The Gates of Hell Shall Not Prevail, Part I

“I say unto to thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” I used to think that Our Blessed Lord was encouraging us in this passage not to fear because the evil empire of hell would not succeed in destroying His Church. God’s side would survive the onslaught, so to speak. But then it was pointed out to me that the gates of an army do not march to battle; the gates are besieged. That would change the picture quite a bit. Could it be that God’s army is advancing instead of defending? Perhaps when He said the gates of hell shall not prevail, He meant that those gates would be unable to hold up, stand against, and avoid being overcome by the Church. Let us suppose that it is the gates of hell that are being assailed and that the army of God is waging war against and marching upon the army of darkness. What a sight! Our Blessed Lord and Almighty King has assured us that He, through His Church, is going to conquer.

But, we must admit that this victory is somewhat of a mystery to us. When we look all around us at the wicked world, it takes strong faith to believe that God’s side is winning. It makes me think of Tolkein’s depiction of the battle for Middle Earth. The Dark Lord, Sauron had done his worst. He puffed himself up, trying to convince all peoples of his terrible power. He told the delusional lie, “I will destroy all.” And judging from appearances, (at least, the most readily obvious ones,) he would seem to be making a correct prediction.

And yet, if you were to stand in Mordor, Sauron’s desolate kingdom, the ultimate wasteland that epitomized his hatred for everything good, the very heart of his seemingly victorious destruction — if you were to stand there, what would you see beneath all the ash? If you reached down and brushed aside the charred rubble, you would see the very smallest, newly grown blades of grass, barely peeking out their light green heads. Ah ha! So he has not defeated all life.

And there’s more. Samwise discovered it when he espied the twinkling of stars beyond the dark, menacing clouds. “Look, Mr. Frodo! There’s light and beauty up there that no shadow can touch.” The evil one has not really stamped out all good, as he would have us believe. He never will because he simply cannot. It is out of his reach. Goodness is greater than evil.

Fading back into reality, we might ask, “Where is goodness in this world of ours?” At first glance, perhaps we see very little. Do not be fooled; the good is present. Maybe it’s so simple that we overlook it. To start, think of something as commonplace as a wedding. A man and a woman promising fidelity to each other. This is a tremendous good. Although it be only a natural good, it opposes evil and leads to higher goods. What about a baby being born? Surely the devil rages at this defeat — a new life, when he is trying so hard to exterminate the human race. And if a natural birth is so hateful to him, can we even imagine his torment when the waters of baptism give a child Divine life? I think we cannot.

Marriage, life, Sanctifying Grace — these are goods. All good comes from God, and He has given even the most fundamental goods a certain power over evil. The very existence of evil is completely dependent upon the good, for it is no more than an absence of goodness, a nothing. In other words, where there is good, evil cannot be.

Can we doubt for one instant that God will defeat Satan? Do we really fear goodness being overcome by evil? Let us know confidently that this can never be. All of the wickedness we see in the world, and there is much, is merely equivalent to the mess created by a naughty child’s temper tantrum. The outraged devil is pitching a fit because he knows he cannot defeat God or God’s Church. He hates all that is good and beautiful and reaches out to smash it down wherever he can.

We can see Satan’s fury at the good of marriage. Just look at how he seeks to destroy the men and women needed to make a wedding happen. They are assaulted from every side. An example of this is his attack on the dignity of women. Because God has made all women to be a powerful sign of His goodness and beauty in this world, the miserable, jealous, ugly devil is bent on mutilating them. The fashions suggesting that women chop off their hair, stab their faces with sharp objects, cover their skin with graffiti, and wear clothing that mocks their dignity are inspired by the hateful devil.

And yet, isn’t it funny that for all the devil’s desperate measures, men keep right on marrying women? For all the pains he has taken to destroy life, babies are still being born and baptized.

So now what? If God’s army is going to defeat hell, if the truth will conquer the lie, if goodness will overcome evil, how do we get in on the victory? When the whole world seems swallowed up by the devil’s revolt against God, how do we personally prevail against such evil? It’s a good question.

To be continued. . .