From The Bishop

In a recent homily at Mass in the chapel of his residence (May 8, 2018), Pope Francis had a few things to say about the devil: “He seduces us; he knows how to appeal to our vanity and curiosity and we buy it all”. We see this very clearly in the First Reading from the 10th Sunday of Ordinary Time. Adam and Eve have been seduced by evil, “The serpent tricked me, and I ate.” They sinned and instead of facing God they tried to hide because they were afraid. Fear is one of the greatest weapons that Satan has in his arsenal. In the same homily, Pope Francis reminds us that we need not be afraid when faced with sin and evil because we have a powerful advocate in our Blessed Mother. He says that, “When children are afraid they go to their mother. ‘Mom, mom, I’m afraid.’ When they have bad dreams, they go to mom. Go to the Blessed Mother; she protects us.” We know that Mary is the new Eve and as we hear at the end of the First Reading there is enmity between Mary and Satan; she has great power over him and he is afraid of her. In the Gospel, we see that Jesus has ultimate power over Satan. When he tries to divide, Jesus is able to unite. Jesus reminds us that the way we stay united is by doing the will of the Father, “Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother”. Satan is real; however, we need not be afraid because he has been defeated by Jesus. All he can do is to try to seduce us with lies and trickery. He wants us to hide from God and not to follow the Divine will. Battling these temptations is a constant struggle; however, we have the help we need. For the past three Sundays we have been reminded of this fact as we focused on the Holy Spirit, the Holy Trinity, and the Holy Eucharist. We also have our Blessed Mother who will help us to battle against sin and evil in our lives. We need not be afraid!