Continuing our series on the Armor of God featured in Saint Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, this week we take into account how the Christian community at Ephesus was honestly afraid of the dark spiritual powers around them. The pagan cults were very active and they saw on a daily basis the power of the Evil One.
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St. Paul saw this and wanted to do all that he could to ensure the Christians there that God is much more powerful and that they need to put on spiritual armor to combat this very real foe.
Pagan Magic of St. Paul’s Time
St. Paul’s emphasis on spiritual warfare was very relevant to the Ephesians. The Christian community in Ephesus “lived in a culture where magical practices flourished.” (1) More specifically, the practice of magic was “reinforced by the renowned Artemis cult” who was “worshipped as a goddess of the underworld with cosmic supremacy.” (2)
This resulted in a general fear of spiritual powers, especially by Christian converts, who saw first hand the various rituals and practices that pagans sought out to deliver them from the “realm of the powers.” (3) St. Paul saw this fear in the community and wanted to assure them that God is more powerful than these powers and gave them the armor to resist the evil spirits.
What is Magic Today?
While the “pagans” of old seem very distant and “backwards,” the reality is that magic is very much alive today. The Catechism teaches us under what forms we see it in our everyday lives:
All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to “unveil” the future. Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone. (2116, emphasis added)
All practices of magic or sorcery, by which one attempts to tame occult powers, so as to place them at one’s service and have a supernatural power over others – even if this were for the sake of restoring their health – are gravely contrary to the virtue of religion. These practices are even more to be condemned when accompanied by the intention of harming someone, or when they have recourse to the intervention of demons. Wearing charms is also reprehensible. Spiritism often implies divination or magical practices; the Church for her part warns the faithful against it. Recourse to so-called traditional cures does not justify either the invocation of evil powers or the exploitation of another’s credulity. (2117, emphasis added)
Witches, warlocks, wizards and true “magicians” are real and are not relegated to a person’s imagination or the movie screen. In fact, sometimes all it takes is a drive down main street to see signs for “Tarot Card Readers” or “Astrologers.” What happens inside those buildings is not simply for “entertainment,” but is very real.
One very good depiction of the reality behind Tarot Card readers is in Disney’s The Princess and The Frog
In the end, magic is real and we must combat it. However, it can only be overcome by putting on God’s armor and letting Christ lead the way into battle. Next week, we will start to examine each part of this armor.
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(1) Gerald F. Hawthorne, Ralph P. Martin, and Daniel G. Reid, eds., “Ephesians” in the Dictionary of Paul and His Letters: A Compendium of Contemporary Biblical Scholarship, (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), 247.
(2) Ibid.
(3) Ibid.