Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 04/07/19 Behind Enemy Lines: The Father of Lies

Episode Date: April 7, 2019

Homily from the Fifth Sunday of Lent. There is no need to fear, but there is a need to fight. Behind enemy lines, we find ourselves in a battle with the Enemy of God. Satan is real and Satan must be resisted. But the Catholic Christian has been given the tools to engage in the fight and thrive with the strength provided by God Himself. Mass Readings from April 7, 2019: Isaiah 43:16-21 Psalms 126:1-6Philippians 3:8-14 John 8:1-11 Download the Homily Study

He was the year, the year was 1884. Pope Leo, the 13th period of the Pope, and he was in the process of saying Mass. The story goes like this, like sometimes he was either in the midst of Mass or right after he got done saying mass, he fell into a trance. And he was out for like a number of significant minutes. And no one knows exactly what it was he saw. He saw something. It was something powerful, something that shook this elderly Pope, like to the core of him in 1884. And it goes something like this, that he was given a vision.

that for the next hundred years or so, Satan would have a certain sense of increased dominion over this world, beginning in 1884. So, I mean, you think about it, look back and you realize, oh my gosh, 20th century is the bloodiest century in the history of humanity. It's the bloodiest century in the history of humanity. 170 million people were killed in the 20th century since when Pope Leo had the 13th, he had that vision in 1884.

For the next 100 years, over 170 million people. people who were killed, which is more than any other time in history, any other collection of wars, all during that 100 years. In fact, during that 20th century, 70 million Christians were martyred. I think about that. In the 20th century, 70 million Christians were martyed during that time. I don't know if you know this, but from 2000 to 2010, there have been an estimated 100,000 Christians martyred each year.

Not to mention the opening of abortion as. being just a normal thing and the millions and millions of people who are killed. Not only that, but this is the worst thing and not the worst thing. They're all bad, it's all terrible. 1984, in the early 80s, was actually when the first case of, like, priest abuse stuff happened, at least came to light in our diocese. Interesting, our diocese, the bishop at the time and the priests, they like sprung into action. Like, they actually did stuff, got the authorities, and they actually set up a bunch of rules

that in 2004, the whole rest of the countries kind of caught on. But you think about the evil, think about most of the abuse cases that we hear about now, They all happened in that span of 100 years. It's rare that you have abuse cases that happen now. They happen because humanity is still falling. The majority of the evil that has infested, even the church, happened during that time. Pope Leo the 13th after he came out of this, this trance, this vision, whatever you want to call it, he kind of quickly asked his people to escort him to this place where he could stand

and he stood at the desk and he wrote down this prayer. And it's a prayer that you all know because it's the prayer that we all pray at the end of every mass. The prayer to St. Michael the Archangel. was coming, he saw that this battle was going to happen, and he said, okay, what we need to do is we need to have every single Catholic at the end of every single mass, they need to pray this prayer every single time. Why? Because he realized that we're in a battle, that we're actually at war. And that if, this is the crazy thing, you know, we're doing this series, this whole entire Lent, and the series is behind enemy lines. And the reality is that all scripture points to this reality,

that if you're going to follow Christ, you're going to walk with Christ, it means you have to actually fight with Christ, not against him, but next to him. And we've been talking about. And we've been talking about these first couple weeks that, yes, the battle for most part, the majority, a lot of the battle is internal, right? That I'm my own worst enemy, that I have to battle against my pride, have to battle against my own, does that effort comfort, my own self-will, I have to battle there. But we also, scripture also points out that we have an enemy outside of us. We have to talk about the enemy today. And I understand that you were like, oh, father, seriously, I didn't think you were like one of those devil priests. I'm not a devil

priest, but I am a priest who believes in the devil. You know, it was really interesting. I wrote this book. I read this book about Satan's work. In fact, it was written by a man who was raised Catholic but then left the Catholic church. He moved to Rome and just became like a freelance journalist. And he got hooked up with a priest who was studying to be an exorcist. And he's like, that sounds like a great story. So he followed him around. And by the end of this following this priest around, he was no longer a fallen away Catholic,

which is really good news, because he was like, oh my gosh, I've seen this. It is absolutely real. The devil is absolutely real. In fact, he has a chapter in his book that says, well, maybe there's some issues of mental illness in this. You know, we could confuse maybe mental illness with possession. And he has a great chapter where he spells it out and says, yeah, absolutely. There are times when someone might say someone is possessed, but they actually are merely sick. And he goes through all the great reasons that that could be the case.

