or Feuerbach, or Bauer. It's a very strange thing that how these, doctrines come and go. God has been buried so often that he must be getting tired of being buried. He has a way of cropping up again.
Now, this idea of the devil and devils has had its turn too in the popular mind. Well, we've even those of us who have never seen this great drama called The Exorcist, you cannot help but be aware of not only the great drama that was made of it, but some of us were much closer to it than that. After all, it happened right over in Silver Spring. What do you make of this business call of the devil and devils? Can they be eliminated?
Do we get rid of them by saying they don't exist? Well, speaking for myself in my own humble opinion, you can't read the New Testament without having some idea that there's such a thing as a devil, and there are mortars, and there are several or more, I don't know how many. Because on more than one occasion, our blessed lord is pictured as as getting rid of the devil. Here's here's another case today. How do you how do you squirm out of this?
Is the devil a reality or not? And if if there is such a a a being in the universe as a devil, What are his powers? What can he do to influence human life? Do you think about it very much? Of course, the simplest way of saying, hell, don't forget it.
That's just one of those myths. Well, so was Christ a myth for some people. He's a myth today for some people. But can you dismiss Jesus Christ as a myth? And can you dismiss the devil as a myth?
I don't think you can possibly do it and hold to the New Testament, not at all. And, whatever this possession of devils meant, I don't know. I don't know. I remember reading a novel by Katsucanus, the Greek novelist some years ago, and almost every page in there there was something about someone possessed of a devil. Well, this was just a figure of speech.
As somebody would say, the devil's in him. They don't mean the devil. They just mean his his his doing things which are devilish. But you see, you can't eliminate the these beings called devil or devils in the New Testament as simply as that. You can't possibly do it.
And so if there is in the universe a reality, a being, notice we are not at all dealing with a conception of a universe in which there is on this hand a good God, and on the other hand the opposite of the good God, a bad and evil God. That's manicheism or whatever you wanna call it. That is not the Christian view at all. The devil is God's creation. And he started out as being a pretty fair sort of guy.
Until something happened, he is not a principle of evil. He is a principle of good which fell from his goodness. Keep that in mind. And that that is absolutely the Catholic Christian doctrine. There never was any difference on that at all.
We are not Manichaeans. And so let us realize that there can be a C. S. Lewis in his Screwtape If you haven't read the book, I recommend it highly. The Screwtape Letters, you can get it in paperback.
C. S. Lewis. Here he has a nephew of the devil, not the devil himself, but his nephew, that's screwtape. And the book is a correspondence between the nephew who's trying to be a good first rate devil, you know, trying to learn his trade, so that this is the correspondence between the nephew and his uncle, who of course knows his business because he is the devil.
And you'll be amazed at the humor that Lewis manages to put into that book, and you will be also amazed at the theology he puts into it. The screw tape letters, I recommend it highly. Let us realize that there are forces in this world working against goodness. How they do it, that's another question. But that they can, I think is beyond all shadow of a doubt?
What the limitations are, that's something else. Read Saint Thomas, he has pages and pages on this, pages and pages. It isn't that the devil can ever deprive you of free will. You can't just relax behind the wheel and say the devil made me do it. Oh, no.
Never, never, never. But that doesn't at all prevent their being in this universe a a a agent or agencies which are militantly at war with God almighty and goodness. Now I don't want to blame the poor little old devil for everything. We we do a pretty good job by our contribution, but let us not neglect this. Let us not forget it.
That our warfare is not merely a warfare with what we see around us. It's a warfare with a lot that we don't see. If that puts the fear of the lord in you, that's all to the best. That's what it should do because the fear of the lord in the last analysis is the love of the lord. In the name of the father, the son, and holy spirit, amen.