The Hidden Enemy
It is generally forgotten by Christians that one of principal effects of our redemption by Christ's death and resurrection is the defeat of what St. John calls "the prince of this world" (Jn 14:30). What exactly does this mean? Does it mean that the devil is put out of existence so that he no longer functions? Or that he no longer tempts us?
Many Christians think the answer is yes to these questions, instead of seeing that human beings have to face a lifelong confrontation with the "deceiver." They think that the major problems of humankind are the evils of the body, the weakness of the will and the ignorance of the mind. Yet the Catholic faith is quite clear about it: "The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil" (1 Jn 3:8). What does this mean?
The liturgy and spiritual amnesia. At the onset of the Lenten Sundays, the Church places before us the extraordinary battle of Jesus with the devil after He had spent 40 days in the desert fasting. This is a timely reminder that the greatest temptation of the devil for the vast majority of believers is to lead the people of God either to conclude his nonexistence or to simply forget that he exists. Once the devil persuades anyone that he does not exist, it is very much easier for him to lead that person astray, though slowly over a period of years.
It is much like having an "operative," or "mole," hidden in a government, one who is able to manipulate policy because his spying goes undetected. It is much easier to deny the existence of the devil than of God because there are so many more signs of God's existence than there are of the devil's. Only revelation teaches us that there is such a creature as Satan, the tempter.
How does he do it? St. Thomas Aquinas teaches that the devil can neither take away free will, nor know what is going on in our minds, nor directly intervene in our spiritual life. But he can persuasively influence the imagination and emotions so as to lead the mind and heart astray. The devil tries by friendly persuasion to get us to believe that God is our real enemy, in the sense that God gives us impossible laws and difficult vocations to fulfill. This is especially persuasive when the temptations to commit sexual sins seem overwhelming. It is easy to begin thinking that God has made too many impossible and arbitrary demands upon human nature.
Another temptation of the devil is to get us to believe—as a result of sickness, tragedy and other setbacks—that God no longer loves or cares because He has forgotten us. This temptation is fueled by another illusion of the devil, whereby we think that feeling the sweetness of God is equivalent to loving God or a sure sign that He loves us.
Further, everything going our way in terms of riches, fame, power over others and the like is a sure sign to the deluded of the love of God. So when reverses come our way, it is easy to believe that God has abandoned us, and nourishing those thoughts (false meditations and contemplations, really) leads to abandoning God. People then no longer go to Mass or confession or spend time in authentic prayer, meditation and contemplation.
Yet another temptation of the devil consists in persuading people to form their consciences by inventing their own principles of morality, instead of depending upon God's revelation. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church explains concerning the temptation of Adam and Eve:
In that sin man preferred himself to God and by that very act scorned Him. He chose himself over and against God, against the requirements of his creaturely status and therefore against his own good. Created in a state of holiness, man was destined to be fully "divinized" by God in glory. Seduced by the devil, he wanted to "be like God," but "without God, before God, and not in accordance with God" [no. 398].
The way of morality presupposes the desire for happiness, or fulfillment by self-transcendence. But self-transcendence is only achieved by following a way of life based upon the natural and revealed norms of human action; these when followed lead to authentic fulfillment through virtues both moral and theological. To become fair-minded, self-possessed, tough-hearted in the face of obstacles, and wise in practical life as well as faith-filled, hopeful and charitable, one must depend upon God by following His wise and loving will as it is revealed by sacred Scripture, and in sacred Tradition as taught by the sacred magisterium.
The devil therefore attempts to convince people that they can eliminate certain norms and invent others, which they erroneously think can lead them to happiness in this life and even to a heaven of their own making in the next.
