22nd Tuesday - Protection Against Evil Spirits

 In the Gospel today, Jesus frees a man possessed by an evil spirit. Our Lord reveals His divine power over evil spirits by expelling the demon. Jesus is God. He is uncreated, always existed and is all powerful. An evil spirit is a fallen angel created by God. Demons and angels are much more powerful and much more intelligent than humans. Yet Jesus, comes to our help when we need Him the most.

Today, there is a terrible battle between the forces of evil and the Church which is God’s people on earth. The devil wants sins to be hidden, rather than to brought into the light by transparency; cowardice verse courage; lies, rather than truth; pride vs. humility; disobedience vs. obedience, unfaithfulness vs. faithfulness; vice rather than virtue; scandal vs. glory; destroy lives vs. give life; impurity vs. purity; mistrust vs. trust.

We are warriors in the battle. And we are called to take up arms. We must put on the shield of the scapular to protect us. Take out the weapon of the Rosary with its bullets (Hail Marys), use the Word of God as our sword, and put on the helmet of salvation, by our mental daily prayer. And we must fast, regularly to cast out the evil from our Church. We should fast for the leadership of our Church, the pope, cardinals, bishops and priests and reinforce them in the great battle. We can do these things in reparation for the sins. We trust, Jesus will come to save His Church and expel the demons and evil from within, so that it may be free of this diabolical attack.

We should especially pray the St. Michael prayer regularly. He was a lowly archangel, who led the battle against Lucifer and the bad angels and cast them out of heaven due to their disobedience to God. Especially at times we feel tempted or the become aware of the devils tactics we can ask St. Michael to help us.

May, the Virgin Mary help us in this battle against evil, knowing She has been commissioned to crush the head of the serpent and may St. Michael and all the good angels come down from heaven to do battle with us, so as to win the battle for souls and save the Church from tyranny.