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Evil Is an Opportunity for Good

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As I lay awake from the pain of a tooth that would soon go through a root canal crisis, I could do nothing else but channel surf at 2:00 a.m..  And what did I behold?  A bald fifty-something priest whose voice sounded like G. Gordon Liddy talking about evil.  Go To Article Highlights 

Really now, we all started to “get spiritual” because we feel that there is something depriving us of wholeness, didn’t we? If there wasn’t something missing, then we wouldn’t be spending so much time trying to fill that void.

As well, we all feel, from time to time, that bad things happen to us just when good things were about to happen. With the tsunami in the East, the mud slides in the United State and the famine in Africa, we often ask why do these bad things happen?

If we are more savvy, we ask, “Why is there evil in the world?”
I often have wondered the same, although I have always felt that evil was in the world because somehow in the beginning bad choices were made with the freedom we were given by God. And I still believe that.
Yet, there I was at 2 a.m., toothache and all, watching this bald priest, it was Father John Corapi. He sounded just like G. Gordon Liddy. What attracted me to him was that he was talking about his days in the culture of “Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll.” Wow! I thought, this guy must have had some ride with God!

Father Corapi was giving a lecture about how to deal with evil. We often get requests here at MySpiritualAdvisor.com on how to handle evil in our lives. It seemed good to get another point of view.
Father Corapi said, in the midst of his discussion, “God allows evil. We cannot deny it. But the reason God allows evil is so that good can come of it.”

“Yes!” I yelled (then I curled up in pain).

The Book of Job came immediately to mind. Satan roamed the earth looking for a good person and found Job. He challenged God to allow him to inflict evil on him. God allowed Job’s children, personal possessions and other earthly delights to be taken from him.
Then, Job had to sit through 34 chapters of bad advice from his friends and wife.

Finally, in Chapter 38 God answers Job and asks, “Who are you to question my ways?” And then he blesses Job with even more than he had before.

When the tsunami hit in Asia, it took the minds of Americans off of killing people in Iraq to saving lives in Sri Lanka, Thailand, et al.
When the mud slides hit California and people lost their homes, it caused the rest of the United States to stop doting on their riches and be thankful for the homes they have.

In both cases, the evil event caused people to stop and make sure that the lives which were lost were not lost in vain. Massive outpourings of relief often flow from usually shopping minded Americans. My need for another pair of shoes quickly vanishes when I see others with no shoes. My need for my life to be perfect is no longer a worry when I see others who have lost their lives.

To “get spiritual” we need to focus on evil as an opportunity to do good. We will return to this in a minute after we make another point.
Really, another thing that Father Corapi said influenced me as well. He said, “Satan only has as much power as you give him. He is powerless unless you cower in fear at his appearance and forget who you are.”

“Exactly!” I yelled (and then doubled over in pain again).
St. Theresa of Avila was confronted in the middle of the night with a terrible vision of Satan with horns and the whole bit as she was sleeping. It was recounted that she turned over to see the site and replied, “Oh, it’s you again.”

We need to have the same type of response to evil and Satan. We need to remember that we are spiritual beings who are called by God to seek him, love him and live in the reality that we are on this earth temporarily. Our real focus is on others until we can rest eternally with the one Eternal Other in heaven.

Our response to Satan needs to be confidence in God, not fear of him.

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