Do You Believe in Demons?

Do you believe in demons?
I mean seriously, not just as an excuse for doing something really stupid, like coming home at 4 a.m. with liquor on your breath, missing one shoe and saying, “The devil made me do it.”
I mean demons, out here among us, sent by the “chief demon,” the devil, to influence us.
I suspect many of us pick and choose such beliefs, like going to a Chinese restaurant. One from column A, two from column B. Heaven, sounds good. Hell, no thanks.
Our culture tends to treat these concepts lightly. “Angels” are currently selling Philadelphia cream cheese in a television commercial.
The March 19 issue of the New Yorker magazine portrayed both concepts in two cartoons. In one, a six-inch tall angel/conscience whispers advice into a man’s right ear while the same size devil implores into the other ear.
The other cartoon shows a man and woman standing in a fiery hell, a devil behind them, and the woman says to the man, “You’re never going to be happy if your only definition of success is heaven.”
Rev. Michael P. Orsi, after more than 30 years in the priesthood, no longer doubts the existence of demons and evil spirits.
Many of you know, or know of, Fr. Orsi. He spent some 20 years in this county. His assignments included St. Paul’s in Stone Harbor, St. Ann’s in Wildwood, where he also was an administrator and teacher at Wildwood Catholic, and Our Lady Star of the Sea in Cape May.
Fr. Orsi, incidentally, once remarked of Stone Harbor, “I have tasted heaven.”
A brilliant man, he is currently chaplain and research fellow in law and religion at Ave Maria School of Law in Ann Arbor, Mich. He has a PhD in education from Fordham University and is the author of four books.
In an essay in the February issue of the Homiletic & Pastoral Review, Fr. Orsi says he once doubted demonology and evil spirits. But “now with more than 30 years of priestly experience under my belt...I no longer doubt the reality of malevolent spirits.”
He notes numerous stories in the gospels of Jesus’ “encounter with demons” and points out that “St. Paul...continually refers to the demonic forces present in the world and the damage they cause.”
With references to the words of St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Augustine and to writings by psychiatrists and the like, Fr. Orsi warns of demons that can take control of people, especially the lonely, the alienated, the unloved.
These subordinates of the devil are not easily recognized, says Fr. Orsi. They can take any shape or form. Is it possible that I was briefly under the influence of a demon more than 30 years ago when my actions resulted in great unhappiness for myself and my loved ones?
What about you? Do you believe in demons and the devil, or is it all silly? Do you have stories to share? Click on “comments” and share your beliefs and feelings. You need not identify yourself.
(A new blog subject will appear here Saturday morning, April 7.)