Is the World Our Enemy?

We need to be careful today when we talk about evil, as the “battle” between good and evil continues to spread its heat.

It is so easy, very easy, to take up language that promotes an unhealthy view of sin and evil.  The real challenge lies in recognizing sin and how we name evil.  To use “me against the evil world” language, is to move into very dangerous territory.

Why?

For one thing, in doing so, we may step into *heresies that have been floating around for centuries and recognized for their false claims.  There are many, too many, for me to go through here (and their moving parts are complex), but let’s just say that the idea that the enemy of Christianity is the world, and that the world is evil, or that the enemy of Christianity is the flesh, and that flesh is evil, is way off base. 

The enemy of Christianity is not, in fact, the world.  Nor is it flesh (which may be referred to as “matter.”)  You see, the religions that have broken with Christianity, and some of the heresies they have professed, would have us thinking that the world is a dark and evil place, getting darker every day. This is simply not true, and to take up this idea is to make a very grave error.

In fact, in the very first book of the bible, Genesis, we can see that the world is not evil in and of itself.  We learn that God did not think so, after all, he created it!  In fact, numerous times we can find in Chapter 1 that God “found it very good.”

And to put a finer point on it, I read just recently that to imply that all flesh is evil is to deny the very incarnation of Christ, who became man in the **flesh to save us!  Yes, Jesus himself came in the flesh, so how can we, in our very 

nature, be evil?

God has not given up on this beautiful world that he created, and neither should we.  To see it only from the perspective of sin and darkness is to miss a great deal.

In fact, the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC 32) reminds us that “one can come to a knowledge of God as the origin and the end of the universe” by looking at the world itself and seeing its “order and beauty.” 

Now, that is not to say that evil does not exist in the world and that we do not have to work against it, or to deny that human beings do act in evil ways, but evil being in the world does not make the world itself evil.  There is a big difference here.

Man is good, but we do have to acknowledge we have an ***inclination to sin and we have to do everything we can to restrain our desires from choosing to act in ways that go against God and the good of ourselves and others.

The other danger in some of these heresies—probably the main problem—is that they set up evil as if it is an equal power to God.  In Christianity, we know that God is victorious over evil, particularly evidenced by Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection.

In the end, I’m just saying, be careful how you talk about the world, flesh, darkness and evil.  Evil is not a superpower that in and of itself can withstand the power of God; evil only has the power we allow it.

I have always said that if we spend all of our days talking about Satan and evil, who would like that most of all?

Let us spend our days in radical love, revealing the true power of God in this wonderful world he created.

God bless,

Janet Cassidy

Janetcassidy.com

*Heresy – the denial by a baptized person of some truth which must be believed, or an obstinate doubt concerning the same.

**Flesh – Jesus Christ in his nature, is 100% human and 100% divine.

***Inclination to sin comes from original sin.