And the last paragraph in that chapter is fantastic because he says, all those things are true. We have to be very, very careful not to misdiagnose this. And also, it's really easy to be a skeptic when it comes to all these things. He says, but it's very hard not to believe in the reality of the supernatural evil. when you're in the midst of a room and you see someone levitate four feet off the ground. Or when you see, and I remember talking to exercise who told me about this, he had 120 pound, her and 10 pound 20 year old girl sitting in a folding chair lifting two men who are both over six foot four over her head, one on each arm. He says, and when you see that, it's a little hard to just say, maybe it's a mental illness.

In fact, scripture points out and says this, this is the letter to the Ephesians chapter 6. St. Paul says, finally, after this whole letter, St. Paul says, finally, my brothers and sisters, draw your strength from the Lord and from his mighty power. He says, go on, he goes on to say, put on the armor of God so that you may be able to stand firm against the tactics of the devil. Why? Because our struggle is not with flesh and bone. Our struggle is not with flesh and blood. Like, you know, we might think like, well, these people over here on this political spectrum or these people in this country, there are our enemies. No, actually, scripture says they're not our enemies. Our struggle is not with flesh and blood. He says, our struggle is with the principalities,

with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, the evil spirits in the heavens. And he says, therefore, put on the full armor of God. Because, why? Because this is a battle. And I know some people like, am I going to have bad dreams tonight, Father? I don't know. But we have to talk about this. Why? You know, there's this not only because it's scriptural, not only because we're in the midst of it, but also there was this general, Chinese general, 2,600 years ago, he wrote this fantastic and incredibly famous book, super influential. In fact, everyone in the CIA, FBI, every military officer in no matter what branch of the military in the United States, they have to read this book written 2,600 years ago by a Chinese general

named Sun Suu. And the book that he wrote is called The Art of War. In a book three of the Art of War, here's what Sun Su says about this. He says, if you know your enemy and you know yourself, you need not fear the result of 100 hundred battles. Do you know the enemy and you know yourself? You don't have to feel the result of a hundred battles. If, however, you know yourself, but not your enemy.

For every victory gained, you will also suffer a defeat. And if you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will be overcome in every battle. So we want to be the people who are like, I know my enemy, I know myself. We've been, again, the whole first part of this lent has been all about ourselves. Like, where are my weaknesses, Lord? Where do I need to be bolstered? do I need to be strengthened? Where are my weak points that the enemy could come in, but now we

actually need to take a time today and say, okay, what about the enemy? So question, who is the evil one? Like, where did he come from? His whole origin story is he's one of the fallen angels who God made, yeah, sometimes, so let me back up. I get a little excited, you guys, just forgive me. Sometimes you see images, maybe you've seen this cartoon, have you seen this cartoon of Satan and Jesus arm wrestling? Have you ever seen that? It's hokey and cheesy and completely theological incorrect because here's Jesus and he's like God, he's all glistening with sweat and no his good biceps. I think he just works out and stuff. And here's Satan and they're like, you know, showdown here at the arm wrestling match.

That is not how it's like. Jesus is God himself. Satan is merely a creature of God. In fact, check this out. You all have guardian angels that were given to at the moment of your conception. You have a guardian angel that was given to at the moment of your conception. Your guardian angel, your personal guardian angel is more powerful than any demon that exists. Your personal guardian angel is more powerful than Lucifer himself. Like this is St. Thomas Aquinas, back in the 12th century, 13th century. He like made that clear. So don't believe me.

Believe that guy. Because you don't have to be afraid. And it's not Jesus versus Satan because Jesus versus Satan, he wins. Spoiler alert. He already won. That's what we're celebrating in two weeks from now. He conquered the grave and he conquered sin and Satan. But we find ourselves still in the midst of enemy territory.

