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| This column is the bishop’s communication with the faithful of the Diocese of Madison. Any wider circulation reaches beyond the intention of the bishop. |
Dear Friends,
For those who are willing to see, it doesn’t take much looking to notice the evil that surrounds us. Lies and deceit, violence and murder, hatred and malice, and more and more often, vice treated as virtue.
This evil, caused by human sinfulness, surrounds us; it tears at our families, our Church, our country, and our world. It is why Pope Francis has made mention of evil and the evil one in a large majority of his talks and homilies thus far. Evil is real and it is prevalent.
Call for New Evangelization
This is also especially the reason that our recent popes have all made such a call for the New Evangelization. It is vitally important for us to, “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel (Mk 16:15).”
And what does it mean to “go into the whole world” for us in this day and age? The regions of the earth which have not been touched by missionaries are very few — though there is certainly hard work still being done in “foreign missions” — yet Christ’s command to us is the same, “go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel!” What the command means for us is to actually proclaim the Good News, the Gospel message, inviting the people we encounter — our friends and neighbors, our co-workers and families to have a life-changing encounter with Jesus Christ!
Rooting out the evil in the world
There should be no doubt that there is evil in the world; we can see it all around. But one first step in rooting out evil is naming the evil and taking responsibility when we are cooperators in it.
This taking responsibility for one’s mistakes and — yes — sins, is especially unpopular in our day and age. And to name a sin is considered especially politically incorrect. But it’s possible to name a sin, and to call others to a higher way without judging the individual. It is not condemning another simply to say that particular actions are wrong, are sinful, but in our day even making any truth claim is considered politically incorrect.
The New Evangelization means that we must tell the truth with love — and yes, make the claim that there is a truth and that Jesus is “the way, the truth, and the life.” And so the New Evangelization must be carried out with love, but it simply cannot be done in a way that is politically correct. So, if people want to make nice and be politically correct, they disqualify themselves from carrying out the New Evangelization. It can’t be done that way.
Asking our Blessed Mother to help crush evil
And the one who can really help us out more than anybody else is our Blessed Mother, because she knows what evil is. She stood there at the foot of the cross and watched it on display. She knows very, very well what evil is.
When it comes to praying for intercession in our fight against evil we think first of St. Michael the Archangel, and he is a powerful force to whom we should turn. But the greatest and most powerful creature (human or angelic) we can turn to is Mary. She is the one who can help us to be evangelized and transformed ourselves, by God’s grace, and she is also the one who, in the end, will crush the head of the ancient serpent beneath her feet. She will crush the father of lies.
Satan is the father of lies and enemy
Satan is the father of lies and the enemy of our human nature. We see from the beginning his role in turning the plan of God on its head by encouraging our first parents to choose against God.
The ancient serpent convinced first the woman and then the man to do precisely what God said not to do. And that is how evil came into the world, by one choice to exclude God. Anytime God is made to be absent, there is evil. And, we see the pain and suffering that was wrought by that exclusion of God.
But, God desired to turn things around once again and he did it by way of a woman, by allowing her to choose to say, “yes,” to Him and to His plan.
Mary was vessel of evangelization
Mary, the most perfect human being ever to live, offered the most perfect “yes” to God and thus God came into the world. It is through Mary that God was able to redeem and lift up humanity, by her son’s sacrifice. Mary was the very first vessel of evangelization. She literally brought the Good News into the world with every ounce of her being.
And so, the Blessed Mother could not be more relevant, nor could we stand in greater need of her help. So beginning with the daily Rosary and with all the other devotional practices to Mary, under her various titles (The “litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary,” is so beautiful: “Mirror of Justice,” “Seat of Wisdom,” “House of Gold,” “Arc of the Covenant,” “Gate of Heaven,” “Morning Star,” etc), let’s turn to her. Let’s not fail to allow ourselves to be nourished by the mother’s love that Mary has for us, as only she can give it, because Jesus Himself gave her to us and said, “Behold, your mother (Jn 19:27).”
So, let’s renew our devotion to our Blessed Mother as we conclude this month of May, and, in doing so, let’s realize that the one who will finally crush the head of the ancient serpent is the best one to help us learn how to deal with the evil that surrounds us in 2013.
Thank you for taking the time to read this! May God continue to bless you, through the intercession of the Blessed Mother! Praised be Jesus Christ!