Archbishop Fulton Sheen over the course of the years has been an inspiring teacher, preacher and shepherd of souls. In one of his talks concerning evil, he described that the essence of the demonic is a tearing apart of unity, which is where we get the word diabolic. There is a denial of the demonic in the world today to such an extent that people have forgotten about the problem of evil. We see a tearing apart of the family, of relationships, of gender, of the mind and of the faith.
There are three manifestations of the diabolic in today’s world; 1.) Nudity, in the sense that it destroys real love, i.e. use of pornography, illicit sexual relations and homosexual acts; 2.) Violence/Rage/Hate, in the sense that it denies the truth of the faith, morals and natural law; and 3.) A kind of Schizophrenic Mind, in the sense of split personalities.
This manifestation of the diabolic is seen with Jesus’ encounter with the man in the land of the Gerasenes. First of all the man was naked, secondly he was violent and breaking chains, and thirdly, he was schizophrenic. Our blessed Lord asked him his name and he responded ‘my name is Legion, for we are many.’ The only solution to the problem of evil is Jesus Christ who restores all things to their rightful order. When Jesus cast out the demons, the man became calm, he clothed himself and became of sound mind, thus order was restored in the young man’s life.