We find ourselves like we've been talking about this whole. time behind enemy lines. So who is he? He was created good originally. Created to love God, created to give glory to God, created to be free, created to be powerful and beautiful, he's made all those in all those ways. But at some point we don't know exactly why. But all the angels were given a choice and Lucifer, scripture says, let a third of the angels in rebellion against God. They did not want to serve. The phrase that I think Milton wrote was better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven. And they became fixed. They became stuck in this fixed hatred for God and for everything God loves. That's why you're a target. That's why you're in the battle. Because why? Because they

even fixed with hatred for God and for everything God loves. And here's the good news, bad news. You are someone whom God loves. You are someone who God loves more than he loves anything else in creation. And so again, the good news, bad news, you're loved more than anything. anything on the world, bad news, that means you have a target on your back. Good news is that God loves you to the point of death and resurrection. Bad news is that means you are in a fight right now, and it actually literally is a fight to the death. Why? Because what would Satan, you don't even bring him joy, and he just wants to annihilate anything that God loves. He just wants to destroy anything that God loves, and God loves you.

And he wants, he, and Jesus, Satan wants to take you out of a relationship with the God who loves you. That's why the whole thing, all this stuff we're talking about today all comes back to relationship. It all comes back to relationship. In fact, if you're like, okay, I'm getting kind of freaked out, Father. It's like, so if you have a living relation, dynamic relation with Jesus Christ, you have nothing to fear. You're wondering, and you get like, again, scary dreams or anything else. You've seen the movies, like the haunting and all those kind of thing conjuring. Like if you have a living relationship with Jesus, you have absolutely nothing to fear because it's the relationship that gives us strength.

the evil one wants to rob you of your relationship. In fact, in John chapter 8, same chapter we heard in today's gospel, John chapter 8, Jesus says, the thief, he says, the thief only comes to steal, kill and destroy. He wants to steal your peace, he wants to steal your joy, he wants to rob you of your relationship with Jesus. And so we have to do what St. Paul says here. He says, he goes on to say, he says, we must, therefore put on the armor of God. Do you may be able to resist on the evil day? and having done everything to stand your ground.

So stand fast and know the tactics of the evil ones. So we're going to talk about a little bit today, the tactics of the evil one. What's he trying to do? We talked about this already. One of the things he wants to do to you is he wants to make you feel alone. And it wants to make you feel unknown. Like almost every time you feel alone,

almost every time you feel not just like, you know, like, okay, I'm lonely or I'm just kind of like all by myself. But when you feel like nobody knows you, when you feel like nobody's on your side, when you feel like you're exposed completely, that's a lie from the evil one. In fact, he's called the liar. Jesus says he's been a liar from the beginning.

It's a merger and a liar from the beginning. So I want to talk about two things. Not only does he want to make you feel alone and unknown, he's a deceiver and he's the accuser. He's the deceiver and he's the accuser. And if he can deceive you, he can get you to doubt God's identity. If he can accuse you,

He can get you to doubt your identity. So we're going to look at that just a little bit, a little bit closer. If he can deceive you, he can get you to doubt God's identity. Actually, from the very beginning, Genesis Chapter 3. We know the whole story, right? The beginning of the story is, here's Adam and Eve, the first man and the first woman, and they're made in perfect relationship with God. And then chapter 3 begins, and it says,

now the serpent was the most cunning of all the animals the Lord God had made, and the serpent comes up to the woman and asks the question. Now, the serpent doesn't say, Eve, doesn't say, deny God. The serpent simply begins to deceive by asking questions. And the question isn't, hey, Eve, does God really exist? Because Eve would be like, of course he does. I just went for a walk with him yesterday. Instead, the serpent asks another question,

and the question is, did God really say that you couldn't eat of any of the fruit in the trees in the garden? Which he knows is not true. And so Eve says, no, that's not true. God says we can eat of any of the fruit of the trees in the garden, except for that one tree in the middle of the garden, that we can't eat it or even touch it or will die. And then here's where the deceiver starts to poke a little bit.

