Evil can be so deceptive and alluring

Several years ago I read an article by a survivor of a World War II Nazi concentration camp. One of the things she stated has stayed with me. She said that, among other things, the concentration camp taught her that evil often looks very normal. She explained that the buildings in the camp looked like any other buildings, yet they contained unimaginable human torture, gas chambers and crematoriums. The guards looked like anyone else. She said that they could have been her next door neighbor or even her son. Yet every day they put innocent people to death. All looked so normal, yet all was so demonic. Worse, those involved in the evil may have so twisted their consciences into thinking that what they were doing was ordinary.
I often think of her statement as I stand praying in front of an abortion clinic. The building looks so normal, even attractive. The people going to work there look so normal; they look like our neighbors. Yet every day in this normal looking building these normal looking people end the lives of innocent babies. It is striking how evil can look so commonplace. Worse, those involved in the evil may have so twisted their consciences into thinking that what they are doing is ordinary.
The news from Russia has made me think again of the concentration camp survivor’s comment. I was watching the news showing the Russian military generals sitting at a meeting. They looked like ordinary men that one would meet every day. Yet every day these generals give orders for the bombing and shooting of thousands of innocent children and adults.
There is an important message in statement of the concentration camp survivor for us to reflect upon. Often we can expect evil to look grotesque and appear repugnant, and sometimes that is true. However, more often evil comes to us in the guise of the ordinary, the normal, the everyday. That is why evil can be so deceptive and alluring. Evil can appear to be the way things should be, or at least are, and certainly nothing that should cause alarm. We can convince ourselves that evil isn’t so bad and twist our consciences into thinking that what we are doing is normal.
In the movie, "The Passion of the Christ," only Jesus and Mary notice the devil, even when the devil moves among the crowd. That was an effective way to convey the message that evil can be in our midst and we can overlook it. Only God and the sinless Mary were fully aware of the presence of evil and recognized its presence as it truly is.
On Easter Sunday Mass we will renew our baptismal promises. The first promise states: “Do you renounce Satan and all his works and all his empty promises?” We will reply “I do.” The challenge for us is to live out that promise. We can only do so if we recognize the evil we allow into our lives. The evil often comes camouflaged as ordinary, so commonplace that it may fool us into thinking that it isn’t so bad and certainly nothing to be disturbed by.
Some may think that gossiping or cruel words about others isn’t so bad. After all, everyone does it. Some may think that dishonesty at work isn’t so bad. After all, it doesn’t seem like much money and the dishonesty has been going on for a long time. Some may think that watching pornography isn’t so bad. After all, it is so easy to access. Some may think that the illicit sex isn’t so bad. After all, no one is perfect. The examples can go on and on.
It is so easy to become lulled into thinking that evil is normal.
If Satan only came to us in repugnant ways, we could too easily resist his temptations, but he more often than not comes to us in ways that lure us into a false sense of complacency by causing us to believe that the evil we do is normal. Let us pray for the wisdom of God to see every evil as it truly is. Let us pray to see evil the way God sees it, that every evil is so horrible that only the passion and death of His Son could suffice to atone for it. 
Once, with God’s help, we know the reality of sin, then we can truly ask God for the help to resist it.