We need not fear Satan if we stay close to Jesus and his mother

by Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann

I am grateful for the prayerful response by so many in the archdiocese regarding the attempt by the Satanic Grotto of Leavenworth to conduct satanic worship in the Kansas Capitol.

The Church of the Assumption of Our Lady as well as St. Joseph Church in Topeka were both full on March 28 for a Holy Hour of adoration followed by a Votive Mass for Mercy. I am also aware that many of our parishes also offered opportunities for prayers for a renewal of faith in the state of Kansas, as well as the conversion of those who worship Satan, the Prince of Darkness and Father of Lies.

The Satanic Grotto is a very small group that sadly sought to blaspheme God and to mock Christians generally and Catholics in particular. Our response was to praise and glorify God for his goodness. The satanic group desired to provoke confrontation, confusion, chaos and disharmony. Our response was to unite in prayer and adoration to God as well as to pray for mercy and conversion of hearts for those who sought to blaspheme God and insult people of faith, particularly Christians.

I encourage you to read an article entitled “A Black Mass in Kansas?” by Joe Heschmeyer, a native Kansan and a member of the archdiocese. It can be found on the Catholic Answers website.

Heschmeyer acknowledges the divisions among those who identify as satanists. This should not be surprising, since high among the devil’s priorities is to divide and foster chaos.

Some satanists truly worship Satan as their lord and master. However, probably a greater percentage in our society are actually atheists, who seize upon the figure of Satan as a symbol of rebellion against God and religion. Part of their purpose is to both shock and mock Christians. The leader of the Satanic Grotto has been quoted saying that he does not believe in God or Satan.

Most atheists do not mock or attack religion. They simply do not believe there is anything beyond the material world. Personally, I think it takes much more faith to be an atheist than a Christian.

Atheists look at the complexity as well as the order in the cosmos and physical world only to conclude this all just happened by chance. Atheists admire and marvel at the beauty of nature, at the diversity of multiple forms of life, and at the unique abilities of human beings to think, to ponder, to create amazing art, music and literature, only to surmise this just all happened! It all happened against the most impossible odds.

It is more reasonable, I believe, to conclude that all that we can see, touch and encounter in the material world did not just happen. There must be an intelligence that designed the complexity and order within the physical universe. Science itself makes no sense if there is not order, and thus predictability, in the material world.

Christians believe something even more beautiful and powerful than that: There must be a Creator. We believe that the Creator of the cosmos seeks to reveal himself to us and desires to have a relationship — actually, a friendship — with us.

God has given to human beings the unique power to choose to embrace his plans and desires for us or to reject them. Among all of creation, we have been entrusted with the ability to love God, to desire goodness, or as in the case of our first parents, to reject God in an effort to be our own gods.

We believe the Second Person of the Triune God chose to immerse himself in our humanity by becoming an embryo in the womb of Mary, to be born in the humble circumstances of Bethlehem, grow up in a small town in an obscure region of the world, spend most of his adult life as a laborer, conduct his public ministry of healing, teaching and forgiving in a relatively short time, and eventually allow himself to be physically and emotionally tortured and even crucified on Calvary to reveal the depth of God’s love and mercy.

God entered fully into our humanity so that we could share in his divine and eternal life. On Easter, Jesus defeated sin and death by his resurrection. Our Lord did not promise his disciples that we would never experience adversity or suffering. He challenged his disciples to embrace the cross, to follow Our Lord all the way to Calvary and thus to strive to follow his example of heroic love. This is the essence of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

As Christians, we believe in the reality of Satan. We are wise not to underestimate the power, craftiness and ability to deceive of the Prince of Darkness. We should be wary of his ability to confuse and fool us, just as he did our first parents. Jesus came to reveal to us that God does not love us because of our perfection, but because of his capacity to love perfectly, to love us even in our sinfulness.

In the Gospel, we find many examples of Our Lord’s power over the devil. If we remain close to Jesus, then we need not fear Satan. If we place ourselves under the mantle of Mary — his mother and our mother — we need not fear, because she is always drawing us closer to her Son.

We need to have mercy and compassion for those who do not know God and who do not know Jesus — God’s Word, his ultimate revelation of himself. We need to pray for atheists and satanists, that God might penetrate their hearts with his merciful love. We need to ask the Lord to help us live faithfully his Gospel, so that others will see in us a peace, compassion and joy that will draw them not to us, but to the One who is the way, the truth and the life.