And the deceiver says, no, you'll certainly not die. God knows full well that if you eat it, you'll be like him. And basically the subtext is he doesn't want you to be like him. Here's the crazy thing is that if you read Genesis chapter 2 when it says God made man and woman, it says that he made them in his image and likeness. And they're already like him. They're already made like him. Here's the deceiver who says, no, no, no, no, God doesn't want you to be like him.

And so Eve, what she did? She looks at the fruit. Genesis 3 says this, she looks at the fruit and she sees that it looks good, it's profitable for gaining knowledge, that there's nothing wrong with the fruit. Actually, looking at all the other trees, it's just, it's the same as every other tree.

And what happens to Eve is what happens to you and me. Have you ever had those situations where you come across like a commandment, maybe you're reading an examination of conscience, and you're like, wait, why is that a sin? That seems weird. It's the exact same kind of thing,

where the deceiver is saying to Eve, like, listen, are you kidding? Look at that fruit. It's great. This is the best. It seems like a silly rule that God said you can't eat of that fruit. It's like every other fruit. That makes no sense.

How many times do we do that exact same thing? We read the examination of conscience, come across a sin that we don't get, we don't understand. We're like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. That seems silly. That seems done. That's the deceiver. Because it's not really a temptation to sin, ultimately. Ultimately, it's a temptation to doubt that God is actually good.

to doubt that the God who said, no, no, stay away from that is actually like a caring parent who says, oh, stay away from the hot stove. I know it looks warm, and it is. It's too warm. But that deception is meant to lead us to the place where we doubt that God is good. And we found in the story, which probably happened to a bunch of us. You know, every time we sin, we're allowing yourself to be deceived that God actually doesn't want our good. because if I was absolutely convinced that God wanted my good, I would do everything he said.

But sometimes I think, no, no, no, no. I have better ideas. I mean, he's great and everything. He is God. But I have better ideas than him. And I am wrong every time. He deceives and he tries to rob God of his identity or he accuses. And that's actually in the gospel today.

It's not Satan in the gospel today, but here's the woman who's accused. I don't know if you've ever felt like this. Imagine this woman in the gospel. John chapter 8, the one in John chapter 8 today, here she is. It says that she was caught. They said, Master, we caught her. We caught her in the very act of committing adultery. Think of how humiliating that would be for that woman. Just for a moment. I don't know if you've ever been like in the middle of any kind of sin and there's been busted. Like the lights came on and it was like, oh crap. And you're caught.

And what you thought was, oh, this is fine, this is fine, this is fine, all of us. sudden is very not fine. And there's no argument because you know you're guilty. And there's no getting out of it because you know you're busted. And there's no begging for mercy because you know you're done. And what they do with this woman? They busted her. They caught her. There was no argument. She was guilty. And then they exposed her. Then they humiliated her. Then they accused her. And she was absolutely condemned. And even says in scripture, John 8 says, and they made her stand in the middle. Can you imagine? This is what the accuser does to us every single time. The accuser, the evil one, what he does is he points out our sins and says, see, that's you. That's who you are.

Do you ever felt like that? Like when it comes to your sins, that accuser, he says, listen, you didn't just do that sin. That's who you are. And you're done. And you're busted. And you're condemned. Because he's the accuser. You know, it's so powerful. The Holy Spirit, We call the Holy Spirit the one who convicts. Satan, the evil one is the one who accuses. He goes, why? He reveals our sins and then says that's who you are. You're stuck. The Holy Spirit is one who convicts us. And he reveals our sins in order to give us hope. Holy Spirit reveals our sins to us in order to give us hope, in order to lead us home in order to say, actually, that's not who you are. If you've ever been busted in your sin by the Holy Spirit, you realize,

oh my gosh, Lord, I'm actually guilty, but I'm not done. If you've ever been done, you've ever been busted by the convictor, you realize, okay, Lord, it's true. I'm guilty, but I'm not done. You know what? The accuser says, the accuser says, you're guilty, and you have to die. But Jesus says, you're guilty,

and I'm going to die. The accuser, you're guilty, and now you have to die. Whereas Jesus says, you're guilty, so I'm going to die. Because why? Because you're mine. That's why the accuser is an attack your identity. Are you really his or do you belong to the evil one? Because that's basically

where it goes, comes down to. All the scripture testifies to the relationship. The relationship is all about relationship. We either belong to Satan or belong to Jesus. There's no middle ground. All throughout scripture, that's what it says. We either belong to Satan or we belong to Jesus. That is it. In Philippians chapter 3, St. Paul even says that today. It's the second reading today. He says, I've been taken possession of by Jesus Christ. I want nothing else than to know him, nothing other than to know him, because I either belong to him or I belong to death. He says, that's why we fight.

