Fr. Eric Nicolai preached this meditation at Ernescliff College on January 26, 2026.

Mark 3:22-30: The scribes who had come down from Jerusalem were saying, ‘Beelzebul is in him’ and, ‘It is through the prince of devils that he casts devils out.’ So he called them to him and spoke to them in parables, ‘How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot last.

Satan’s strategy: division, confusion, and counterfeit good. He wants to confuse good and evil, make it all amorphous.

The devil wants to divide. He is bothered by unity. He is irritated by a Hail Mary recited together. It is like a nuclear blast against his own cohesion. The devil always wants to scatter and divide. He wants to pit one person against the other. He wants to divide. He wants comparisons and division.

Don’t let him win. Satan wants to divide a family, the church. It Omnes unum sint.

Music: Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

Thumbnail: St. Michael the Archangel vanquishing the devil. Lorenzo Zucchi after Stefano Torelli 1725 Metropolitan Museum of Art.