Mtr Mary Trainor

The devil made me do it. 

Dear friend,

The comedian Flip Wilson’s television show made it big with vignettes featuring characters such as Geraldine Jones (Wilson in women’s clothing). Wilson used comedy to give stage to topics with which 1970s America may not have been comfortable. And he did so by packaging the difficult in the wrappings of humor. 

And Wilson’s chronic excuse for anything wrong? “The devil made me do it.” It was picked up and perpetuated in the general culture, usually accompanied by a bit of laughter.

***

We don’t talk much about the devil, but in today’s Office Gospel from Matthew, temptation is thrown onto Jesus’ path by none other than Peter. But wait. Jesus says to Peter’s words, “Get behind me Satan.” Satan equals the devil?

How does Satan/the devil find us—and know our particular vulnerabilities?

***

My mother often used Bible snippets to win an argument. Not that we always knew what she said came from the Bible—it  just sounded authoritative.

She often used Get-behind-me-Satan when we did something of which she disapproved. I’d come out of the kitchen with a second piece of pie: Get behind me Satan. I’d sleep late on the weekend: Get behind me Satan—joining together sloth and sin.

I’m not sure if it’s connected to our early “training,” but I developed an intense aversion to hell, Satan, the devil, outer darkness. I could not tolerate someone else even talking about it, much less thinking about it myself. I feared that evil might overwhelm me, consume me, turn me from God.

Get behind me Satan!

I have moved past my mother’s use of the phrase as warning. I have moved past all thought of Satan and Evil as things that might catch me off guard, taking over control of my life.

Nowadays, when I get edgy when there’s any hint of hint—I say as forcefully as I can: Get behind me Satan!

And repeat as necessary.

Mtr Mary