Beware of Reality of Evil, even “young people learning to steal exams”: Nairobi Catholic Archbishop to Staff, Students

Nairobi, 05 February, 2025 / 9:40 PM

Students, the administrative and teaching staff at St. Mary School, Msongari, have been cautioned against undermining the “reality” and prevalence of evil.

In his homily during the Inaugural Mass for the start of the academic year of the learning institution with both national and international curricula under the auspices of the Catholic Archdiocese of Nairobi (ADN), the Local Ordinary of the Kenyan Metropolitan See emphasized the need to stand up against evil in the example of Jesus Christ.

“The reality of the presence of evil in our world is hard to ignore. Acts of barbarism, acts of wickedness, acts of theft, and acts of corruption – even acts of corruption at the level of young people learning to steal exams – are daily fair game in our life today,” Archbishop Philip Subira Anyolo, said during the Monday, February 3 celebration at the school premises. 

The evidence of the prevalence of evil can be seen in the daily news reports, Archbishop Anyolo said, and explained, “If you look in the media, that is what makes the news for them.”

“You cannot miss more and more of what evil is going on in the world, how it is glorified, and how it is also strengthened to continue by not proclaiming the good that Jesus Christ is doing,” he lamented.

As human beings, we are “exposed to a fair amount of darkness and evil”, the Kenyan Catholic Archbishop said, and added, “Lack of knowledge, ignorance, is evil.”

“Blunders in education are evil; blunders in sciences are evil, and many things that we see happening like that. These are very demonic moments; trends that Jesus Christ was driving out of humanity.”

“We, through our ages, exist in the moment of evil and are caught up in our minds and thoughts in exercising the very evil,” said the Catholic Archbishop who has been at the helm of Nairobi Archdiocese since November 2021.

In his February 3 homily, the Kenyan Catholic Archbishop went on to reflect on the Gospel of the day from Mark, where Jesus expels some unusually powerful demons in a case of a possessed man, who lived among the tombs.

“Jesus Christ used the word of God to restore the right mind of that person who was possessed by the demons,” he said, and added, “The people did not see the power of God’s saving passion, but they saw the power of evil, so they asked Him to move away because their livelihood was affected and threatened.”

The Catholic Church leader, who started his Episcopal Ministry in February 1996 as Bishop of Kenya’s Kericho Diocese further described the challenge of evil as a mystery that has been a subject of reflection and analysis for many generations. 

“It is not just our time. Remember, even in the times of St. Augustine, one of the greatest philosophers and theologians, who said, ‘I sought where evil comes from, and there was no solution,’” he said.

Referring to the mystery of evil and the power that Jesus Christ has over evil in casting out the demons from the possessed man, Archbishop Anyolo said, “The same question has been asked by many thinkers today, by many preachers today. Perhaps this reading today should clarify to our minds what Jesus Christ brings—not just that practical thinking, not just what our ears can hear, or our eyes can see.”

“Jesus engaged evil and drove it out throughout His ministry. He fought it and overcame it,” he emphasized, and continued, “On the cross, He delivered us from Satan, sin, and evil. Each day, we are called to claim the power of victory and prayer, that we should and shall always be delivered from that evil, as we say in our Lord’s Prayer.”

He went on to caution against the assumption “that with our modern technology and with everything, we are more sophisticated, and we can overcome evil very easily, yet the idea of evil creates a lot of unease in our lives.”

“In the power of the Holy Spirit, we can live lives that reveal the glory of Jesus Christ, victory, and in the world today, we are competent and capable,” Archbishop Anyolo said at St. Mary’s School, Msongari, during the Inaugural Mass for the start of the academic year on February 3.