Occasionally one runs into someone who — striving to stress the positive — makes plaintive comments such as, “There isn’t a demon under every rock!”

It’s good to be positive. It’s very important. We all need balance.

But the problem is, that’s an imbalanced view.

For it is in the casting away of evil that very often, even most often, we find joy. (There is no happiness where evil resides.)

And as far as that misstatement, “There’s not a demon under every rock,” actually, the situation on earth is close to that. We live in a place of testing. We live on a spiritual battlefield. We live in a “fallen world.”

Does a fallen world sound like a carefree environment?

And so we see the difference between being positive and purveying the Pollyanna, see-no-evil, “prosperity” ministering.

Fact check: the devil wants you to believe there is no evil. He is a being in the depths and outer edges of dark.

It is in this regard that we must listen to Jesus. We must always listen to Jesus. We must consult him on a second-by-second basis. He is not just on an altar. He is with us and in us when we ask Him to be.

And what did Jesus say?

The Mass reading the other day:

“Jesus said to his Apostles: ‘As you go, make this proclamation: “The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, drive out demons'” (Matthew 10:7-15).

You see then? The Lord didn’t just cite the existence of devils but told us part of our mission in life was to cast them out, to administer deliverance — starting with our homes, our families, and ourselves.

Cast out pride to be humble. Cast out anger to bring healing. Cast out jealousy to bring charity. Cast out lust to make room for love.

Everywhere the Lord went, there seemed to be a devil. More than a third of the times He healed, it involved driving away unclean and demonic spirits. Indeed, back then, in ancient Palestine, in Israel: it seems that, if one heeds the New Testament, there was indeed a demon in every cranny and under every rock.

[resources: spiritual warfare books and prayers]