Saturday 3 October
Luke 10:17-24
Satan, the Devil, the Evil One, Beelzebub and the Prince of this World: these are just some of the names scripture uses to identify a seductive voice which, to the very core of its existence, is opposed to God. Scripture and the long Tradition of the Church have seen in this being a fallen angel. At the Lateran Council the bishops stated: ‘The devil and the other demons were indeed created naturally good by God, but they became evil by their own doing.’ This fall of the angels was a terrible and awful thing not just for the angelic realm but for the whole of humanity because it unleashed creatures who radically and irrevocably rejected God and his reign, and incited human beings to do the same. The authors of Genesis sought to express the nature of this rebellion in the tempter’s words to our first parents, ‘you will be like God‘ (Gen. 3:5).
It is difficult, impossible even, to remove this celestial drama from the history of salvation because they are inexorably and forever linked. The scriptures witness constantly to the disastrous influence of the one Jesus called ‘a murderer from the beginning‘ (John 8:44) and who tried to divert Jesus from his mission and goal of reconciling human beings to God (Matt. 4:1-11). St John the Evangelist, profound theologian that he was, explains that ‘The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil‘ (1 John 3:8).
All of this can seem rather overwhelming and there is a very real way in which evil and darkness seek to overcome us. However, it is vital that we grasp that the power of the devil is finite: while he is without doubt powerful because he is pure spirit, he is nevertheless limited because he remains (like us) only a creature. He was defeated by Jesus’ death on the cross and he is powerless to prevent the building up of God’s reign. We for our part call upon the power of Jesus’ name, blood and cross so that we may overcome the work of the devil, not in our own strength but in the grace and power of our Lord Jesus Christ.
‘It is a very great mystery that providence should permit diabolical activity, but we know that in everything God works for the good of those who love him.’ (Catechism of the Catholic Church 395)
Luke 10:17-24
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