That's why we're not afraid, but we have to fight. That's why we don't fear, but we have to fight. Because we realize that all of us are in the middle of a battle, and all of us face the deceiver and all of us face the accuser. And so what do we do? Well, here's the short answer. It's really actually easy. Pray.

Why? Because this is all about relationship. And what is prayer? I have a buddy. My name is Mark. Mark Hart. And he says, sometimes people think that they pray in order to help their relationship with God. He says, let me clarify. Prayer is your relationship with God.

If you're not praying, you don't have a relationship with God. Prayer is your relationship with God. You know, I was an exorcist. I was listening to him talk the other day. And he said that whenever people come to him and they complain about like, you know, diabolical things like the devilical things like the devil, devil's actually acting in their lives, and they say, Father, what do we need to do? He'll say, well, I think you should start praying. Start praying the rosary.

And he says, they're never very happy when I say that. He says, is that a less than satisfying answer? And they're like, yes, give us something else to do. He's like, no, there is nothing else to do. In order to face this extraordinary attack, just do ordinary prayer. Because that's what it takes. In fact, scripture again and again, it says, okay, when you find yourself under attack by the deceiver by the accuser. It says, submit to God. In response, submit to God, which means basically have faith in God. Submit to God and resist the devil. He'll take flight. Submit to God, resist the devil, he takes flight. Because why, you're in a fight, you have to do this. And here's the deal. If you're not concerned about your own heart, your own soul, you have to do

this for the people standing next to you, people sitting next to you. If you're not willing to fight because you don't believe you're worth fighting for then you have to fight for the people who are sitting next to you right now. If you don't believe that you're worth picking up the shield of faith for yourself, then you have to pick up the shield of faith for the person sitting next to you.

In fact, St. Paul says that, Ephesians 6 again. He says, hold your ground and stand fast. He was on to say, in all circumstances, hold faith as a shield to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. in all circumstances hold faith as a shield to quench all the arrows of the evil one

and if you won't do it for yourself if you don't want to fight for yourself do it for the people standing next to you you know you've heard of the Spartans right Spartan army they faced down Thermopylae Gates of Fire 300 you saw the movie anyways

so the Spartans they were a race of warriors they were basically trained to be warriors from when they were children and a Spartan if he lost his helmet he'd be given a fine he'd be fine You have to pay some money if he lost his helmet. If a Spartan warrior lost his shield, he would be killed.

Say that again. If a Spartan lost his helmet, he'd pay a fine. Why? Because your helmet protects you alone. But if you lost your shield, you would be killed. Why? Because the way the Spartans fought is they wouldn't just hold their shields and defend themselves. They would link shield next to shield, next to shield, next to shield.

And if you lose your shield, you're not only exposing yourself. You're exposing the people on either side of you. That's one of the reasons why if you don't believe you're worth fighting for yourself, you need to hold your shield, you need to fight, you need to resist. Why? Because there's people that you love. Maybe you love them even more than you love yourself, and you have to hold up that shield for them as well, because they're worth fighting for. But here's the crazy thing. Jesus says, so are you.

Like you are too. And that's why he's giving us all these tools. I'm just going to kind of string this last thing together and tell a couple stories because I need to string this together because I think sometimes when I talk about like this, you're like, okay, interesting. I'm kind of feeling comfortable, and it's just really weird, but I've got to tell you some stories. And here's some things that will actually pertain to your life right now.

Because I remember talking to this exorcist a couple years ago. You know, sitting at this, like, I don't know, having lunch with him in a booth at a restaurant somewhere, like Perkins. And he's telling me all these exercise stories. And at one point, you know, like the levitation thing and like all the stuff. And I'm like, wait a second. You, dude, you never like have to like, you never, you like know God exists. Like, you've seen all this stuff.

