Evil One

Evil One,
I see you.
I see what you’re doing.

You may think I’m dumb.
You might think I’m naïve.

But I see you.
I see what you’re doing.

You make the government
lie, cheat, and steal.
You infest the government
and it does me wrong.

You make the market
run and jump fast.
You prod it this way and that
and make me chase it always.

You’re the cancer that mutates the church
into an institution of complacency—
one big viper, deaf to my cry,
that slithers away from justice.

You’re the contagion of distrust
that turns my neighbor into my enemy,
my competitor and adversary,
self-serving, greedy, thieving.

But I see you.
I see what you’re doing.

I seethe with righteous anger.
I am hot with Jeremiah’s fire.

It’s true, Evil One, that
judgment and justice are God’s.

But God’s work is done
with my hands.

I see you, Evil One.
And with God I come to make things right.

—

To read a reflection on this prayer, click here.