One heckuva day!
If you’re reading these words, it’s pretty safe to assume you survived the overhyped, media-driven, made-up Day of the Devil, June 6.
Or, to put it more mathematically, you survived 6-6-06. Translated, that means 666 or “mark of the beast” as told in the Bible’s Book of Revelations.
TV, newspapers and the Internet were alive with 666 lore in the days before June 6. Admittedly, some of the articles had tongue planted firmly in cheek. Others warned of dire predictions of evil flooding the world on that day and some were not-so-subtly promoting the remake of the 1970s evil thriller, “The Omen.”
Almost all gave an unfortunately incorrect perspective on the devil, the Bible, faith and the presence of evil in the world.
The 666 lore has its roots in some questionable biblical numerology supposedly symbolic of the antichrist and Satan himself.
And lots of people see Satan—or at least his handiwork—all over the place, from politics (evil in politics? How surprising!) to war (I’ll go along with that one) to sex and culture and even media.
The number itself—666—has suffered for its association with the devil. Addresses have been changed, license plates refused and even a significant drop in births on that dreaded day. One Nevada road, Route 666, is commonly called “The Devil’s Highway.” And not because of bad divers.
There are also those who would maintain that columns like this one which seem to pooh-pooh the power of 666 play into the hands of the little red, forked-tail guy and give him free rein to do his mischief.
So now that we’ve survived the Devil’s Day, this might be the opportunity to clarify: evil surely exists in the world, even if Lucifer isn’t sneaking around behind every bush. The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines evil less as the work of an outside force like a devil, and more something from within us. Evil, it says is “the opposite or absence of good” and often results from “the free choice to sin which angels and men have.”
And hell certainly exists, though our all-too-human perspectives of a very uncomfortable place “down there” where residents suffer from an eternal hotfoot just aren’t theologically accurate. That imagery comes from biblical descriptions of “eternal fire” and “Gahenna” which biblical scholars say was a place outside Jerusalem where garbage was continually burned. It surely wasn’t a nice place, but neither was it hell.
Despite evocative descriptions of an underground place where Satan rules and minor demons taunt and prod the sinful with red-hot pitchforks, hell is much less colorful. And, to be honest, much more painful because we do it to ourselves. Hell, says the Catechism, is a place where we have separated ourselves from God: “To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God’s merciful love means remaining separated from him forever by our own free choice. This state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God … is called ‘hell.’”
And hell’s street address is NOT 666.
* * * *
Pope Benedict said something the other day worth passing along here. The pope met with journalists working for Catholic media in Italy. What he said applies to us, too. He said it’s their job to bring the Gospel to life. Divorce, abortion and the lack of ethical references in public debates show the consequences of a culture intent on moving away from its Christian roots.
To be effective witnesses, he said, those who work in Catholic media must give “shining testimony of profoundly Christian lives” to help others to “see the world with his eyes.”
Tom Sheridan
Editor and General Manager