Like, you don't ever get sucked into, like, atheism or theism. He's like, he laughs. He's like, oh, my gosh, no. Of course I know God exists. He says, when you see the supernatural power of the evil one, and then you see the supernatural power of God defeat the evil one, he's like, those atheistic, you know,

theistic debates, I mean, they're an interesting intellectual exercise, but no, I never have to wonder, does God really exist? But then he went on to say, point out, the ways in which he's experienced and others have experienced the gifts that you and I have been given on a daily basis, that he gets to see the supernatural reality behind what we just take for granted. For example, the Eucharist. Yeah, I don't know if you know this, but those who worship Satan,

those who follow Satan, in their worship, they offer sacrifice of animals a lot of times. Sometimes they offer sacrifice of humans. But the highest form, or lowest, really, the worst form of worship that you can offer as a Satanist is not a mock praise and worship session. It's not a mock prayer service. They don't try to recreate a Protestant Sunday service.

They have a black mass. And the thing that they need for a black mass is the holiest thing that we have in the entire universe. And that is one consecrated host. that if they can acquire the Eucharist they can have the darkest thing that believes the most powerful thing to worship Satan with.

If they can desecrate one host Holy Communion. And in doing that, what are they saying? They're giving a backhanded compliment to the reality that when we take for granted at every stinking mass, we're like, oh yeah, Jesus, fighting Christ, amen.

They're like, no, no, this is the holiest thing. We want to desecrate it. That's how distorted we are. This is the holiest thing we can find, and the worst thing we can do is take the holiest thing we can find and desecrate it. And that's the Eucharist we've been given every single day or every single Sunday. And you have that as a tool. You have the Eucharist. Jesus lets himself be a weapon for you to defend yourself and the people sitting next to you every single day.

The other thing, confession, to have been given the Eucharist as a tool, given a confession as a tool. I remember talking to the same priest. And he's talking about going into these exorcisms that he would do. And he said, oh, my gosh, you know, Satan is a liar. but he says you got to get scrubbed up before you go into exorcisms. Like you got to get prayed up. You got to go to confession and stuff. I'm like, oh, yeah, confession.

He has a team of people coming with him, you know, doctors and other kind of people. He says, yeah, everyone goes to confession before we go in there. He says because what will happen is the demon, if you haven't gone to confession, we'll name your sins in front of everyone else. No, demons are not omniscient. They don't know everything, but they can observe and they can see what you're doing. And he says, basically you either go to confession before you go into the exorcism or during the exorcism, the demon will confess your sins in front of everyone else. I was like, wow, that's crazy.

And I was like, oh my gosh, does that mean? That means that when you go to confession, your sins are gone. Like they're so gone that a demon that would know them if you hadn't gone has no idea what they are after you've gone to confession. He's like, yeah, that's the power of confession. I'm like, gosh, father, tell me more. Because you guys, when I talked last weekend about the power of confession, I did not mention this. this, that it gets revealed through the back, twisted, dark way of like, the demon would know your sins if you hadn't gone to confession, but afterwards they are so far removed,

they are so far gone, they are so obliterated, they are what they call absolved, that they no longer exist. Question, why would we stay away from confession? We know that's true. We know every exorcist I've ever talked to or heard speak, says that one good confession is more powerful than hundreds of exorcisms. Why? Because in confession, you're in the unadulterated presence of God himself. You're touching the cross of Jesus himself.

So the demons prove the Eucharist true. The demons prove the confession true. And here's the last one. Her name is Mary, and I love her a lot. But I made a video about Mary a couple. I make these videos on YouTube. Anyways, this guy, I made one that got posted like two weeks ago. This guy commented on it, he was like, hey, listen, Father, like, you know, I'm Catholic and everything. but like, why do you have to talk about Mary? Let's keep her out of these things. Like, we don't have to bring her up all the time.

I was like, that's my mom, you jerk. I was like, I've made videos for four years. I made two videos about Mary. It's not like I've talked about her all the time. But here's the crazy thing is she's your mom too. We're going to hear this in like two weeks from now on Good Friday. It's John's Gospel.

