Over the past couple of weeks, the threat of a reenactment
of a Satanic mass rocked the Christian, especially Catholic, websites and
blogosphere. I won’t rehash the story here but if you’ve been in the dark you
can read about it here: Satanic Black Mass
I think the response from the Catholic world was spectacular.
Churches, universities, groups around the country mobilized for Masses and Holy
Hours. I got into a conversation online about how we should respond. One person
in the conversations said that since she can’t directly do anything she has to
let go because God can take care of himself.
Now while I do agree that God can take care of himself and
does take care of us, I believe there is a right response we should have. Now
in defense of the person I was speaking with, the person was in agreement of
the abhorrent actions being taken by those wanting to “reenact” the black mass.
Although the group claimed they weren’t using a consecrated host, Satan IS the
father of lies. The Eucharist is the source and summit of our faith. It is the
most precious sacrament we have. We should defend it. I began to think about
the careful actions we take to prevent harm coming to Jesus in the consecrated
bread and wine: In mass the extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist aren’t
supposed to let people proceed if they don’t consume the host (due to people
doing what the satanic group claimed they weren’t), when purificators and
corporals get stained or old we burn or bury them, we create special sinks to
make sure that the fragments of the host that are cleaned out of the vessels
goes into the ground and not into the sewage system, some parishes still
utilize patens to place under people’s mouths when they receive on the tongue,
and there are procedures for when the host or blood is dropped.
When Peter realized that Jesus was going to be taken
prisoner he chose to physically defend Jesus and used his sword to attack the
servant Malchus John 18:10
. Now, I am not condoning violence, but I wouldn’t have been surprised nor
upset if someone infiltrated the “reenactment” and attempted to take the
Eucharist away.
The righteous anger that brewed in the Catholic community
initiated the great action of prayer. Truth will always win out. John speaks of
a double edged sword coming out of Jesus’ mouth during one of his apocalyptic
visions. This double edged sword is the Gospel. ( Revelation 1:16
, Revelation 19:15, ) During this time of Satan making the headlines (he's always in the headlines, just this time he's there in name) I’ve been able to learn
about some of the people he lost to the double edged sword. The very man (Joris
Karl Huysmans) that wrote the book the Satanic Temple was going to use to
“reenact” the black mass, a year after its being published, returned to
Catholicism and died as a Benedictine oblate. And Bartolo Longo
, a man from a devout Catholic family, went from leaving his faith to being
ordained a satanic priest, to coming back to his faith and becoming a Third
Order Dominican.
