Faith under pressure, the protection of family, and the faithfulness of God
By Fr Antony Parankimalil VC
The Gospel takes us into the country of the Gadarenes, where two men tormented by evil spirits come out from among the tombs and confront Jesus. The people of that region had learned to fear them. No one could pass that way safely, and nothing in ordinary human strength appeared able to free them. Yet the moment Jesus entered that territory, what had been hidden was exposed. The spirits recognised His authority and could not remain where the Son of God commanded them to go. This Gospel reminds us that the Christian life includes a real spiritual struggle, but it also tells us where our attention must remain. We do not begin with fear of evil. We begin with Jesus Christ, before whom every power of darkness must bow.
We need discernment when we speak about spiritual attack. Not every illness, difficulty or painful experience is caused by personal sin or by an evil spirit, and Christians should never neglect appropriate medical, psychological or professional care. At the same time, we should not live as though the spiritual dimension of life does not exist. Scripture speaks about temptation, deception, accusation and forces that try to draw the human heart away from God. The most important question, therefore, is not whether pressure will come, but how we will respond when it comes. Will we depend upon our own confidence, or will we remain close to Jesus, grounded in His Word and supported by prayer?
When Peter Was Sifted
Saint Peter shows us why no one should presume that he is beyond temptation. Peter had lived with Jesus, heard His teaching, seen His miracles and received His mercy at close range. He loved the Lord sincerely, and he was certain that his loyalty would survive imprisonment and even death. Yet Jesus looked beyond Peter’s confidence and saw the battle Peter himself could not see. He said, “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail; and when you have turned again, strengthen your brethren” (Luke 22:31-32).
There is a reason Jesus called him Simon in that moment. He was Peter, the rock chosen for a great mission, but he was still Simon, a man born of flesh who needed grace. A calling does not remove human weakness. Ordination does not make a priest incapable of falling. Religious profession does not cancel temptation. Marriage, ministry, years of prayer and a reputation for holiness do not give anyone spiritual immunity. I stand before people as a priest, but as long as I live in the flesh I need the grace of God to stand. Saint Paul warns us, “Let any one who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12). Christian confidence is not confidence in our own strength. It is confidence in the faithfulness of God.
Peter denied Jesus, but Jesus did not deny Peter. That is the heart of this teaching. Peter’s failure was real, serious and painful, yet it did not become the final chapter of his life because the Lord had already prayed for him. Saint Paul gives us the character of God in one sentence: “If we are faithless, he remains faithful - for he cannot deny himself” (2 Timothy 2:13). The enemy wants the person who has fallen to believe that God is tired of him, that mercy has been withdrawn and that there is no road back. Scripture speaks a different word. God remains faithful. He calls the sinner to repentance, receives the one who returns and can transform failure into a place from which that person later strengthens others.
During my ministry in Kigali, Rwanda, I became increasingly aware of the power carried by words. A land wounded by genocide has also heard many lies, curses, blasphemies and abusive words. Such words create an atmosphere in which fear, accusation and division can continue to live. How do we answer a lie that has entered the mind of a person, a family or even a community? We proclaim the Word of God. When we look upon the Word, our eyes are purified. When we read it, our tongues are purified. When we repeat it with faith, our hearts are purified. When we speak it aloud, the atmosphere around us is confronted by truth. The enemy says, “God has abandoned you. God does not care for you. God is punishing you.” The Word answers, “If we are faithless, he remains faithful.” We must proclaim this truth into our homes and into the spiritual atmosphere of Australia: we have a faithful God. He is not tired of us, and He does not abandon those who turn back to Him.
Because Peter was restored, he later wrote with the seriousness of a man who knew the danger from experience: “Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking some one to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). When we hear that a priest, preacher, spouse, child, young person or former ministry leader is in a crisis of faith, our first response must not be gossip or condemnation. We do not know the depth of another person’s battle. Today I may appear strong while you are wavering; tomorrow I may be the one who needs your intercession. Jesus did not stand over Peter and announce his disgrace. Jesus prayed for him. If someone near us is falling, we should learn to do the same.
The Enemy Attacks What Can Bear Fruit
For a long time, I imagined that spiritual attack would be most obvious among people who were distant from God. Over time I came to see that pressure can be especially fierce against those whose lives and relationships are capable of bearing spiritual fruit. I have watched couples who were regarded as examples in their community come under intense strain. They went to church together, sometimes even choosing one car rather than arriving separately. They sat beside one another and held hands while praying the Our Father. Their children and friends saw in them an image of unity. Then conflict came so suddenly that people around them were shocked.
Why was Peter targeted while he was walking with Jesus? Because his future mission mattered. He would become a pillar of the Church, and the fruit of his faith would reach generations. In the same way, a husband and wife who pray together, remain faithful, serve God and teach their children to love the Lord do not bless only themselves. Their unity influences a family tree, a parish and a society. This is why pressure against a holy marriage should never be interpreted too quickly as proof that the marriage was false or that God has abandoned the couple. Sometimes the very intensity of the struggle reveals how much good could come from their perseverance.
