Every day is a new day; every period of history is a new day. Whether it will be a good new day or a bad new day depends upon how well we cooperate with the graces and blessings God bestows upon us. God wants every day to be a good day. God gives us the needed assistance to make every day a good day. But having given human beings the gift of freedom, God’s hands are somewhat tied and limited. We need to use our freedom to cooperate with God’s daily graces. If we fail to do so, or choose to use our freedom to rebel against God’s plans for us, a new day becomes an evil day for us as well as for those dependent upon us.

Some new days are more important than others. Some periods of history have greater influence on the future than other historical periods. Today we seem to be living in one of those more important periods of history. The decisions we make from day to day will have tremendous influence on the whole future of the human race. It would seem that we are at the cutting edge of the future destiny of the world. The so-called modern world is fast becoming a thing of the past. Whether we like to use the term “new age” or not, it seems clear that a whole new era of history is facing us. Many people connect this new era with the third Christian millennium.

Regardless of how we look at the future, there is general agreement that the decisions each of us is making each day will determine the direction the human race will take. We seem to be in a similar situation to that described in Chapter 18 of the Book of Genesis. God tells Abraham, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great, and their sin so grave, that I must go down and see whether or not their actions fully correspond to the cry against them that comes to me.” Abraham had relatives in these sinful cities, so he pleads with God to spare the cities. “Please, let not my Lord grow angry if I speak up this last time. What if there are at least ten just persons there?” The Lord replied, “For the sake of those ten, I will not destroy it.”

The evil and violence in today’s world is comparable to the evil of Sodom and Gomorrah. It will probably take more than ten good persons to prevent the destruction of our present sinful world which is a million times larger than Sodom and Gomorrah. But the principle still holds true that a few good persons can change the future destiny of our world. The fewer we are, the more whole and holy we need to be. Therefore, instead of wringing our hands in frustration at the sight of so much evil in today’s world, each of us is called and challenged to do all in our power to make the new day now facing us a good day.

The thing that makes our present age so difficult is what we might call “institutional evil.” Evil has become endemic in nearly all the institutions of today’s world. Our civil governments, our churches, our large industrial corporations, our military establishment, our news media, our entertainment industries are all contaminated by a worship of Power, Pleasure and Possessions. These “three Ps” are all creations of God and therefore good. But they are only a limited good. When individuals or institutions make one or more of them into absolute goods, we divinize them and turn them into idols which we worship. Thus we become guilty of idolatry. These “three P’s” are what traditionally have been called the world (possessions), the flesh (pleasure) and the devil (power).

An example of the power of institutional evil is seen in the acceptance of abortion and pro-choice by the great majority of our American citizens today. Since the Supreme Court and our civil government have declared that it is legal to destroy the human life of unborn children, most Americans accept this evil choice as legitimate and in accord with justice and right doing. Something similar occurred in Germany during the Nazi regime when practically the whole German nation approved of the elimination of the Jewish people living in their midst.

The worship of power, pleasure and possessions has become so ingrained in the lives of individuals as well as most of our institutions that it has become a form of satanic possession. These “three P’s” that are gifts of God when used within proper limits, become evil forces (demons) when we turn them into absolute, unlimited goods. We become addicted or excessively attached to them. We become obsessed or possessed by them. They now become the gods whom we worship and obey rather than the true God. This is exactly the meaning of demonic possession.

If the future of the world is to be a good new day, we must find a way to exorcise these evil spirits (powers) which now possess so much of our society today. The three traditional remedies for exorcising these evils are prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Prayer gives to God absolute power over us and prevents us from making the power of our free will into an absolute good. Fasting enables us to bring under control our excessive attachments to pleasure. Almsgiving encourages us to share our goods with others and thus prevent possessions from becoming an absolute good.

Besides the personal efforts of prayer, fasting and almsgiving, we need special help from God. Traditionally this divine help comes to us in the form of faith, hope and charity. Through these God-given graces we are able to attain the unconditional love that will exorcise and rid us of our obsessive attachment to power, pleasure and possessions. Unconditional love is present when we are able consistently to put the needs of God and others ahead of our own selfish desires.