What Would Hell Do?
There’s a fascinating and enlightening little passage in the 2 Book of Kings. Israel is at war with Syria, and the king of Syria is repeatedly thwarted from his attempts to spring a trap on Israel and defeat them. One day, the king gathers together his counselors and asks, “Where is the traitor!?” But his counselors tell him that there is no traitor. Instead, they tell him, “Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom” (2 Ki 6:12).
This is a most interesting story, and one that has, we think, practical applications for us in the Church. Syria, in this passage, can be understood as a type of the enemy, that is, of the devil, who appeared front and center this past Sunday in the Gospel at mass. The enemy is — right now! — conspiring to trap us and defeat us; to thwart our plans for transformation and renewal in the Church; to render ineffective our attempts to proclaim the gospel; to prevent us from becoming healthy as a parish, school or curia office; to sow division in our marriages and families, and so much more.
A friend once offered for us an image that was more than a bit sobering. He said he had seen in prayer something like “mission control” in hell. Just as down at Cape Canaveral, or some other such place, there were huge screens on a wall, and rows of hell’s minions looking at them. And on those screens, he told us, was “ACTS XXIX.” In other words, there was an active plan to prevent us from doing what God had set us apart from doing, or to weaken us, or throw us off.
This isn’t just true of us in our ministry. It’s true for you too. Your name, or your family, or your diocese, or your school, or your curia department, and much more are on hell’s radar. There is a plan being devised to keep us from being and doing what God created us to be and to do, and from what we want to be and to do.
But as in the story with the king of Syria and Elisha, God can and wants to give us access to those plans. Just as the king of Syria was scheming, so He can enable us to discern the schemes of the enemy in our lives. So that we can be prepared for those schemes, and ward them off, and come against them.
When working with a bishop and his leadership team, or an entire presbyterate, or a superintendent of schools and his principals, or a pastor and his staff, we often encourage a very simple but powerful exercise in prayer. It goes like this: imagine if you were hell, what would you do to try to ruin whatever efforts are being planned to unleash the gospel and rescue others? This doesn’t take an awful lot of effort. Almost immediately, things like sowing division, jealousy, envy, competition, fear, anxiety, discouragement, suspicion, and cynicism come to mind. So, if those things come as quickly to us as they do, and if we can see how effective they would be, isn’t it logical to presume these things are being planned by the enemy? And more besides, to be sure! And, once we can gain access to hell’s strategy, we can then create counter-attacks, strategies of our own to keep these from coming to fruition. This can apply just as easily to marriage and family.
Again and again we have to remember God wants us to win, He wants us to triumph over the enemy, He wants us to see into his schemes in order to rescue others.
As we continue to live in these tumultuous days, let’s remember, “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Eph 6:12). And that Jesus has defeated these powers by His death and glorious resurrection.