The shocking assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in midtown Manhattan on December 4th has gripped our nations attention.  The details of this tragedy continue to distrub us: a 50-year-old father of two, gunned down in broad daylight as he walked to an investor meeting. The arrest of the alleged shooter – a 26-year-old who made his own gun with a 3-D printer, after he led authorities on a manhunt, found with a handwritten “manifesto” and multiple fake IDs – reads like a dark thriller, yet it’s all too real.   But what truly disturbs me isn’t just the calculated nature of this violence, or even the methodical planning that preceded it.  Rather, it’s how this tragedy reveals something profoundly troubling about our current spiritual climate. While media coverage has focused on the dramatic manhunt and the shocking details, they’ve missed a deeper, more sinister reality at work. What we witnessed wasn’t just a crime – it was a stark manifestation of the ancient battle between good and evil, where the Enemy works tirelessly to convince us that other human beings are our adversaries rather than our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Thanks so much for stopping by to read this homily for the THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT- December 15, 2024.  I appreciate your sharing this on your social media posts and your feedback and comments…  I’m also grateful for all those who’ve asked for the audio version and share them as well at SOUNDCLOUD click HERE or from ITUNES as a podcast HERE.  May the Lord be glorified in your reading and sharing- Father Jim – 

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The real enemy – Satan, the father of lies – must delight in seeing how easily we’ve been led to dehumanize each other. He whispers that some lives matter less than others, that violence can serve justice, that the end justifies the means. In our relativistic age, where “my truth” and “your truth” replace absolute moral principles, we’ve unwittingly given the Enemy the very weapon he needs: the erosion of our moral compass.

This is precisely why John the Baptist’s message in today’s Gospel carries such urgency. When the crowds asked him “What should we do?” they were likely expecting grand political solutions or revolutionary actions against their Roman oppressors. Instead, John pointed them toward personal conversion and concrete acts of love: share your extra coat, share your food, be honest in your dealings, avoid exploitation. He understood that the real battle isn’t against flesh and blood, but against the spiritual forces that corrupt our hearts.

The prophet Zephaniah’s words, “The Lord has taken away your punishment, he has turned back your enemy,” weren’t just about earthly adversaries. They speak to Christ’s ultimate victory over the true Enemy of our souls. And when St. Paul tells us to “Rejoice in the Lord always” and “let your gentleness be evident to all,” he’s giving us spiritual warfare tactics – joy and gentleness become powerful weapons against the darkness that seeks to divide us.

In our current climate of heightened tensions and moral confusion, we must be crystal clear: our enemy isn’t the person with different political views, or the CEO whose policies we disagree with, or even the person who has wronged us. Our enemy is the one who seeks to destroy our humanity by convincing us that eliminating other human beings will somehow solve our problems.

The timing of this message, in these final weeks of Advent, isn’t coincidental. As we approach the celebration of Christ’s birth, the Enemy often intensifies his attacks. Why? Because he knows that Christmas represents the beginning of his greatest and ultimate defeat – the moment when God became human, entering our battlefield not with armies of angels, but as a vulnerable baby. This divine strategy must have seemed absurd to the devil. Yet it was precisely through this apparent weakness that God would ultimately triumph.

Think about it: While Satan expected a military Messiah who would overthrow Rome, God sent a child. While the Enemy anticipated power, God chose poverty. When darkness thought it had won at the cross, Light was actually achieving its greatest victory. This is divine spiritual warfare – and it turns all our human expectations upside down.

John the Baptist understood this. When he says, “One who is more powerful than I will come,” he’s not describing a political revolutionary or a social reformer. He’s announcing the arrival of a warrior king who would fight with utterly unexpected weapons: humility, love, and self-sacrifice. “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire,” John declares. This fire isn’t meant to destroy human enemies – it’s meant to burn away the Enemy’s influence in our own hearts.

Here’s where we often miss the point in our own spiritual battles. We get caught up fighting human opponents, while the Enemy sits back and laughs. We rage on social media, demonize those who disagree with us, and even, as we saw in Manhattan last week, justify violence – all while Satan advances his real agenda: dividing God’s children against each other. As Zephaniah reminds us, “The Lord has taken away your punishment, he has turned back your enemy.” Notice: God doesn’t just help us fight our enemy; He turns that enemy back. Our job isn’t to defeat Satan – Christ has already done that. Our job is to stand firm in that victory.

So what does this spiritual warfare look like in practice? It means:

When we’re tempted to demonize others, we recognize this as the Enemy’s tactic and choose to see them as Christ does

When social media feeds us outrage, we respond with the “gentleness” Paul talks about, remembering that our battle isn’t against flesh and blood

When we see injustice, we fight it with John the Baptist’s practical tools: generosity, honesty, and care for the poor

When darkness seems to be winning, we double down on joy – not because we’re naive, but because we know how the story ends

This is why Paul’s words, “Do not be anxious about anything,” aren’t just comforting advice – they’re marching orders in spiritual battle. The Enemy wants us anxious, afraid, and angry because these states make us vulnerable to his lies. But “the peace of God, which transcends all understanding,” is our shield and fortress.

As we enter these final days of Advent, we’re called to be both warriors and watchmen. Warriors who understand our true enemy and fight with Christ’s weapons of love, truth, and self-giving. Watchmen who, like John the Baptist, can point others to the true source of victory – not in eliminating human opponents, but in the child of Bethlehem who came to destroy the works of the devil.

Remember: every act of love is an act of warfare against darkness. Every choice for unity over division is a blow against the Enemy’s plans. Every moment of joy in the midst of darkness is a declaration that we know who’s really won this battle. This is what it means to “Rejoice in the Lord always” – not because everything is perfect, but because in Christ, the true Enemy has already been defeated.

As we prepare our hearts for Christ’s coming, we would do well to remember the wisdom of Padre Pio, who knew intimately the reality of spiritual warfare. He warned us that “the devil does not sleep but seeks our ruin in a thousand ways,” yet he also gave us a crucial insight into discerning the Enemy’s tactics: “What comes from Satan begins with calmness and ends in storm, indifference and apathy.”

This is exactly what we see playing out in our world today – the subtle manipulation of good intentions into destructive actions, the quiet erosion of truth into “my truth,” the calm justification that leads to violent storms. But we are not left defenseless. Our weapons are not the world’s weapons. They are the very things the Enemy despises most: joy in the face of darkness, peace in the midst of chaos, love in response to hatred.

This is why the message of Gaudete Sunday comes at exactly the right moment. When Paul tells us to rejoice always, when Zephaniah proclaims God’s victory, when John the Baptist calls us to practical acts of love – they’re not just giving us nice spiritual advice. They’re handing us battle plans for spiritual warfare. Every act of generosity is a counterattack against the Enemy’s selfishness. Every moment of peace is a victory over his chaos. Every choice to love our opponents is a direct assault on his kingdom of division.

As we journey through these final days of Advent, let us be clear-eyed about who our real enemy is – and isn’t. The child in the manger, who appeared so weak and vulnerable, was actually God’s master strategy for defeating the Enemy once and for all. May we have the wisdom to recognize that our own apparent weakness, when surrendered to God, becomes the very weapon that will help establish His kingdom of peace.