Genesis 2:18-24; Hebrews 2:9-11; Mark 10:2-16
Listening to the radio the other day I heard an interview with a gay man whose partner happened to be overseas. The presenter, a woman, kept referring to this man's partner as his 'husband'. I was intrigued; it didn't make sense. If his partner was his husband then what was he for his partner? His wife? Or was it a case of a marriage between two husbands?
Of course it wasn't a marriage at all; and that was precisely the problem. The more she used terms reserved to marriage, in a vain attempt to equate the disordered relationship of these two men with that noble institution, the more ludicrous her attempts became and the more she unwittingly sabotaged her own cause.
Her own cause? Am I saying this presenter is the woman behind the present world-wide push to have gay relationships established in law as equal to marriage? I don't think so. I think she has just jumped on the bandwagon, or maybe she is actually following orders either given her explicitly by management or implicit in the station's policies.
At any rate, I was acutely aware of a malign intelligence doing its best to destroy the Christian notion of marriage and to establish its own 'truth' among us.
So then, whose cause is it really? Where does station management get the idea that two men or two women can enter a relationship in any way resembling a traditional marriage? And who is responsible for the notion that life in the womb is not human life and can be terminated, in this State of Victoria (Australia), right up to the moment of birth?
This very afternoon I heard a State Member of the Victorian Legislative Council, Mr Bernie Finn, describe how, when the counting took place in the State Parliament and the numbers fell in favour of this diabolic law, and the pro-abortionists were slapping each other on the back and crowing about their win, he felt the tangible presence of the evil one in that place as he had never felt it before or since.
Is the strange confusion of values - the blatant overturning of everything we have lived by since the ten commandments were formulated - moral evolution or moral degeneration? Is it moral growth or moral collapse? Those who say there is no such thing as God will call it 'progress'; believers tremble because they see it as a foreboding of disaster.
One thing is clear and beyond dispute; it is God who is being attacked. And since this is so we are right to declare that the source of the present moral decay is ultimately the malevolent mind of Satan.
Before Satan can steal souls he must corrupt minds; and before he can do this he must steal hearts. The moral madness we see in today's world is the result of just such a process. The yeast of evil has spread through the whole of society; it is on our television screens, on our radios, in our newspapers and computer games and internet and movies.
In almost every movie showing today you can count any number of blasphemies and sacrileges and mortal sins presented with a brassy impudence and matter-of-factness which does all it can to give the impression that such deviations are normal and acceptable.
The words which accompany the vicious beats and sexual rhythms of what we call 'pop' music betray a malign intelligence too strong to attribute solely to their human authors.
I think it is time we recalled what (allegedly) happened to Pope Leo XIII as he was leaving the altar after morning Mass on 13th October 1884. According to the most common and popular version of events he experienced a sort of vision, in which he heard two voices, one of which he took to be that of Christ, gentle and kind, and the other that of Satan, guttural and harsh.
Satan said, “I could destroy Your Church if I had the time, and more power over those who give themselves over to my service.” And then Pope Leo heard Christ to answer, “You have the power, you have the time: 100 years.” Shortly thereafter Pope Leo XIII composed the St. Michael’s prayer which you will remember we used to say after every Mass.
The vision of Pope Leo XIII serves as a warning to us of what lies ahead. Satan does indeed seem to have continually increasing power over our world today. Whether we believe in his vision or not it truly seems, as Pope Paul VI remarked, that the 'smoke of Satan' has entered the Church. The awful litany of abuse cases and cover-ups is but one indicator of this crisis.
I said earlier that to corrupt minds Satan has first to steal hearts. Have you noticed that all, I repeat, all the arguments in favour of abortion, homosexuality, euthanasia, and so on, are emotions based? This is why those who argue for them always get personal, with lots of personal examples of 'hardship cases' to move your heart and immobilise your head. When issues have no basis in rational, reasoned, logical argument from principles the only recourse is sentimentalism.
Satan is corrupting the world and the Church and using many as pawns in his programme. Some are unwitting pawns and some he uses with their full and conscious co-operation.
Let us be on our guard! Evil is metastasing all around us. It is almost too late for reason but never too late for prayer, penance and Christian example.
Holy Michael, the Archangel, defend us in the day of battle; be our safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou, O prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God, thrust down to Hell, Satan and with him all wicked spirits, who wander through the world for the ruin of souls. Amen.
