...but deliver us from evil
You might have noticed that we use the words “our,” “us,” and “we” instead of “my,” “me,” and “I” in this prayer. There’s a really good reason for that (other than the fact that those are the words Jesus told us to use). When we say this prayer, we pray not only for ourselves, but for the whole Body of Christ (the Church…the universal Christian Church, that is).
Now for this petition, in particular. Let’s not beat around the bush, here. The “evil” Jesus was talking about is the evil “one;” i.e., the devil. God does not create evil, but, then again, neither does the devil. Only God has the power to create. The only thing the devil has the “power” to do is turn the good of God’s creation into a “counterfeit” version that he can use against God by tricking us into believing that the “counterfeit” version is better than God’s version, and that the “counterfeit” is what we REALLY want.
Let’s look at an example of the counterfeit vs. the real thing. Why not start with a biggie? Sex. I bet a couple of you cringed a little or got red in the face when you read that word. Why? The reason you did is at the core of the very point I’m making right now. Sex is generally seen by the majority of our society one of two ways: (1) fun & exciting, or (2) dirty & shameful. Those who lean more towards the “fun & exciting” side say it’s perfectly fine for people to have sex outside the context of marriage. They make arguments like, “Would you buy a car without taking it for a test drive first?” and, “As long as two people love each other, what’s the harm?” Well, the “harm” isn’t that the Church doesn’t want you to think of sex as “fun & exciting.” In fact, totally to the contrary, we FULLY understand that sex was designed by God to be fun & exciting. If God had made it awkward and painful, the human race would’ve died out thousands of years ago! The problem is that the counterfeit version daily “pitched” to the world by the devil has us ONLY focus on the fun & exciting part of sex, and forget the more fundamental purpose for it—creating new life. Some people recognize this twisting of sex by the devil, and take it to the opposite extreme by thinking of sex as dirty & shameful. These people are wrong, too! (…at least they’re wrong when we view sex in the holy context of marriage, that is.)
When you untwist the devil’s version, we still get fun & exciting sex (*gasp* I can’t believe he just said that!!! Well, I did…deal with it.), but we ALSO get the opportunity to be co-creators of life with God. Remember what I said earlier in this post? ONLY God has the power to create. The rest of us just take what God has already made and come up with new combinations for it. It’s sort of like God gave us the colors red, yellow, and blue, and allowed us to take those and mix them together to make orange, green, purple, etc. With sex, though, it’s way different. God invites us into the process of the creation of a new life. It’s like he created the colors red and yellow, and even though he’s fully capable of creating “blue” by himself, he invites us to take part in creating “blue” with him. This is super big. This is pretty much (what I’d argue to be) one of the most theologically profound things we can do as people here on earth. Don’t feel horrible for priests, though, just because they can’t get married and experience this process of co-creating new life with God. Priests have some pretty awesome things they can do, too. They can act in the person of Christ to forgive sins, and they can bring the Eucharist into continued existence through the sacrifice of the Mass. For lay people, though, this “co-creation of life thing” is a pretty awesome calling. It’s how humanity continues on earth. But think about it: if the devil wants to take good things God has created and twist them so that he can tempt us to use these things AGAINST the will of God, how much more will he “target” things that are holier than most? It’s no wonder why you can turn on your TV right now, flip through a few channels and probably find at least 15 different “counterfeit” versions of sex being presented to us in the comfort of our own living rooms.
The gifts and blessings that God gives us in our lives can EASILY be counterfeited by the devil. When we give in to the counterfeit versions (besides this being a basic definition of “sin”), we may be temporarily happy, but it can never compare to the true happiness that comes from following the will of God. Think about your own life. I’m sure if you thought about it—and most of us probably don’t have to think to hard—you could find an example of some counterfeit that you’ve bought into in the past year, month, week, or even DAY that you thought would bring you happiness. The danger is that it probably did, but eventually, that counterfeit either destroyed something really good in your life (like your family, your job, or your friendships), or the happiness you once felt from it wore off, and you were left even emptier than you started. This is why we pray this petition in the Lord’s Prayer. We need God’s daily help and guidance to be steered away from the counterfeits and towards his will. ONLY then will we truly be happy.
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