The audacity of Satan! Going after the Son of God to try and draw Jesus away from Him. When did he tempt Jesus? After 40 days of fasting in preparation for Jesus’ ministry here on earth. That is the way of Satan. Satan is a coward and only seeks the ruin of souls when we are at our weakest moments. Sometimes it is the work of the demonic possessions we see manifested in movies like The Exorcist or the Exorcism of Emily Rose – both of which are true stories. Most the time it is as subtle as the wind blowing or a simple thought that crosses your mind. Regardless of how Satan tempts, Satan is still very active and still seeking the ruin of souls. We must be ready to fight Satan at all times.
Why the big push on Satan this morning? Because I’ve grown weary of looking out my office window and seeing this…
We are constantly flying our flag at half mast in mourning for just about every evil one can think of – mass shootings, mass bombings, innocent children being shot by innocent children, innocent men and women being killed at a night club because they’re gay, innocent religious being shot because they are willing to profess their faith, innocent seniors dying because they either don’t want to be a burden or even simply because they’ve become a burden, criminals who will not be given the chance for repentance and reparations because MAN has decided to seek a death penalty, innocent children who are aborted every damn day of our lives. Maybe Satan’s greatest work is convincing man that they are god’s and have the right to chose who is worthy of life and who is worthy of death.
We must realize that we are all sinners – everyone of us. We are not god’s. One of the temptations Satan challenged Jesus with in the dessert…
Luke 4: 5-8 5 Then he took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a single instant.6 The devil said to him, “I shall give to you all this power and their glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I may give it to whomever I wish. d 7 All this will be yours, if you worship me.”8 Jesus said to him in reply, “It is written:‘You shall worship the Lord, your God, and him alone shall you serve.’”e
Satan understands one thing and this one thing completely. Man is weak. Satan’s entire mission is seeking to exploit the weak among us. How do we combat this? The only way to combat evil, the only way to beat the temptations of Satan is through God. Everyday of our lives we must actively seek God and ask not only for His love, but for His forgiveness because we are sinners. Pray for the strength to remain strong enough to avoid the empty promises of Satan in our weakest moments. So how do we remain strong? We pray, we get back to Mass, we get back to the sacraments, we place our faith in God well above our faith in anything else. The only answer to this all of this senseless violence is God.
So I am going to ask you to do three things. First, network. Ask people to pray, whether in a group or in the silence of their church, synagogue, home, car, office. Prayer is the best way, maybe the only way to avoid the temptations of Satan. Second, simply pray this prayer (or another one similar to this) that asks for the intervention of St. Michael to defend us in our battle against Satan. Third, this Friday at 3 PM (set a reminder on your calendar), take a few minutes to say this prayer. Together, unified in prayer, we can offer our pray to all those who have suffered death at the hands of Satan and the people he has drawn to his side…
Saint Michael Archangel,
defend us in battle,
be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil;
may God rebuke him, we humbly pray;
and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly host,
by the power of God, cast into hell
Satan and all the evil spirits
who prowl through the world seeking the ruin of souls.
Amen.[4]
Do something great for our Lord today – pray for the strength to battle Satan and all the evils spirits who roam the earth seeking our ruin.
God’s will, not mine, be done.
Be not afraid; just have faith.
Jesus, I trust in You.
St. Mary Magdalen Men of God 