A Threat Far Greater

As the world reels from fears of a virus, we must remember a far greater  enemy whose very existence is denied by many, an enemy more unseen than the silent killer that any disease can be. The devil,  the strong man, is behind every ill, and his demons wreak havoc in every time and place. And they go through dry places--places untouched by Baptism--and inhabit a faithless man and make his last state worse than  the first. So let us flee to our Baptism, and let us also take our Antidote against the devil in the Supper. For the devil was present in the wilderness against Jesus, and again in the daughter of the Canaanite woman, and again, in today's Gospel, in a speechless man whom Jesus healed; and he also appears toward the end of Lent, when he enters Judas at the beginning of Jesus' passion, and he sees to the death of our Lord. But thus Jesus defeats him, for Jesus rises again the third day to demonstrate the demise and defeat of the strong man. This was a foregone conclusion already at the first moment of the passion, for the devil entered in on the very night Jesus instituted the Blessed Sacrament. So come to receive the Sacrament, and Jesus; let us come to our eternal defense against all evil, and rejoice in this victory, saying with David, "Mine eyes (oculi) are ever toward the Lord, for he shall pluck my feet out of the net." Sermon for Oculi, the Third Sunday in Lent.