How’s this, for where we’re at as a nation and culture?
Plainly, modern culture worships the world and the world is in the grip (until God decides otherwise) of the evil one.
Could it be better expressed than the gigantic ads everywhere—billboards, airports—that so proudly say, “The Devil Wears Prada 2” (promoting a sequel movie by that ignominious title).
Notes Salon: “Obviously, you’ve heard of ‘The Devil Wears Prada 2.’ There are few people in the world who haven’t, if the extent of the film’s advertising is to be believed. Even if you’d somehow spent the last 20 years completely oblivious, avoiding anything related to ‘The Devil Wears Prada,’ it’s likely that you’ve been thrust into this world of high fashion and huge egos by the massive marketing push for the film’s sequel. Practically everywhere you look, there’s Meryl Streep’s fictional editrix-in-chief, Miranda Priestly, and Anne Hathaway’s plucky assistant-turned-editor, Andy Sachs, ready for their second big-screen outing few were asking for but everyone will watch.”
Prada is a luxury Italian fashion house that’s associated with understated wealth, sleek design, and a sophisticated minimalist style.
The devil indeed. (Didn’t a famous rock song from the Sixties call him “a man of wealth and taste”? See the Rolling Stones.)
Oh, it looks so sophisticated.
Saint Jacinta Marto of Fatima once said, “Certain fashions will be introduced which will offend Our Lord very much. Persons who serve God must not follow the fashions. The Church does not have fashions; Our Lord is always the same. The sins of the world are very great.”
Note how Jesus used the term “world” (Greek: kosmos) in two primary ways: as the physical creation and humanity which God loves, and as cultural, governmental, economic, and spiritual systems set in opposition to the Divine.
Regarding worldliness and the nature of the world as a system, the teachings of Jesus Christ emphasized a fundamental shift in allegiance, frequently describing the world as a place of spiritual darkness and hostility toward His followers, stating in John 15:18-19 that the world hated His disciples because they “are not of the world.”
He clarified this distinction further during his trial before Pilate, declaring in John 18:36, “My kingdom is not of this world.” This establishes the world as a temporary, secondary reality compared to the Kingdom of God.
On the topic of worldliness—the preoccupation with worldly values, status, and material security—Jesus is consistently cautionary. In the Parable of the Sower, he warns that “the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches” can choke a person’s spiritual life, making it unfruitful. He poses a famous rhetorical challenge in Mark 8:36: “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”
Multiple translations of 1 John 5:19 explicitly say, “the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one” or “under the control of the evil one.”
In the Sermon on the Mount, Christ instructed His followers not to store up treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy, but to seek first the kingdom of God.
How many instead focus on entertainment, politics, social media, and the stock market?
He characterizes the world’s standard of greatness as one of dominance and authority, whereas his standard is one of service and humility.
Despite the friction between the world and his message, Jesus does not advocate for total withdrawal but for a different kind of presence—a holy one, not one adorned in Prada or any other such fashion.