From the cross, what does Jesus say? And it's among his last breaths. He looks at his beloved disciple John and he says, John, that's your mom. talking about Mary. That's your mom. And then he says to Mary, that's your son. And John in the gospel writes himself as the beloved disciple

because he's saying basically, if you are a disciple of Jesus, from the cross, Jesus gave you his mom as your mom. From the cross, Jesus gave you his mom as your mom. Next line says that from that hour, he took her into his own home and cared for her. If we're going to be a beloved disciple of Jesus, is we have to take his mom as our mom. That means we have to live with her.

That means she actually, she's a warrior, she's a warrior queen. Mary's a warrior queen. I remember reading about an exorcism that was happening just a couple of years ago in Rome. There's a 34-year-old young Roman woman, and this is one of the final exorcisms that was going on in her life. And in the midst of it, they're praying these prayers,

and the woman could see, even though the demon had taken possession of her. And at one point, she said, oh, Jim Al-Galgani is here. St. Jamal-Gal-Galgani shows up to intercede on behalf of this woman. And then all of a sudden, Mother Teresa of Calcutta shows up, like, interceding.

And then John Paul II shows up. I'm like, dude, I want those saints to show up for me too. Anyways, but they're praying on behalf of this woman to set her free from bondage of this demon. And then the demon cries out, not her. And the priest says, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ. Who do you see? And the demon had to cry out Maria. And what happened was these other saints are praying around this woman.

And she described Mary as dressed in this veil of gold and white, but she had tears in her eyes. And as Mary approached her bed where she was being tormented at this moment, there was one tear that fell from her eye. In that moment, she described as the demon is vanishing. And when she looked up, she said, one tear from Mary was all it took. Your mom is a warrior queen. Remember hearing this other actresses? This is the last one. This other exorcist.

He's doing an exorcism here in the States, a little bit away from his parish. And this woman had been afflicted by seven, seven demons. And they had knocked out of the other six. Jesus had knocked up the other six. And finally, it was this last exorcism. And it was middle of the afternoon. It was across the street from this elementary school.

He describes it. And the demon was like crying out. It was really loud. He was like, this is uncomfortable. And the demon, the bell rang. And all these like 400 little kids, elementary school kids were coming out of the school. And the demon said,

listen, if you don't stop this to me, you don't stop bothering me like this, I will make so much noise, I want to scare the kids. As if that would stop the priest. And it did not. Priests, we don't like kids. And does not deter us. Now, he said, in the name of Jesus, I order you, I command you to pray the Hail Mary. And they didn't even cried out, like, no, absolutely not. He said, in the name of Jesus, I order you to pray the Hail Mary. And he does no. And he just said, again, because Christ's name is powerful, right? Jesus's name is powerful. In the name of Jesus, I command you to pray to Hail Mary.

And finally, this demon, his name was Leviathan, this demon had been like just having this, like, monstrous voice, it's like a lion voice, all of a sudden had this voice like a mouse and said, Hail Mary, full of grace. And that's all I could pray, and it was gone. Just praying a

third of the prayer that you and I pray every single day was enough to drive away a demon that had afflicted this woman for years. See, all these stories are meant to, like, not to be wow, that's super cool. It is pretty cool. But it's to say this, it's say you're in a fight. But listen, you've been given so many weapons. You have in your hands, so many weapons. You probably have a rosary in your pocket right now. If you don't, we'll give them after mass. You know what the Euchar

says because you're here. You know what confession is before every single mass. You have been given so many weapons. There is no need to be afraid, but there is a need to fight. The truth is we are more than conquerors because of him who has conquered for us. And the one who dwells in you is greater than the one who dwells in the world. There is no need to be afraid, but there is a need to fight. There's no need to be scared, but there is a need to get involved, to stand fast, to submit. There is no need to have any fear. There's no need to be afraid.

But there is a need to know that I'm a tariff. target, I'm in a battle. And I have a strength, you have a strength that is not your own, but one that comes from the one who has conquered the one who tries to conquer the world. And so we pray. That same prayer that St. Pope Leo the 13th wrote in 1884, St. Michael, the archangel, defend us in battle, be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil, may God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou, a prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God, cast into hell Satan, and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.