Spiritual Warfare

Patrolling Earth

State Route 200 in Marion County, FL

A recent daily Mass reading told the story of Job, who though an innocent, God-fearing man was pursued by evil. After losing everything and everyone except his wife in a matter of moments, he continued to praise God.

I remember in my younger days how unfair I thought his losses were. They’re still hard to comprehend in the grand scheme of things. But the truth is, there is no fairness on earth.

Which brings me to the first part of the reading. The part just before Job loses everything. Here are verses 6 and 7:

One day, when the angels of God came to present themselves before the LORD, the satan also came among them. The LORD said to the satan, “Where have you been?” Then the satan answered the LORD and said, “Roaming the earth and patrolling it.”

Did you catch that? Roaming the earth and patrolling it. Sobering as it may be though, we tend to think he’s roaming another part of the earth. Certainly not our part of the earth. Right?

But what if, as Fr. O’Doherty pointed out, we were to imagine him roaming down State Route 200 in Ocala? Or St Lucie Blvd in Stuart? Or insert-the-name-of-the-street-you-live-on?

If you look, you can find him—at least his influence—in hatred and vitriol that consume the internet. You can find him in vile lyrics of popular songs. His fingerprints are on human traffickers and in the abortion clinics. Wherever evil exists, so too does the satan.

Is it fair? To the human mind, no. But we do live in the valley of tears, after all.

Which isn’t to say we should live in fear. Not at all. God is the authority over all, including the satan. We should, however, know our one true enemy. We should all be on guard and cognizant of the fact that we’re in a daily spiritual battle between good and evil. And that battle is always taking place whether we acknowledge it or not.

So while the ultimate victory belongs to Christ who has already defeated, though not yet destroyed all the powers of hell, the prince of darkness is also the temporary prince of earth. As his time gets shorter and shorter, evil will continue to ratchet up. It will become easier and easier to see. And the satan will continue to roam and patrol the earth.

St. Michael the Archangel, pray for us!

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