Latest / The Catholic Current / LTACL: Satan's Biggest Fear? (Fr. Robert McTeigue, S.J.) 7/27/26

Transcript

LTACL: Satan's Biggest Fear? (Fr. Robert McTeigue, S.J.) 7/27/26 · The Catholic Current

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  Well, we did it. I asked, you answered,
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  I'm responding. You remember recently I did a video and I said,
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  you know what, I think the contemporary world just can't
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  deal with real evil. There's evil that's
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  irrational, unreasonable, untractable, whatever word you want to use,
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  but you can't dialogue with it. You can't have a
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  meeting with it, and you can't ask evil to behave. And why
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  can't we all just get along.
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  And happily, a lot of Christians know that. They take
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  spiritual warfare seriously. And there's a whole lot of
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  good information, some information,
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  and a lot of resources for building up your
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  spiritual immune system, for resisting
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  evil, for praying against temptation, etc., etc.
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  And some folks have drawn attention to what I call some
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  of the more exotic forms of evil and some
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  of the more dramatic ways of fighting against
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  that more exotic evil. And while that's interesting and that's exciting,
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  something really important is being
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  overlooked. And I would be remiss if I didn't mention it,
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  if I didn't tell you what I believe is Satan's
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  biggest fear. Stay with me. I got a story to tell. Hi, I'm Jesuit
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  Father Robert McCabe, your host every day here at the Catholic Current, coming to you
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  from the Station of the Cross Catholic Media Network. Let's take a closer look.
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  Glad you're here. Back in 1991, Anthony Hopkins,
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  an actor whom I admire, starred in a movie called The Rite,
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  R-I-T-E, and it was a Hollywood account of
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  exorcism and possessions and so on. Anthony Hopkins plays, uh,
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  the grizzled old exorcist, and I'll admit I have a special sympathy for
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  grizzled old spiritual warriors. Well, there's a
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  young man who's a transitional deacon. He's about to be ordained a priest.
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  He's having a crisis of faith, and he starts working as
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  an assistant to Father Anthony Hopkins. And this guy
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  is really thinking about just chucking it all in, walking away.
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  Well, suffice to say, Hollywood happens. The movie happens. There's drama,
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  there's histrionics, and eventually the deacon
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  recovers his faith. He's ordained a priest, and how the
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  movie ends is outstanding. What does
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  Father do? Young, newly ordained Father, seeing all that
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  he's seen of the exotic and the most extreme forms of evil, you know what
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  he does? He walks into his parish church,
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  puts himself into the confessional, and starts to
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  hear confessions. And that's how the movie
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  ends. And I thought that was excellent because every expert,
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  every saint, every pope would agree that the most
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  reliable form of protection and warfare against spiritual
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  evil, against the diabolical, is sacramental
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  confession. Not often the stuff of very great high drama,
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  but if we have our spiritual immune system boosted
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  by that, we can break chains, we can get free.
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  And people who I know who are in the business, so to speak,
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  when someone presents with unusual symptoms,
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  the first thing they do, their go-to
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  is sacramental confession. Now, I would say that
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  even though reports of exceptional dramatic displays
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  of evil are on the rise, even if we take them at
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  face value, that's still relatively rare.
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  Rare. What 99.99999%
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  of Catholics need to do is go to confession
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  regularly. And unless you're
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  living, I don't know, in, in China, or you're being hunted
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  down in Nigeria, most Catholics have an
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  opportunity to go to confession more than once
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  a year. I know for some people, they think once a
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  year is satisfactory or Lent and Advent.
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  No, no, no. If you can go to confession once
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  a month and you choose not to,
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  I wouldn't want to be responsible for your soul. I just
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  wouldn't. I don't see how a Catholic who's
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  able to go to confession once a month and then chooses not
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  to go once a month can say that he's serious about the
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  faith. So absolute bare minimum,
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  minimum spiritual hygiene is sacramental
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  confession once a month, preceded of course by an honest
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  examination of conscience. And I would like to see everybody step
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  it up and go to confession twice a month. More often
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  than that, consult with a spiritual director, with,
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  or with your pastor. But barest possible minimum,
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  once a month. Really regularly, twice a month.
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  But wait, there's more, because discipleship isn't
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  just about sin management, it's also about growth.
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  And we can't grow spiritually if we
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  don't cultivate the virtues. If we
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  don't exercise self-control and intelligence and
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  justice and charity and mercy,
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  then we're useless in the war against evil.
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  So we have some work to do. We need to
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  find the nearest place where we can go to confession regularly. We need
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  to find a good examination of conscience. And as part of our examination of conscience,
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  we have to ask ourselves, What's the spiritual trash and excuse-making
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  I need to get rid of? And what are the
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  good things, the good seeds that need to be planted in my life?
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  And then with God's grace, act accordingly.
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  So this is my response to my— your response
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  to my initial inquiries. Would you like to see more
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  very practical, basic, the fundamentals
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  of fighting this spiritual battle? Let me know in the comments section below or
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  contact me at thestationofthecross.com/askfather.
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  Meanwhile, think of these things today, take them to prayer, and talk about it
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  with those you love. Go in peace, and please do pray for me, for I
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  am a sinner.