PERSONAL EXPERIENCES OF EVIL

Since when I first left home in 1991 and started to live in the seminary, I had different life experiences in the community from being a college seminarian up to my state of life in the Seminaryo ng Don Bosco. I am now ending my first year of Theology in Paranañaque. Next school-year, if God is willing, I will be second year “theologian”.

One time I ask my Papua New Guinean confrere: Brods, how’s your second stay here in Philippines compared to the first time you came here as a Novice last 1994? He immediately answered me positively: “Oh, my life here is much better than the previous one. You see, I felt more free here, than before. The brothers are friendlier, and they accepted me as I am. I am happy here!.” Then I made a simply comment, “probably, the brothers now are more mature than before, is it not?”. “yeah”, he agreed, “maybe that’s the reason… before, when I was still a novice, that was terrible! There were many conflicts especially between me and the other Filipino companions.”

My point here is simple: when a community of people nurture an atmosphere of uneasiness with each other or whatever ill-feelings towards one another, each person is not happy about it. On the other hand, when people in the community, give some tolerance with each other and promote the freedom of everyone, there ambiance of the home is created and a feeling of goodness exists.

Such is my reflection of my personal experience with people in the community. Sometimes, I am confronted by situations in my community wherein a confrere argues with another person uselessly; or one shouted at another with no apparent purpose; or a brother grumbling against a formator with no real purpose of resolving the issue. Obviously, these are not good signs of a community. They make the community detestable in the eyes of the outsider.

I take for example of a brother who slept very late in the evening (actually it is morning already) busying himself with the Internet. Naturally, when that same brother wakes up next morning, he does not feel like waking up at 5:30 AM. But he has to; the community is waiting for him in the chapel. He entered the chapel groggy and is not predisposed to pray. Moreover, he does not feel very well; he seems to be sick at every tick of the wall clock.

At last, the prayers are over. He is about to go out from the chapel when another brother hurriedly overtakes him He staggers and seeks support toward the wall. When he had regained his poise, he sees the careless brother smiling at him and apologizing at his recklessness. That brother who woke up in the wrong side of the bed, may react like this: “you bastard, look at where you are going”. Or “have you not eyes to see that I am here, huh!”

That angry comment for just a very simple stimulus may affect the other person very badly. Of course, he will not feel good over that violent reaction. And so, instead of one brother, there are already two brothers, at this early morning, who do not feel good in themselves. These two brothers will later encounter another persons, who will be the future recipient their bad dispositions. Mind you, the time is still morning. The day is still long.

In the end, the community where this sleepy brother is in will not also feel right in themselves, all the same. The “virus” of the sleepy brother has spread. And there are still one, two, three years ahead of the community. What would I think about this community after sometime? Well, there will be factions among them for sure.

This reality is not only true for any religious community. This is also very evident in any society at large, and even the world community. However, I would tend to believe that this macrocosmic reality is happening with each and every person.

THE BEST TOOL OF THE DEVIL – SUBTLETY

I call it evil. Real evil is not “nothing” or “any absence of goodness”. Instead, evil is the presence of badness that exists in each person. This ‘badness’ is brought about by the limitedness of each individual person. Inasmuch as this is ‘badness’, when transmitted, will also cause another ‘badness’ to another person, until all have common badness in themselves. No one like to live in a bad environment, as evil is detestable to our human person. This continues on and on, until the person uses the higher faculty of his being – his being a human person, endowed with intellect and will.

Before the fall of the first man, the Bible introduced the serpent in this manner: “The serpent was the most subtle of all the wild beasts that Yahweh God had made (Gen 3: 1)”. To be subtle means to be difficult to detect, or not obvious, or abstruse, or clever. The serpent, in tempting Eve, is just that. He’s clever enough not to make Eve realize that everything it would say will be a lie. And Eve bites the temptation; she bites the fruit.

I think, the nature of any trace of evil in us is subtlety. The devil, the source of all evil, is clever enough to hide that evil from our consciousness, such that we are unconscious of it ourselves and those who are affected by our ‘badness’. The reality of evil lives in our community without us knowing it. When a person committed sin, but repents, he is still saved. But when he deny his sinfulness, he cannot be saved by any means. That person lives an evil life.

