Do we "handle evil"
by putting a handle on it and carrying it around
like an important briefcase?
by calling it names 300 times, and then wondering
why it still exists?
No!
Defy! Deny!
Renounce! Denounce!
Remove! Reprove
devil's hollow claims.
Don't fear its names!
For knowing/seeing/being that which God has caused to be,
you'll see evil flee.
Dismissed, it has no job.
Refused, it has no plea.
"It" was never you or I
(or he or she!)
And just what is there, right in its place?
Heavenly grace.
The holy face of Christly good: unmoved, untroubled light —
God's man reflecting man's God.
So to handle evil, then, demands what mortal modes can't stand:
clear seeing through them.
And, in that holy seeing, rest
in the gentle hand of Love.
