Hear that sound ringin’ in your mind.
So how do demons attack our bodies when they don’t have bodies of their own? And how do we defend ours? Evil usually tempts us invisibly: in our thoughts, our imagination, and our five senses. It still affects the physical body, though, because it’s so closely united to the soul. Saint Thomas Aquinas says, “[The devil] can work on the imagination with images and even on the bodily senses.”
To protect both our body and soul against evil, Pope St. Pius X recommends this strategy in his catechism:
1) Avoid dangerous situations.
2) Guard your senses.
3) Receive the sacraments often.
4) Make a habit of prayer.
If your conscience is telling you a situation doesn’t seem right, or that you might regret being part of it, ask God for the courage to walk away from it. Strengthen your will to resist temptation by going to Confession regularly and often. Trust in the Father’s mercy. Defend your soul with the Archangel Michael Prayer every day. You don’t have to fight demons like HUNTR/X… the Lord will do that for you. (Exodus 14:14)
When it comes to guarding your senses, one specific way we can do so is by balancing our intake of pop music (or any worldly music) with music that glorifies God. And if the songs you usually listen to have lyrics like, “You know I’m the only one who’ll love your sins,” maybe it’s time to clear them out of your playlist. These are little, daily steps we can take to not only distinguish between good and evil, but to make it easier on ourselves to choose good.
That’s the funny thing about hope…
Last thing: Remember those questions my prayer bear got me wondering about in Part 1? They may seem unsettling at first, but actually, the more I think about how God created each of us out of love, the more comforting the answers to those questions become.
We belong to God — but not in the way demons in the film belong to Gwi-Ma. We are children of a loving Father, but his love is not controlling. It is not fear-driven. It is not hopeless. (1 Corinthians 13:7) It is free. God’s love gives us the freedom to choose to unite our souls to him. Our Heavenly Father does not send a single soul to hell, but the reality is that some still end up there.
Think about how painful it must be for the Father to allow some of his children to reject his love. Yet he would rather let us keep our freedom than force our souls to return to him — even knowing they were never meant to be separated from him to begin with. The hope of eternal life, the relief of God’s mercy, the joy of his presence, a chorus of friends who “raise their voice in free praise of the Creator” to sing heaven’s version of “What It Sounds Like”… these are all ours to freely choose. (Gaudium et spes 14)
Your soul is a gift from the Father. No one can take it from you, and no one can take care of it for you. “That choice belongs to you.”
