My dad used to say on those days that I didn't feel like going to soccer practice or training, "You know, Maria, the other team just gets stronger on the days you rest." Although he said that every time, it motivated me because as a competitive person, I found this very idea a challenge. In today's first reading, a similar statement is given to us, "The Devil is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." 

Evil does exist and the devil constantly tempts us into sin and darkness.  The Devil, as portrayed in 1 Peter, is anything but passive.  He is actively seeking to destroy souls and take them away from the goodness they were created for - to spend eternity in heaven with God. This may be quite a fearful thought.  The Devil is seeking to destroy ME? That's the scary essence about it.  Every minute of every day, evil is at work.  The Devil does not stop his work and evidence of it is what pervades society daily. The Devil thrives with pornography, murder, premarital sex, impure lyrics, abortion, abuse, and gossip for when we fall into sin, we are drawn away from God. The Devil is seeking to capture anyone who is weak, falls into temptation, or is satisfied with mediocrity because he begins to slowly win the battle against God.  

God does not stop his work, but we stop listening and following his will due to our own choosing.  He calls us to something greater than evil which the devil attempts to feed us.  God calls us to greatness.  As our late Pope John Paul II states, “Do not be satisfied with mediocrity.  The kingdom of heaven is for those who are determined to enter it.” We must strive for goodness by rejecting the evil and the “prowling” devil who wants nothing more than to aid in our destruction.  God calls us to himself at each Mass through the real presence of his Son.  We are strengthened and renewed to live our lives for Christ, not because of fear of the devil, but because of overwhelming love for the Son.  In Him, we find our complete happiness, our joy, and our true freedom.

"It is Jesus in fact that you seek when you dream of happiness; He is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you; He is the beauty to which you are so attracted; it is He who provokes you with that thirst for fullness that will not let you settle for compromise; it is He who urges you to shed the masks of a false life; it is He who reads in your hearts your most genuine choices, the choices that others try to stifle.

It is Jesus who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your lives, the will to follow an ideal, the refusal to allow yourselves to be grounded down by mediocrity, the courage to commit yourselves humbly and patiently to improving yourselves and society, making the world more human and more fraternal."
-- John Paul II