An odd aftermath of Vatican II. The denial of the existence of the devil among theologians during the late 1960s and 1970s prompted a magisterial document entitled Christian Faith and Demonology, which was published on July 10, 1975, by the ordinary authority of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (without however the signature of the prefect of the congregation or the approbation of Pope Paul VI). Rich in historical and scriptural references, this document shows beyond any doubt that the Church has always believed in the existence of the devil as a force that must be reckoned with in the daily life of the Christian. Christian Faith begins with some interesting cautions:
The many forms of superstition, obsessional preoccupation with Satan and the demons, and the different kinds of worship of them or attachment to them have always been condemned by the Church.1 It would therefore be incorrect to hold that Christianity, forgetful of the universal Lordship of Christ, had at any time made Satan the privileged subject of its preaching, transforming the Good News of the Risen Lord into a message of terror. Speaking to the Christians of Antioch, St. John Chrysostom declared: "It certainly gives us no pleasure to speak to you of the devil, but the teaching which this subject gives me the opportunity to expound is of the greatest use to you."2 In fact, it would be an unfortunate error to act as if history had already been accomplished and the Redemption had obtained all its effects, without there being any further need to conduct the combat spoken of by the New Testament and the masters of the spiritual life.
This study then proceeds to show that there is massive evidence from the New Testament (especially the contradictory teachings on this question by the Pharisees and Sadducees, the two major religious groups at the time of Christ), and from the Fathers of the Church and popes, all leading up to the Fourth Lateran Council of the 13th century, that demonstrates a fundamental teaching on the existence of the devil. The council merely sums up this teaching when it proclaims in a creed the following:
We firmly believe and simply confess...one principle of the universe: the Creator of all things visible and invisible, spiritual and corporeal, who by His omnipotence from the beginning of time created all things from nothing, both spiritual and corporeal, namely, the angels and the world, then the human creature, which belongs in a certain way to both, for it is composed of spirit and of body. For the devil and the other demons were created naturally good by God, but it is they who by their own action made themselves evil. As for man, he sinned at the instigation of the devil.3
It seems rather strange that theologians shortly after Vatican II would dispute the doctrine of the devil when it was again reaffirmed at this council. Hence, the document Christian Faith continues:
It is for this reason that the Second Vatican Council, which concerned itself more often with the present condition of the Church than with creation, did not fail to warn against the activity of Satan and the demons. Once more, as at Florence and Trent, it recalled, with the apostle, that Christ "takes us out of the power of darkness." Summarizing Scripture in the manner of St. Paul and the Book of Revelation, the constitution Gaudium et Spes stated that our history, universal history, "is a hard struggle against the powers of darkness, a struggle begun with the beginning of the world and one which will continue, as the Lord says, until the last day." Elsewhere, Vatican II repeated the admonitions of the Letter to the Ephesians to "put on the armor of God so as to resist the wiles of the devil." For, as the same constitution reminds the laity, "we have to fight against the rulers of this dark world, against the spirits of evil." It is not surprising finally to note that the same council, wishing to emphasize that the Church is truly the kingdom of God already begun, appeals to the miracles of Jesus and for this purpose makes explicit reference to His exorcisms. It was on this occasion, in fact, that Jesus made the celebrated statement, "then the kingdom of God has come upon you."
In conclusion, the same document sums up the reason why the existence of the devil was never solemnly defined by the magisterium:
Briefly then, the Church's position in regard to demonology is clear and firm. It is true that in the course of the centuries the existence of Satan and of the devils has never in fact been the object of an explicit declaration of her magisterium. The reason for this is that the question was never posed in these terms. Both heretics and the faithful, basing their respective positions on sacred Scripture, were in agreement in recognizing the existence of Satan and the devils and their main misdeeds. This is why, when the reality of the devil is called into question today, it is to the constant and universal belief of the Church and to its main source, the teaching of Christ, that one must appeal, as has been stated. It is in fact in the teaching of the Gospel and as something at the heart of the faith that the existence of the demonic world is shown to be a dogmatic datum. The present-day unease which we described at the beginning does not therefore call into question a secondary element of Christian thinking; it is a question, rather, of the constant belief of the Church, of her manner of conceiving redemption and, at the root source, it goes against the very consciousness of Jesus. This is why, when His Holiness Pope Paul VI spoke recently of this "terrible, mysterious and frightening reality" of evil, he could assert with authority: "he who refuses to recognize its existence, or whoever makes of it a principle in itself which does not have, like every creature, its origin in God, or who explains it as a pseudoreality, a conceptual and imaginary personification of the unknown causes of our ills, departs from the integrity of biblical and ecclesiastical teaching." Neither exegetes nor theologians can neglect this caution.
