The Evil One and the Woman

“I witnessed the angels fall” he said calmly.
“You weren’t even in existence when the angels fell,” John says.
“True that.” The man seems to snap out of what he is claiming. And then says, “I am a fallen angel.”
John turns and looks at me and his lips move with the words ,“This guy has a demon.”
“I witnessed an exorcism by a cult. They came into me,” he says.
Something resembling Ichabod Crane, my legs begin to shake.
“In the name of Jesus, what’s your name?” I ask.
“Beezelbul,” he responds promptly, looking at me in the eyes.
About a week ago, I had been given a book called, “An Exorcist Tells His Story” by Fr. Gabriele Amorth. Fr. Gabriele says that when you encounter a demon mentioned in the bible, you are dealing with a heavyweight. He also says his that his favorite prayer during an exorcism is Philippians 2:10-11:
“…that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
While the people are bowing, reciting in prayer, he says even the demon-possessed stops and bows at the hearing of this prayer.
As the man continues with his distracting dialogue about Scripture, religion and his life going in and out of what seems to be at times him speaking and at others times, the fallen angel speaking, I begin to read Philippians 2:10-11. His mouth stops and listens. Then when I am finished he continues speaking. I read it again. Again his mouth stops and listens.
Fr. Gabriele says it is difficult to assess demonic-possession for sure, and that only during his initial exorcism can he conclude if there is demonic possession. Quite possibly the man was speaking only on his own, but my body and its shaking legs thought otherwise.
When I get home that night, in the darkness of my room, I cannot but think of Revelation 12:17:
“Then the dragon became angry with the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring, those who keep God’s commandments and bear witness to Jesus.”
This goes with Genesis 3:15, when God speaks to the serpent:
“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head and you will strike his heel.”
God put enmity between the evil one and the woman. The evil one was not able to get to the woman who had given birth to the male child, but the evil one wages war against the followers of her son, Jesus Christ. And because the evil one was not able to overcome the woman, he goes after her offspring.
I remind us today that this is the week that it was reported that the woman appeared in the sky of Fatima, Portugal in 1917 (October 13). A reported 70,000 journeyed great distances on muddy trails to witness the promised miracle of Cova da Iria. The woman asked us to have faith in her son, to amend our lives and ask pardon for our sins. And then God provided what has been called, “The Miracle of the Dancing Sun.”
I was ignorant to the details of this story until about a year ago and upon further examination, I learned that the Church has approved these apparitions. In them an angel speaks to three children and then later the woman appears and speaks to them. What the angel and what the woman says to the children has changed my prayer life.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Lady_of_F%C3%A1tima
This is the week of Our Lady of Fatima. The woman who the dragon was not able to overcome, and now the dragon wages war with her offspring.