Be Normal

By Fr. Jerry Pokorsky ( bio - articles - email ) | Jul 30, 2024

God is the God of nature and natural goodness. The Psalms exalt God’s creation. “The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.” (Ps. 19:1) Another Psalm is a playful litany of God’s handiwork. “The young lions roar for their prey, seeking their food from God.” (Ps. 104:21) Jesus heals the sick. He raises the dead. His miracles bring God’s created handiwork to a natural fulfillment. His transformative miracles do not violate nature.

Jesus performs mighty deeds that glorify humanity. God brings “forth food from the earth, and wine to gladden the heart of man, oil to make his face shine, and bread to strengthen man’s heart.” (Ps. 104:14-15) At the wedding feast in Cana, Jesus hastens the fermentation of water into wine. The grains of wheat find completion in bread, and the multiplication of the loaves feed the multitude. A beautiful pattern emerges. Jesus heals, enhances, and elevates nature—God’s handiwork.

Even the Eucharist is a natural extension of God’s gifts and the work of human hands. Through the mediation of a priest enunciating the sacred words of Jesus at the Consecration, ordinary bread becomes the supersubstantial bread of the Body of Jesus. Wine is mainly water. The miraculously fermented grape beverage enriches the joy of the marriage celebration at Cana. And wine becomes the Precious Blood of Jesus in the Eucharist. It takes leisure time, prayer, and intellectual effort to rejoice in the integrity and glory of nature—the handiwork of God.

Evil is unnatural. Evil deforms our natural existence and brings misery and death. Satan abuses creation to glorify evil; he hates nature; he disfigures nature, and he abuses nature. But not without our cooperation. In the early pages of the Gospel, Satan tempts Jesus in the wilderness to change rocks magically into bread and to take a swan dive off the precipice of the temple for the devil’s derisive entertainment. He aims to redirect Jesus’ worship to himself. Satan uses the splendor of God’s handiwork to goad Jesus in devil worship, reversing the natural order of creator and creation. Satan similarly tempts us to choose the unnatural, the abnormal, and the bizarre.

Diabolical temptation is a paradox of our existence after the Fall of Adam and Eve. Temptation is unpleasant, but it is not a sin. We usually underestimate the extent of God’s favor when He allows the devil to tempt us. As the Book of Job reveals, the afflictions of temptation are often signs of our good standing with God. Temptation also prompts us to resist and grow in virtue. We should be grateful when we feel, recognize, and emerge victorious over temptation. Satan hates our friendship with Jesus and tempts us more violently—afflicting our memories, imaginations, and emotions when we are in the state of grace. So we frequently invoke the words of Jesus, “Begone, Satan!”

Satan may reduce his temptations when we develop—with God’s grace—the armor of virtue (as we often see in the elderly). But Satan also backs off when temptation accomplishes its seductive mission and we wallow in evil. Satan does not tempt a broken man. He abuses him. Satan stands atop the twisted wreckage of degraded human nature in grotesque displays of victory over human decency. Institutional depravity and other edifices of evil replace successful temptations and ruined consciences.

Government and major corporations have become institutional agents of WOKE degradation. Most government school officials support the usual perversions and genital mutilation of children. Even the Olympics are not immune from institutional debauchery. The President of El Salvador reports violent gangs in Los Angeles and El Salvador have erected altars for child sacrifice. Child sacrifice in the US is less honest. Planned Parenthood and medical and political institutions enshrine abortion presuming to give us the right to destroy God’s handiwork.

Like IRS regulations, mandatory compliance replaces temptation with the institutionalization of evil. But as a narcissist, Satan can’t resist taking center stage. Melodrama is the devil’s signature characteristic. He knows we prefer scary and bone-chilling demons because it’s exciting, and he manipulates our obsessions to distract us from God. Grotesque distortions of nature induce more clicks and pop-up ads than ordinary goodness.

The guild of Catholic exorcists seems increasingly necessary. But slick web sites and celebrity exorcist appearances on talk shows enhance the devil’s narcissism. (The movie The Exorcist scared the stuffings out of a generation of movie enthusiasts but failed to frighten most Georgetown Jesuits and bring them to conversion. Alas, a scholarly priest ruefully observed in private, too many exorcists unwittingly work for the enemy.

There’s no harm in adventure stories. A scary story or two is often harmless entertainment. But in our troubled existence, we and our children usually look to the bizarre to escape the sting of conscience and soothe the boredom of living an ordinary life. Television and smartphones babysit our kids and introduce them to the abnormal portals of hell.

The most effective weapon against the devil is a return to nature as God created it and as He elevates it by His grace. Creation is good. Our humanity is good. Men and women need each other. We need loving and healthy marriages and families for happiness. Children bring us joy (unless they’re running in the church’s elegant gardens and chewing up the landscape, but I digress).

The sacraments accompany, purify, and uplift human nature. Baptism washes away sin and incorporates us into the Mystical Body of Christ. The Eucharist is food for our souls. Confirmation strengthens us with the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. Penance prunes away our sins. Matrimony governs families; Holy Orders governs parishes. Anointing of the Sick prepares us to endure suffering and meet God.

God’s revelation, His law, the miracles of Jesus, the institution of the Eucharist, and the Sacraments do us no harm. They restore us to the glories of everyday natural goodness and prepare us for eternal happiness.

Aghast at institutionalized evil in the world—and even within the Church? Fight back. Be normal.