The Book of Wisdom unveils the hostility directed against the righteous: “Let us lie in wait for the righteous man, because he is inconvenient to us and opposes our actions” (Wisdom 2:12). It goes on to describe insult, testing and the trial of a person’s endurance, and then declares that death entered the world through the devil’s envy (Wisdom 2:19, 23-24). When division, manipulation and hatred enter a home, it is easy to identify a human enemy: a spouse, an in-law, a neighbour, a colleague or someone who has caused pain. I told the congregation with a little humour that Scripture does not say death entered the world through the envy of your mother-in-law. It says through the devil’s envy. Human beings remain responsible for their choices, but our discernment must go deeper than blaming flesh and blood. The person who wounds us may also be deceived, blinded or trapped, and that is why prayer must accompany every effort at truth, justice and reconciliation.
The Lord gradually showed me that an inner healing retreat is incomplete if it never speaks about marriage and family, because the family is one of the foundations under serious pressure in our time. The Psalm asks, “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (Psalm 11:3). Jesus Christ is the ultimate foundation, and from the Father every family in heaven and on earth takes its name (Ephesians 3:14-15). Priests, religious, teachers, leaders and future parents do not descend from heaven fully formed. They first receive life, language, affection, wounds, faith and example within a family. When the family is strengthened, many future vocations are strengthened. When the family is deeply wounded, those wounds can travel far beyond the walls of one home.
In our congregation, when a young man presents himself for priestly formation, we do not look only at his individual gifts. We also try to understand the family from which he comes, the sacramental life of the home and the wounds that may need healing. This is not done to discard a wounded person. Wounds do not place someone beyond grace, but they must be known and honestly addressed because a priest is called to become an instrument of healing for others. Saint Paul recognised the sincere faith that lived first in Timothy’s grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice and then came to live in Timothy himself (2 Timothy 1:5). Faith can pass through generations. So can unresolved pain. This is why the protection and sanctification of family life is not a private concern. It belongs to the mission of the whole Church.
Marriage Is a Covenant of Salvation
Sirach says, “My child, when you come to serve the Lord, prepare yourself for testing” (Sirach 2:1). I was first taught to hear those words as an instruction for priests and religious. In meditation I came to understand that they also speak powerfully to married life, because marriage is not merely a social arrangement. It is a sacrament and a vocation in which a man and a woman come to serve the Lord together. The purpose of priesthood is connected with watching over the flock entrusted by the Holy Spirit (Acts 20:28). In a corresponding way, Saint Paul asks, “Wife, how do you know whether you will save your husband? Husband, how do you know whether you will save your wife?” (1 Corinthians 7:16). A Christian spouse is called to care not only about the comfort of the other, but about the salvation of the other.
This is why the Church speaks of covenant rather than contract. A contract is often maintained while each party continues to receive the expected benefit. A covenant places the relationship before God. At the altar, a husband and wife consent freely to remain together in prosperity and adversity, in sickness and health, until death. They do not know everything the future will contain. Illness may come. Money may be lost. A couple may experience childlessness, misunderstanding, humiliation, rejection from relatives or seasons when affection feels painfully hidden. God knows the past, present and future, and still the couple makes a promise before Him and before witnesses. Marriage is not a small private agreement. It is a sacred vocation through which two people are asked to help one another reach God.
A woman once told me that, although she had been married for many years, her husband’s family had never accepted her as their daughter. She felt like a stranger in the very family to which marriage had joined her, and at times she wondered whether she had come to the wrong place. I told her not to believe that rejection had erased her worth. Sirach says, “Accept whatever befalls you, and in times of humiliation be patient” (Sirach 2:4). There are moments when patience reveals a person’s character more clearly than comfort ever could. God sees the humiliation, the false accusation and the unwanted feeling that others may overlook. The fruit of fidelity is not always immediately visible, but nothing offered to God in love is wasted.
The enemy often works through a voice that sounds practical and compassionate while slowly making personal satisfaction the highest law. It asks, “How long will you endure this? What have you received from this marriage? Why should you carry responsibility when you could live independently and make yourself happy?” The same voice can speak to a husband, a wife, a parent, a priest or a religious. It can persuade a person that every sacrifice is oppression and every duty is an obstacle to self-fulfilment. Once that voice is accepted without discernment, a person may seek relief in drink, drugs, infidelity, isolation or another bondage that promises happiness but produces slavery.
I am not exempt from that temptation because I am a priest. The enemy can whisper, “You have served for many years. What have you achieved for yourself? How much rest, entertainment and personal comfort do you have?” If I make those questions the centre of my vocation, I cannot remain a true priest. Saint Paul says that if for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied (1 Corinthians 15:19). Christian life cannot be judged only by immediate ease. We have an eternal destiny, and many sacrifices that appear hidden now will reveal their fruit in the presence of God.
