But let's not be hypocrites: good is also defeated when we turn our heads away when we see a homeless person.
This year was no more peaceful than last year. It is surprising that we are slowly getting used to it: war is destroying Europe in many ways. From time to time, we still catch our heads on some news, for example, when a brutal bloodbath begins in the Holy Land; we worry when the number of cruisers around Taiwan increases, but we just sigh when we read that somewhere in South America most of its neighbor's territory would simply be annexed by a dictatorship.
Meanwhile, various terrorist groups continue to operate intensively, a wave of violence swept through several large Western European cities in the summer, and world organizations dedicated to promoting peace are sometimes more deeply concerned with enforcing the program of woke politics than with their noble goals contained in their founding documents.
We look around and get a little scared. He rages at Satan.
I am aware of the fact that I am writing my thoughts in the "columns" of a secular newspaper, and thus also of the fact that a part of my readership will shake their heads for even assuming the existence of the devil (they are only willing to accept God). There is, however, an objective truth that rules our lives, and which we are advised to accept, and part of this is that there is a terrible force opposed to God, which wants the destruction of everything and everyone who has anything to do with good, and especially of us who, due to our idolatry, are so we are dear to the Creator.
Perhaps his greatest trick is to deny his own existence, and with this he deceives the masses, the father of lies, who "was a murderer from the beginning".
He's a killer, a liar, wild—and on a rampage. The first necessary step is to recognize and see this. This is not a self-giving insight, no, rather it is a brave act necessary for us to then put on the right weapons and resist (see also: Saint Paul's letter to the Ephesians). The goal is still today: to fight the good fight, to run the course.
The beast is raging and destroying everything. Where war is raging, he seems to be the master of the moment, where people are killing each other, he applauds and laughs, where hatred prevails, he dictates the pace. But we can't dismiss all this by saying that this is "there" and we are "here".
Because it rages even where all this is received with indifference, where we just click on the war news and reports about brutality, but then we don't pray. Where politicians and gray eminences make new arms deals, where they incite war by talking about peace, where violence is financed. Where hate is stronger than love.
It rages everywhere where they want to destroy man - and God.
And let's not be hypocrites for a minute: when we turn our heads when we see a homeless person, when we wink at the sight of criminal structures, saying: we can't do anything anyway, or when we don't give the worker the wages he deserves (and working conditions), when we look down on the other, when we argue in favor of euthanasia and abortion, then we destroy ourselves.
At the same time, if I only wrote that much, I wouldn't be able to claim to be a Christian, even if every letter agrees with the teaching of the church. No, because the whole truth has not been discussed so far, in fact, the good news has not even appeared in traces during three thousand characters. Everything I have described so far is nothing compared to the One we are waiting for.
In the last days of Advent, as Christmas approaches, the desire in our hearts is growing more and more for Jesus and his victory to be "born" in us, in our hearts.
He is the one who defeats death, breaks chains, whose brightness fills everything, who frees and heals.
Ourselves and our environment, our relationships and our communities. And the final word will be his, the triumph of love.
That's why, when we look around the world and what we see around us in 2024 may be depressing, let's not be discouraged for a moment, just do our work bravely and selflessly. With faith and trust.
Featured image: Krisztián Tajti/777
