Jim Mahoney's Blog - Sacred to Etc.

March 13, 2022 - Evil Is Real

Raphael painted this picture in 1518 to show Satan being driven from the garden. Popular symbols in people's imagination were used to depict Satan. Sometimes, perhaps often, we have our own pictures of evil. Great painters like Raphael helped to influence our imaginations on what Satan looked like. In truth, we do not know. The picture of Satan as a little person in a red suit, horns, and pitchfork, are simply the imagination of greeting card companies -and have precious little to do with the reality of evil itself. 

Here are pictures of people identified as evil over the past few centuries.

 

 

 

 

 

And in sacred memory of the good people of Ukraine whose lives have been permanently destroyed by this despot.

 

This brief list could go on and on. Fortunately, and obviously, this list is far shorter than the list of incredibly good people. I am always saddened when political leaders are drawn to evil people. Evil is insidious. Evil is corrupting. 

Just compiling these few people's photos was sad. It reminds me to pray even more for people who are drawn to evil people. They have eyes to see and see not - ears to hear and hear not. Sigh. 

March 4 - We begin the season of Lent by thinking about evil

In Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel, we see powerful of good and evil as seen through the mind and imagination of Michelangelo. The devil is reaching for us - groping for us - somehow pulling us in. This is a decent way to begin the season of Lent - because we are confronted by evil and ask God to deliver us from evil. The last days of Lent is our dramatic reminder that evil will no longer win if we can indeed turn away from evil in our own lives. Easier said than done, but it must be done.

I write this post in the first days of Lent, it is so easy to think of evil and that monstrous is causing in Ukraine. It is also easy to picture over and over again the people in Ukraine who are suffering and devastated beyond belief. We opened Lent last Wednesday by receiving ashes on our foreheads - and invited to be faithful to the Gospel. At the end of Lent, we will discover again the extraordinary truth that lies at the heart of all our beliefs - life wins. Death and evil lose. Thank God.

Let's join with each other during these 40 days. (author's note: I find Lent too long - but that is my problem and no one else's!)  But I'll stick it out for the 40 days since that is what is required. Lent gives us some difficult challenges - can we change enough to be faithful to what Easter is all about? Can we go on a tough journey of looking intensely at our "inner" selves to try to show the love of God in every thing that we do? Will we realistically acknowledge how far we each have to go before we really get the message of Jesus? (May this is why I struggle during the 40 days - this is actually tough!)

 

Here's an example of a "cute" devil. Sigh. I wish people would not make the devil cute. It trivializes the reality of evil. There should be nothing attractive about evil. So - we must try to stay aware of the reality of sin and evil during Lent.  I do think that people will now start to think of evil when they think of the monster who has brought such terrible things into our world.

Pray for everyone who is suffering because of that man's evil deeds. Pray for the people of the Ukraine who have fled their homes. Pray for all those who have fought for freedom and liberty and human dignity.

Lord, help us all.

(My intention during Lent is to write more frequently than once a week.)