I have sometimes wondered about the plight of those who have been deceived by evil. The fact that they have been deceived could imply after all, that they were not fully aware of what they were doing. And if this was always the case, how could they be punished for the evil they didn’t mean to accomplish?
This can be all the more significant during our time when the temptation to believe the deceptions of the evil one is quite prevalent. Our secular world has made it so easy to fall into erroneous beliefs and make people think that they are fighting for good when they are actually fighting for evil deeds.
Today, we can’t seem to agree anymore about what is right. People “claim” their own truths and we now live in a culture predicted by Pope Benedict XVI which he describes as the dictatorship of relativism.
“We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as for certain and which has as its highest goal one’s own ego and one’s own desires.” – Pope Benedict XVI
In the Amazon series “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power”, the elf Celebrimbor has fallen into a similar predicament. Sauron, who disguised himself as Annatar, the Lord of Gifts, manipulated him into making the rings of power. While doing so, he believed he was doing good but was in fact deceived into creating instruments of evil.
Only at the end was he able to break free from the illusion cast upon him by Sauron. By then, it was too late. Eregion was in ruins, and the rings he made could not be destroyed.
There was one particular moment, however, that can help us understand the way evil works. In his confession to Galadriel, he admitted that he somehow knew the evil he was doing. But he was so blinded by his own desires that he wanted to believe in the deception instead of breaking free from it.
“It was my fault…From the beginning, a part of me…knew. A part of me saw. But I – I wanted what he offered. So, I blinded myself to, to what he was.” – Celebrimbor, The Rings of Power
With that admission, we can better understand the culpability of some of those who have allowed themselves to fall into darkness. While there remains that little voice of truth telling them what is right, they choose to give themselves to the illusions and deceptions of evil.
In truth, they have made themselves blind and have chosen to shut down their conscience.
“Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will renounce the faith by paying attention to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the hypocrisy of liars whose consciences are seared with a hot iron.” – 1 Timothy 4:1-2 (NRSVCE)
“Now this I affirm and insist on in the Lord: you must no longer live as the Gentiles live, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance and hardness of heart. They have lost all sensitivity and have abandoned themselves to licentiousness, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.” – Ephesians 4:17-19 (NRSVCE)
It is our hardness of heart, a heart that is unwilling to hear and see the truth that makes us blind to it and that allows us to be deceived by evil.
“Jesus said, ‘I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.’ Some of the Pharisees near him heard this and said to him, “Surely we are not blind, are we?” Jesus said to them, ‘If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, “We see,” your sin remains.’” – John 9:39-41 (NRSVCE)
Let us always be vigilant to the temptations of the evil one by staying close to Jesus Christ in prayer who is Truth Himself, the One who will set us free from the deceptions and illusions of evil.
“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life.’” – John 14:6 (NRSVCE)
Jocelyn Soriano is the author of the book Defending My Catholic Faith.
“Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope.” – 1 Peter 3:15 (NABRE)
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