Scott Peck, M.D., in his book “People of the Lie”, treated the reality of evil as sickness, which is not just of psychological or spiritual concern. Rather, evil is multi-faceted. “Evil is the people of the lie, deceiving others as they also build layer upon layer of deception. Evil is not the sin (itself), but the refusal to acknowledge it (pp. 76 and 77).” It is because, the person/s concerned deny the evil in them out of unawareness. Rather, “evil, as the exercise of political power – (is that) imposition of one’s will upon others by overt or covert coercion, in order to avoid spiritual growth (The Road Less Traveled, p. 279). The evil person does not realize that he/she was the one who nurture this evil; instead he/she projects it on other people. Evil people are those who live a life of lies. And that is obviously the work of the great “serpent” in us.

THE DEVIL IS SUBTLE IN THE MOVIE “DEVIL’S ADVOCATE”

What this great author had said about evil is complemented with the story line of the film “Devil’s Advocate”:

Kevin Lomax (Keanu Reeves) is a success in the courtroom and out of it. He's a young Florida defense attorney who's never lost a case. No matter how repugnant the crime, no matter how guilty the defendant, Kevin Lomax has the power to mesmerize the jury into accepting his arguments, buying into his logic, being convinced by his charisma -- and freeing his clients.

Lomax enjoys a happy marriage with his sexy young wife, Mary Ann (Charlize Theron), and even has a good relationship with his straitlaced, church going mother (Judith Ivey)

One day Lomax is in court defending an alleged child molester. In order to win his case he has to break down the victim's composure just enough to make the jury wonder if a teenage girl might have lied about her teacher's slimy advances. In the end victory sided with Lomax, despite his own awareness that his client is guilty as sin.

Soon after, Lomax receives a visitor -- an urbane New York attorney (Ruben Santiago-Hudson) who explains that his powerful law firm has become aware of the Florida hotshot's acquittal record and would like to meet with him personally. Over the urgent objections of Lomax's mother, who asserts that New York City is the world's nexus of sin, Kevin and Mary Ann head for the Big

Apple and a look at the astounding luxury that life in the big city can offer the fortunate.

And Kevin Lomax meets John Milton (Al Pacino), the man who has summoned him in this extraordinary fashion. Milton, an earthy, brilliant and charismatic man, is the founder and head of Milton, Chadwick, Waters, a powerful, mysterious law firm with interests and clients all over the world. He's been watching Lomax and he wants him at the firm. He can make Kevin a very enticing offer, he says -- a home, a salary, a position in life that no one else can top.

Lomax, dazzled by the gorgeous apartment he's shown, the beautiful women and powerful men at Milton's parties, and the brilliant, accomplished partners in Milton's firm, grabs the brass ring. He and Mary Ann move into their elegant new home and begin a new life.

But as Lomax tastes the power of being a wealthy New York attorney, something in him changes. Winning is no longer just a goal -- it becomes an obsession. When Mary Ann starts telling her husband that the other partners' wives are not what they appear, that their life is not a good as it seems, that she's having frightening experiences she can't explain, he comforts her brusquely and ignores what she's saying.

So by the time he finds himself defending a wealthy real-estate developer (Craig T. Nelson) who's accused of three brutal murders, Kevin Lomax is thrilled by the challenge, not frightened by his growing belief that his client is guilty of an even bigger crime. Then Eddie Barzoon (Jeffrey Jones), the firm's managing partner, dies a sudden, horrible death. Mary Ann's terrified perceptions pull her away from sanity. Another law partner, the beautiful Christabella (Connie Nielson), teases Lomax so seductively he can hardly think.

Kevin's mother comes to New York and warns him that the situation has gone too far and there are certain things he needs to know. And through it all, John Milton keeps reminding his protégé that life is rich with possibilities for those who are unafraid to sample them. But Kevin is beginning to be afraid.

At the end, Kevin has to make a decision on his own – whether to consent his being son of the Devil himself or change the destiny of his life. Kevin chose the latter. And that makes his life heaven again.

Basing on the film, I would make two analyses that bear its foundational category on my personal experience and the idea of evil as living a life of lies. In the movie, Lomax peaceful hometown is contrasted with the highly complex and comfy New York City. Structurally, New York has everything, including the evil in society. In the film, New York is portrayed as a city with a web of deceit and lies. This is personified in the people around John Milton. I would even tend to believe that this society is wrapped up by the evil blanket of the devil himself, Milton. This company, unknown to all, prepares for the imminent victory of the son of the devil, Kevin Lomax, over the good.

Here comes the innocent newcomer, who was very naïve of what he is entering into. Kevin is now engulfed in the evil society where its values lie in fame, opulence, and power. Lomax’s thirst for these values begun to emerge right from the time when he discovered his client as truly guilty, but proceeded on to win his case at the expense of the innocent girl. He was now introduced into the culture where he rightfully belongs. Again, I would say that the intelligent lawyer has this intellectual blackout, too dull to realize that he preyed himself into the wild people who are ready to devour his peace of mind and conscience.

