Responding to Evil

Three ways to respond to Evil: Discern which you are thus called.

Some evil must be endured, while other evils must be fought, and finally some evils must be evaded. In the three ways we may choose to respond to evil, we must discern how it is that the Lord wills us to respond to evil.

Evil that is to be endured is evil that cannot be overcome. Yet sometimes it can be overcome and nonetheless must still be endured. Christ endured the passion of the Cross in order to render to us Salvation.

Although He demonstrates in saying “I am” in the garden that He had power to walk free, He chose not to. He endured for the Will of the Father who sought our debt paid in full. For this reason, such endurance leads to the healing and preservation of the good.

If, however we endure what God doesn’t intend us to endure, we will not obtain the supernatural grace to avoid being overcome by bitterness. Endurance can occur in a type of despair, whereby we simply reconcile ourselves to evil so that we must not exert energy in fighting or flying from it; this is sloth. Endurance therefore can be a vice if our reasons established are hidden from our own eyes, yet manifest an unwillingness to do God’s will.

Evil that is fought occurs when God places upon our shoulders the zeal and responsibility to confront with boldness and courage the forces of disorder, injustice and malice. Such a fight does not give way to malice in our own hearts, lest in principle we seek to overcome evil by becoming evil.

We fight evil with the good, the true and the beautiful. This is none other than the very authority of Christ exercised as our vocation as participants in His kingship, through baptism. We fight against powers and principalities so as to liberate out of mercy the enemy who has flesh.

It may be the case that we are called when timid to rock the hornets’ nest of the status quo, especially if we are attached to agreement and amiable circumstances. Yet we must first ask: does God intend me to fight or to fly or endure?

Finally, to run from evil can be a humble approach where we admit that we are not strong enough to endure or confront. It may be the case that evil itself grows by fighting or enduring, as we see with internet trolls or those who trolled Christ. He fled from the midst of crowds that sought to throw him off a cliff or stone him. Not because he could not overpower them or survive even such a fall. Rather because in doing so, it would only cause the evil in their hearts and the crowds to be rooted even more.

Flight therefore is not an act of cowardice when done in God’s will; as it restrains ourselves in meekness and offers our enemies room for growth. It also chastens the enemy, whereby we do not submit to their dialogue on their terms, in their false narratives. We opt out of the whole sinister game, demonstrating a freedom from manipulation. We do not dialogue with the devil who speaks to us through his children who bear flesh. And by this, we do not feed the bully the attention for which he always finds new ways to reach. With nothing but energy to exert his malicious will, he then punches thin air, and finds himself entirely alone by his own fault.

Yet, if we flee from evil not of our calling but of cowardice, it will only follow and grow more determined. If it is an evil we ought to overcome, it grows in strength as we validate the lie that it is stronger than us through God’s grace. If we seek to run rather than endure when called as such, then we ourselves fail to grow callouses that are intended to increase our strength to love in patience.

The bottom line is that we must discern how God intends us to respond to evil, and not rely upon our automatic preferences that may be rooted in our fallen dispositions.

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Photo: Jeremy Lapak, Unsplash / PD-US