W - Who Is Behind?

WHO IS BEHIND?

Sandy's husband was regularly coming home drunk, so she hatched a plan to cure him of the habit. On Halloween night she dressed up as a devil and hid behind a tree to catch him on his way home. When her husband came staggering down the sidewalk, she jumped out in her red horns and forked tail and pointed a pitchfork at him.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"I'm the Devil," she responded.
"Well, come on home with me then!" he said. "I married your sister!"

Does devil exist at all? Many people today do not believe that devil exists.

The Facts

Every time I go online checking my email, something interesting pops up: "Looking for Love?":
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A young woman in Florida wrote to Abby:

Dear Abby,
I recently turned 18 and started a new job as a waitress in an upscale café. I love my job, but there's one drawback. The other waitresses and I get hit on left and right by men in their 40s and 50s. I'm not talking about a few cute remarks, but rather lewd suggestions and asking for our phone numbers. One girl even had to file a police report because a 61-year-ole man kept coming by and waiting for her to get off work, even after she declined his invitation to go out. Where does the man that age get the idea that he can get a girl who's still in high school? And how do we let them down without sounding rude or risking our jobs? (Grossed out in Florida).

Abby: Where does he get the idea? In his dream, honey! How should you deal with it? Be friendly, be polite, and tell him that he reminds you of someone very special – your grandfather.

Another wrote:

Dear Abbey,
I have a serious crush on the minister at church, and I suspect he has similar feelings for me. He is divorced and seems a little shy. Is there some code of ethics that a minister must follow about dating parishioners? I'm a Methodist.

Weyauwega, Wisconsin: Gary Hirte, a high school scholar, star athlete and Eagle Scout whose name seemed to be in the local paper all the time, is accused of committing murder – not for money, or revenge, but just to see if he could get away with it. (Houston Chronicle, Thursday, Feb 26, 2004).

The One Who Is Behind

Who is behind all these temptations and terrible crime? The Devil!

Yes, the devil exists. This is a biblical fact. St. Luke tells us in the gospel, "Jesus was in the desert and the devil tempted him." The devil tempted Jesus. He is out there today to tempt us.

Many of us, however, have wrong idea about the devil. We think that the devil is ugly and scary. We have seen pictures of devil wearing red horns and carrying long pitchforks, pushing people into flames. At Halloween, we jokingly dress up in many different scary ways to express our images of the devil. Those are not real pictures of the devil. The real devil is very attractive, very charming, and very convincing.

Temptation, attraction, enticement, inducement, incentive, inviting are the techniques the devil uses to attract us. It is like bait. The devil is using many attractive bates to lure us.

The devil is luring many of us to exciting places where we had best not go, or lead us to decisions we had best not make. We, however, feel safe, comfortable and happy. We feel at home with the devil. We might be dating, marrying or working with the devil and do not feel scary at all.

Many people are fighting and working for the devil's way of life in our society.
Who is behind the court's decision in Massachusetts?
Who is behind the San Francisco Mayor's office?
Who is behind the adult entertainment industry?

For the sake of constitutional right to liberty and justice, the devil is guiding many people in our society to trade off the traditional understanding of marriage to an ambiguous untraditional definition of marriage.

For the sake of making profits, big wireless phone companies are preparing to offer ____ography, erotic, adult content entertainment.

The devil is very charming, very attractive, and very inviting. Temptation is everywhere. How can we fight against it.

The Weapons Against the Devil

First, we need to pay attention to what Moses does in the first reading. He constantly reminds the people to remember all the good things that God has done for them and commands them to be grateful and faithful to God.

He offers the firstfruits of the products of the soil to God. And he tells the people to bow down in God's presence.

Second, to fight the devil, we have to be filled with the Spirit of God. Jesus was filled with God's Spirit and led by the Spirit. That's why he can overcome temptations.

We come to church every Sunday to remember the great thing that God has done for us.
We come to church to offer the sacrifice of the Eucharist to God.
We come to church to remember that we are not living on bread alone, but also on the words of God.
We come to church every Sunday in order to profess that "We shall worship the Lord, our God, and him alone we serve."
We come to church every Sunday in order to confess our faith in Jesus as St. Paul says, "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."
We come to church to be reminded that we belong to God.
This helps us fight against the devil and win.

Rev. John Kha Tran