The devil and human freedom. Even though the Church believes that the devil exits, this does not mean that falling into sin can be said to be primarily caused by the devil, so as to rule out our own personal responsibility. As Christian Faith says:
Let us therefore repeat that by underlining today the existence of demonic reality the Church intends neither to take us back to the dualistic and Manichaean speculations of former times, nor to propose some rationally acceptable substitute for them. She wishes only to remain faithful to the Gospel and its demands. It is clear that she has never allowed man to rid himself of his responsibility by attributing his faults to the devil. The Church did not hesitate to oppose such escapism when the latter manifested itself, saying with St. John Chrysostom:"It is not the devil but men's own carelessness which causes all their falls and all the ills of which they complain."
In other words, temptation does not mean that people lack freedom in the face of the evil counselor's attempts to persuade them to do wrong. As the document of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith makes clear even further:
It is to faith in fact that the apostle St. Peter leads us back when he exhorts us to resist the devil, "strong in faith." Faith teaches us that the reality of evil "is a living, spiritual being, perverted and corrupting." Faith can also give us confidence, by assuring us that the power of Satan cannot go beyond the limits set by God. Faith likewise assures us that even though the devil is able to tempt us, he cannot force our consent. Above all, faith opens the heart to prayer, in which it finds its victory and its crown. It thus enables us to triumph over evil through the power of God.
Finally, Christian Faith teaches us that our understanding of why God permits the devil to do what he does remains somewhat of a mystery (later on, the Catechism of the Catholic Church will give us more light on the matter):
It certainly remains true that the demonic reality, attested to in the concrete by what we call the mystery of evil, remains an enigma surrounding the Christian life. We scarcely know any better than the apostles knew why the Lord permits it, nor how He makes it serve His designs. It could be, however, that, in our civilization obsessed with secularism that excludes the transcendent, the unexpected outbreaks of this mystery offer a meaning less alien to our understanding. They force man to look further and higher, beyond the immediate evidence. Through their menace, which stops us short, they enable us to grasp that there exists a beyond which has to be deciphered, and then to turn to Christ in order to hear from Him the Good News of salvation graciously offered to us.
What the Catechism teaches. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (nos. 391-95; 2850-55) has much more to say about this question of the "evil one," which in many ways goes beyond the teaching of the congregation's document of 1975 because the latter was the theological labor of one or several theologians.
The Catechism asserts that the devil's power is not infinite, and even though he can cause injury "he cannot stop God's reign" (no. 395). God permits him to instigate many kinds of evil, which are somehow part of God's loving plan (no. 395), even though such providence does not always appear, to those weak in faith, to be loving or even wise. But then neither does a piece of unleavened bread appear even remotely to be the Body of Christ once it is validly consecrated by a priest.
What does the devil normally do to lead people astray? Since the devil is called the "seducer," we need to pose the question: How does he lead the human person astray? St. Thomas Aquinas masterfully tells us that the devil tries to persuade us to consent to sin through the power of rationalization or blandishments (cf. Summa Theologiae I 111, 2 ad 2, 114, 1-5; De Malo 3, 3-5)—that is, the devil tries to get us to deceive ourselves in the act of choosing an apparent good (and, I would add, by avoiding the pursuit of a real good because it seems to us to be an evil).
In gently inciting people to turn their attention to a particularly attractive sin, Satan tries to catch everyone in the false belief that the sin in question is at least not all that bad; and that an apparent good, which is manifested by an appearance of a delightful outcome (which one should be rejecting or foregoing in order to obey God), is still very needful for personal fulfillment. In any case, the evil one is the expert at getting us to evade reality. Hence, there is the need to develop a prayer life so that each and all can face reality as it is and not as anyone desires it to be.
It is not by accident that the greatest prayer given by the Lord Jesus is the Our Father, which ends with "lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." Of course, the Father does not "lead" anybody into sin. But if someone chooses a sinful action, He lets that person have the freedom and the consequences of that choice. Hence, the believer can fathom a purpose behind the difficulty of temptation:
This dramatic situation of "the whole world [which] is in the power of the evil one" makes man's life a battle: "The whole of man's history has been the story of dour combat with the powers of evil, stretching, so Our Lord tells us, from the very dawn of history until the last day. Finding himself in the midst of the battlefield, man has to struggle to do what is right, and it is at great cost to himself, and aided by God's grace, that he succeeds in achieving his own inner integrity" [no. 409].
