August 14, 2007

It wasn’t the best night to be traveling. I was at Ware Station, Hertfordshire, England, after having attended a family wedding; and I was waiting for a train to take me back into London. It was also the day of the F.A. cup final, English football’s equivalent to the Superbowl. Groups of young men, many of them having been drinking since early afternoon, were also waiting for the train. One drunken man standing close to the platform edge was yelling obscenities at a young woman from Eastern Europe. A train pulled in, not the one I wanted, and when the doors opened, a giant of a man tumbled out. He headed straight toward me. “Where did you come from?” he shouted and thundered past me. The train departed and there were still groups of people waiting for the London-bound service. One of the young men standing in a group near to me looked over. “Jeesus!” he mocked. I showed no reaction. Again, “Jeesus!” A short while elapsed, then “The devil is my father.” The train came in shortly after that and the journey back to London was uneventful, allowing me an opportunity to reflect on this incident.

The phrase that the young man uttered was echoing through my mind. “The devil is my father.” In his desire to provoke, he probably didn’t realize what he was saying. The good news was that he recognized I was a disciple of Jesus. My religious habit, and hopefully my disposition, witnessed to that. But he seemed to be speaking a truth on behalf of a secular anti-Christian culture.

In his recent book, Jesus of Nazareth, Pope Benedict XVI writes about the “exorcistic” character of Christianity in reference to when Jesus sends out the first disciples “…to preach and have authority to cast out demons.” (Mk 31:4) He writes of our world, “…in which the Christian is threatened by an anonymous atmosphere, by something in the air that wants to make the faith seem ludicrous and absurd to him. And who could fail to see the poisoning of the spiritual climate all over the world that threatens the dignity of man, indeed his very existence?” (p. 175)

As disciples of Jesus, we are called to take our part in the “exorcising” of our culture. How? By uniting ourselves closely to Our Lord through frequent communion, regular confession, reading of Sacred Scripture, and fervent prayer, calling on the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and all the angels and saints. Then the light of Jesus will shine through us in the power of the Holy Spirit, enabling us to illumine the darkness, to “exorcise” the culture, and bring the Kingdom of God to our everyday environments.

“Little children, you are of God, and have overcome them; for He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” (1 John 4:4)

Br. John Bosco Mills, CFR

St. Fidelis Friary, Canning Town, England

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