The Fight Against Evil

 Early on in my spiritual instruction I was told that the more progress I made the more I would be assailed by evil in all its forms. We know from the lives of the saints that as they advance on the path towards God they are increasingly attacked by the demonic forces, and we can conjecture this is so because every person who escapes the dominion of those forces weakens their power. The general populace can be corrupted by general corruption but those seeking release from the net of this world require special attention. God allows this to take place because it tempers the soul. Unto the pure all things are pure. Evil can only work on us by bringing out our own weaknesses, but when they are brought out into the open they can be dealt with if we are honest, alert and true, and if we turn to God for help.

Greater progress equals increased attack. How does this work? One might think that evil thoughts and desires that arise in one's mind show one's own sinful nature, and they might do. But they might also be put there. In dreams, for instance, we might encounter horrible things but this does not necessarily mean these things arise from our own subconscious and are somehow unresolved parts of our own nature. They might be, but they might also be a demonic assault. Attack might come from outside and other people, but it more often comes from within our own mind and we must learn to recognise it and see it for what it is. Then we just don't react to it. We don't fight it because that gives it energy and attention. We simply ignore it.

Evil in all its forms, they said. Evil has many forms. Obvious evil is obvious. We can easily recognise it, but the devil is a trickster. He can lure us down a path of sin through apparent good. How many people have thought they were fighting for God and truth when they had been deceived into following their own desires or had adopted an idol of their own making as God? The devil has corrupted whole religions in this way, not to mention political ideologies, and he can certainly corrupt us on an individual level if we are not alive to the possibility. We might think we are serving God when we are really just serving ourself.

Evil attacks at our weakest points, and these are often aspects of our character of which we are unaware. In a way, the whole spiritual path is the fight against evil which really means against our own fallen nature. The temptations that came to Christ on the mountaintop will come to all of us eventually though perhaps not in such a dramatic fashion. The way to deal with them is as Christ did. Submit yourself to God and keep him as your only goal.

What makes a real saint is conquering evil. Imagine a saint who never knew evil, who was always sweetly loving. Isn't that rather a shallow thing? What gives depth and wisdom and nobility is fighting and conquering evil within oneself. Someone who has never known evil can never be a saint. Does this mean evil is part of God's plan? I don't know but I do know he uses it to make good even better. He's clever that way.