Christ Did Not Please Himself
Jesus gives us the pattern for every Christian vocation: “The Son of man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28). A husband cannot become a faithful husband if his deepest desire is always to be served. A wife cannot become a blessing if she measures love only by what she receives. A parent cannot form children in holiness while treating every sacrifice as an intrusion. A priest cannot shepherd souls if personal comfort becomes his first concern. The question is not merely, “How can I become happy?” but, “How can my life become a blessing?”
I once heard of a young boy who was asked what he found most remarkable about Jesus. After thinking, he answered that Jesus never performed a miracle for Himself. His power was always turned towards others. That simple observation reaches the centre of the Gospel. Jesus fed the hungry, healed the sick, raised the dead and restored the broken, yet He refused to use power to escape the Cross or secure His own comfort. Saint Peter writes that Christ committed no sin and no deceit was found in His mouth. “When he was abused, he did not return abuse; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he entrusted himself to him who judges justly” (1 Peter 2:22-23).
In Nairobi, a woman came to me deeply angry because her husband had been repeatedly unfaithful. As we spoke, I asked whether she herself had crossed the same boundary. At first she insisted that her situation was different, but eventually she admitted that she had retaliated once. I told her that the number of times did not turn retaliation into holiness. Her husband’s sin remained wrong, but his wrong could not make her own wrong righteous. When we are wounded, the temptation to return the wound can feel like justice. Christ shows another way. He does not ask us to call evil good, but He refuses to let another person’s sin determine His own character.
Saint Monica remained faithful in prayer through a painful marriage, and her perseverance became part of a story of grace that reached her son Augustine and the whole Church. The prayer of a humble person pierces the clouds and does not cease until it reaches God (Sirach 35:21). Abraham became a blessing to generations. The Blessed Virgin Mary became a blessing to the world even as sorrow pierced her heart. In many families, the faith people live today has been nourished by a mother, father, grandmother or grandfather who prayed, forgave and sacrificed without seeing the full result. To be a blessing does not mean arranging life so that nothing costs us. It means allowing God to make our life fruitful for others.
Saint Paul writes plainly, “Christ did not please himself” (Romans 15:3). I asked the congregation to repeat those words because they challenge the spirit of an age that continually tells us to make ourselves happy. Many forms of sin begin when pleasing oneself becomes more important than truth, covenant, responsibility or the good of another person. The Christian is not called merely to fit a society’s definition of a good person. I said it deliberately and sharply: it is not enough to be “good” by standards that keep changing; we are called to be holy. Isaiah warns against calling evil good and good evil, putting darkness for light and light for darkness (Isaiah 5:20). Holiness requires us to ask not only what appears acceptable or convenient, but what reflects the character and will of God.
Prayer Opens Blinded Eyes
When someone we love begins to walk in a destructive direction, accusation alone may not bring that person back. Saint Paul says that the god of this world blinds minds so that they do not see the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ (2 Corinthians 4:4). A husband may be unable to recognise what his choices are doing to his family. A wife may be drawn into a path that once would have horrified her. A son or daughter may reject the faith that formed the home. We should speak truth and take responsible action, but we should also understand that prayer can reach a place argument cannot reach. We pray that confusion will be exposed, deception broken and blinded eyes opened.
Do not make the person your final enemy. Pray as Jesus prayed for Peter. A wife can intercede for her husband, a husband for his wife, parents for their children and a Christian community for those who have wandered. The prayer may not produce an immediate visible change, but faithful intercession places the person before the One who sees what we cannot see. Peter did not rescue himself by the strength of his promise. He was held by the prayer and mercy of Christ until he could turn again.
The final answer to spiritual attack is not obsession with darkness. It is deeper surrender to Jesus. When He entered the country of the Gadarenes, the evil spirits recognised Him before anyone explained who He was. His name carries authority. His Word exposes lies. His mercy restores those who have failed. His grace can preserve a marriage, awaken a conscience and bring a wandering child home. We remain watchful because no one is beyond temptation, but we do not live in despair because no one is beyond the reach of the faithful God.
My dear brothers and sisters, when evil attacks, remember Peter. He was sifted, but he was not abandoned. He fell, but the prayer of Jesus was already surrounding his failure. Remember the family, a sacred foundation whose faithfulness can bless generations. Remember the covenant that calls us beyond self-pleasing into the self-giving love of Christ. Above all, remember the Word: “If we are faithless, he remains faithful - for he cannot deny himself.” Let us ask Jesus for His meek and humble heart, for the grace to resist every lie and for the courage to pray until blinded eyes are opened. The enemy may attack what is holy, but the faithfulness of God is stronger.
Pastoral note: Prayer and spiritual discernment should accompany, not replace, appropriate medical, psychological, safeguarding or legal assistance. Christian fidelity does not require remaining in immediate danger. Where violence, coercion or abuse is present, safety and appropriate professional and pastoral support should be sought.
Adapted and edited from a homily delivered by Fr Antony Parankimalil VC at the Healing Mass at Holy Family Church, Doveton, during the July 2026 Divine Australia programme.