The devil really exists

Yes the devil exists and he was at one of my Masses last Saturday. I spoke in my homily about the presence of evil spirits, which Jesus expelled from a man in the Gospel reading this weekend. My experience of the devil so far has been when a woman boarded a bus last November on my way to a funeral, and starting blaspheming and cursing and utter all kings of obscenities for everyone to hear. Luckily I was the only Maltese on board, so no one could understand her. There was the devil in front of me blaspheming for an hour until I arrived. I faced the devil eye to eye that day. He was sitting in front of me, no doubt about it.

On Saturday before the 5 PM Mass, a phone started to ring, then stopped, and started again, then stopped again, then rang again. Its owner is a hard-of-hearing resident and could not even hear it ring. At that time I picked her phone and took it to the reception until the end of the Mass. Usually in these cases, they keep ringing through the entire Mass. The Mass proceeded without any problems. The devil wanted to stop the Mass from starting, but I won the battle. By now you realize that the devil is the cell-phone, which people call the mobile here in Malta. At the 7 PM Mass, exactly during my homily when I was mentioning the first encounter with the cursing woman, another phone rang. I stopped, and instantly told the people that a mobile phone can be a modern-day version of the devil, when it disrupts the Mass. But that was only the beginning. When I came to the Eucharistic Prayer, at the Preface, another phone rang. Again I stopped as people were getting upset. I re-started the Preface, and sure enough, another phone rang. It had become an intolerable situation, but I showed patience as I waited another minute. When I felt it was safe to start again, I re-started the Preface for the third time, and guess what? The phone rang again. People were now becoming angry, while I stepped back showing everyone that I was very upset by this unfortunate intrusion at the most important part of the Mass. This was the devil prohibiting me from celebrating the Eucharist. Nobody could question this as it happened during a public Mass with over 40 people present. For a third time I re-started the Preface and I continued till the end. I won the battle and the war, and the devil was defeated. But please, do be aware – he is very present, I saw him him last November face to face, and I saw him again last Saturday while celebrating Mass. Don’t ever underestimate him, and never give into him!