He resisted opening his mind to the truth, and chased that deceiving value which was perpetrated by Milton and company. Despite of his wife’s constant appeal to quit, he denied it as something unreasonable, not knowing that what he is doing is far fetched from a person of brilliant mind. And so evil goes on: evil people were continuously protected by the law, Eddie was killed, the criminal real-estate developer goes out unharmed, he becomes unfaithful and insensitive with his wife, and Mary Ann was raped by Milton himself.

Indeed, the entrance of Lomax into this company aggravates the work of the devil in the society of man. And he himself became sicker and more distorted in his values. His denial over his evil became worst. And as what Scott Peck had said, ‘evil people refuse to acknowledge their own failures and project their evil onto others (People of the Lie, p.69). In the case of Lomax, he does not see himself as evil; it is his wife who has something wrong. In fact he admitted her into the hospital for psychotherapy which ended her life, instead.

Temptation of the devil is such that Kevin Lomax was not aware the lie behind a very delectable offer. Lomax and his wife bite the great Apple (New York), thinking that it was the best event that happened in their life as a couple. It takes a religious woman to realize the ways of the devil, in the person of Kevin’s mother.

WE ARE ALL “ADAM AND EVE’s” to ourselves and to our neighbors by our denial of evil (conclusion)

Temptation poses for each of us a very delightful offer. Temptation is apparently attractive. But behind all its wrappings, it is actually a detestable thing all of us would not dare to approach. So the ways of the devil is to deceive us. Personally, we persist in our act of evil because we have been deceived to believe that there is nothing wrong with us. What’s wrong lies in our brother. We tried to help them. But that extension of concern is the most deceiving act we can make of ourselves. We are not ourselves when we see the evil of other and not seeing our own.

As a community, this ambiance of ‘badness’ we experienced is cyclical if we as members cannot see the evil we contributed to the community. By doing so, the structure of evil in a community or in a society aggravates into more violent and abominable. The community must realize that they have been deceived by the devil in looking at ourselves as good and others as the bad.

Therefore, we need to use our power as human beings. We need to use our reflections not rationalization, in order to see that after all, we did an evil thing which contributes to the detriment of our community. I believed that we could all be “Adam and Eve’s” to each other in the personal and communitarian level. Church teachings would say that original sin started with the first man, but continued on by that state of alienation wherein a society enhanced this culture. This culture becomes, in turn, the cause of sinfulness to every person who is introduced in this same society. The more the first man and woman sinned, the more they manifested their evil acts.

The best way to counter the subtleness of the devil is to learn from the way the devil tempted the first man and woman. The devil, though cunning, was not very wise at all so as to make variations in the way it tempted man and woman. It has a pattern in tempting human beings. The temptation of Jesus in the desert (Lk, 4:1-13) and in the cross (Lk. 23: 37-40) was done in a very attractive and subtle way.

I believe that when we paused and spent time for reflection and prayer, it just manifests our willingness to change and to grow to a more humane and Christian way of living together. We need constant conversions and renewal. But true renewal starts with each and every one of us. If that brother, who received harsh words, is mature enough and aware of the that badness, he may cut that little evil immediately by willing it to end with himself and not pass it to others.

Sinning against God and neighbors could still be forgiven if one repents. But to spouse evil is the end of it all. God cannot forgive evil, for it denies itself as one. In fact, Jesus was very strong in criticizing the Pharisees who saw themselves as righteous at the expense of the publican (Lk 18: 9-14). The issue of the prodigal son (Lk. 15 11-32) is not so much on the erring son who repented but the elder son who considered himself as righteous. The Pharisees’ righteousness is the real expression of evil they consciously repelled but unconsciously embraced. Jesus compared them with those people, who repented but still regarded as public sinners. These are but works of the devil in Jesus’ time. And it still persists in us and in our community up to now.

Secondly, if we depend only on our own strength, no one can conquer this evil. This force is stronger that any human will. We need the assistance of God for us to come out victorious against this fight with the devil. Adam and Eve sinned not so much from having eaten the fruit, but because of their lack of trust in God’s power. They depended on themselves so much so they desired to be gods themselves. In short, they were again deceived to believe in themselves rather than in God. The first evil committed by man is to deny his weakness and sinfulness in front of God.

I believe that the first step towards repentance and renewal is to see that I am a sinner who needs the grace of God to transform me and then to transform my brothers and sisters who live a life of the lie.

Down with EVIL! Let’s repent of our sins.

A. Wilbert S. Dianon, SDB