The witness of the Lord's Prayer. In the section of the Catechism that comments on the Our Father (nos. 2850-56), there is a wealth of material to ponder upon in relation to the devil. We are reminded that Satan is the evil one who "throws himself across God's plan"; that he is a liar, a murderer from the beginning.
But as 1 John 5:18-19 teaches, the evil one does not touch someone born of God. However, this baptismal gift of lived filiation is not something automatic. The victory of the Lord Jesus over the evil one presumes our cooperation. The Catechism (no. 2852) gives us a beautiful quotation from St. Ambrose to help us focus on the meaning of this particular aspect of our Catholic faith:
"The Lord who has taken away your sin and pardoned your faults also protects you and keeps you from the wiles of your adversary the devil, so that the enemy, who is accustomed to leading into sin, may not surprise you. One who entrusts himself to God does not dread the devil. If God is for us, who is against us?' "
The victory of Jesus is ours when we pray, trust in God and use the faith of the Catholic Church to guide us in our way of life—which is not a mere matter of a chosen lifestyle for morality, nor a "style," like a set of clothes. Of course, once we abandon prayer and entertain doubts about the deposit of faith and moral teaching (which is really faith in action), then we permit the devil to gently persuade us to fall into the sins that are closest to our weak points. Worse, of course, we let him deceive us into thinking that our sins are no longer sins, and this leads to the hardening of one's heart (Catechism, nos. 1859 and 1864).
The victory of Christ is such that He does not allow the devil to test us beyond our capacity (Catechism, no. 2848; 1 Cor 10:13). The Lord Jesus entirely defeated the devil for us, but He wants us to share His triumph by enduring temptation and choosing Him through acts of faith, hope and love. As the Catechism wisely teaches:
The Holy Spirit makes us discern between trials, which are necessary for the growth of the inner man, and temptation, which leads to sin and death. We must also discern between being tempted and consenting to temptation. Finally, discernment unmasks the lie of temptation, whose object appears to be good, a "delight to the eyes" and desirable, when in reality its fruit is death. "God does not want to impose the good, but wants free beings. . . . There is a certain usefulness to temptation. No one but God knows what our soul has received from Him, not even we ourselves. But temptation reveals it in order to teach us to know ourselves, and in this way we discover our evil inclinations and are obliged to give thanks for the goods that temptation has revealed to us" [no. 2847].
The temptations caused by the devil then become instruments or occasions of God's intervention on behalf of those that seek Him from their hearts.
Finally, we discover from the Catechism that the last petition of the Our Father, "deliver us from evil," is ultimately related to the devil himself, the evil one:
In this petition, evil is not an abstraction, but refers to a person, Satan, the Evil One, the angel who opposes God. The devil (dia-bolos) is the one who "throws himself across" God's plan and His work of salvation accomplished in Christ [no. 28511.
"A murderer from the beginning, a liar and the father of lies," Satan is "the deceiver of the whole world." Through him sin and death entered the world and by his definitive defeat all creation will be "freed from the corruption of sin and death." Now "we know that anyone born of God does not sin, but He who was born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him [no. 2852].
With Christian Faith and the Catechism treated above, the Catholic community has sufficient data to keep itself aware of this secondary faith fact and reality of the devil, notwithstanding the apparent silence of some clergymen on this ordinary content of faith.
Still, average Catholics may become the objects of ridicule and be accused of "fundamentalism" by "leftist" elements which seem to influence the clergy so much in our times. The devil uses these elements to persuade the people of God to veer away from the truth of revelation and accept error as normative. This permission of God likewise is part of a loving plan that will only reveal itself in the beatific vision.
For now, one needs vigilance and trust. Or, as it has been said by Peter: "Resist him, solid in your faith" (1 Pt 5:9a).
- 1
2
De Diabolo Tentaton, Homil. II, 1, PG 49, 257-58.3
C. Oe. D. Conciliorum Oecumenicorum Decreta, ed. I.S.R., Bologna 1973, p. 230; DS 800.FATHER COLE is an invited professor of moral and spiritual theology at the Dominican House of Studies, Washington, D.C., and co-author with Paul Conner, O.P., of Consecrated Totality: Theology of Consecrated Life (Alba House, 1997).
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