1. Continuing the topic of the previous catecheses dedicated to the article of faith concerning angels, God's creatures, today we delve into exploring the mystery of the freedom that some of them have directed against God and His plan of salvation towards mankind.
As the evangelist Luke testifies, at the moment when the disciples were returning to the Master full of joy for the fruits they had gathered in their missionary apprenticeship, Jesus uttered a thought-provoking phrase: "I saw Satan falling from heaven like the thunderbolt" (Lk 10:18). With these words, the Lord affirms that the proclamation of the kingdom of God is always a victory over the devil, but at the same time he also reveals that the building of the kingdom is continually exposed to the snares of the spirit of evil. To concern oneself with this, as we intend to do with today's catechesis, is to prepare oneself for the condition of struggle that is proper to the life of the Church in this final time of salvation history (as Revelation states). (cf. Rev 12:7) On the other hand, this allows us to clarify the correct faith of the Church in the face of those who distort it by exaggerating the importance of the devil, or those who deny or minimise its evil power.
The previous catecheses on angels have prepared us to understand the truth that Sacred Scripture has revealed and that the Tradition of the Church has transmitted on Satan, that is, on the fallen angel, the evil spirit, also known as the devil or demon.
2. This "fall", which presents the character of the rejection of God with the consequent state of "damnation", consists in the free choice of those created spirits who have radically and irrevocably rejected God and His kingdom, usurping His sovereign rights and attempting to subvert the economy of salvation and the very ordering of the whole of creation. A reflection of this attitude is found in the words of the tempter to the progenitors: "you shall become like God" or "like gods" (cf. Gen 3:5). Thus the evil spirit attempts to transplant into man the attitude of rivalry, insubordination and opposition to God, which has become almost the motivation of his entire existence.
3. In the Old Testament, the narration of the fall of man, recorded in the book of Genesis, contains a reference to the attitude of antagonism that Satan wants to communicate to man in order to lead him to transgression. (cf. Gen 3:5) Also in the book of Job (cf. Job 1:11; 2:5. 7) we read that Satan seeks to bring about rebellion in the suffering man. In the book of Wisdom (cf. Wis 2: 24) Satan is presented as the author of death, which entered human history together with sin.
4. The Church, in the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), teaches that the devil (or Satan) and other demons "were created good by God but have become evil by their own will". Indeed, we read in the Epistle of St Jude: ". . the angels who did not keep their dignity but left their abode, the Lord keeps them in eternal chains, in darkness, for the judgment of the great day" (Jd 6). Similarly, the Second Epistle of St Peter speaks of "angels who had sinned" and whom God "did not spare, but . . . plunged into the dark abysses of hell, holding them for judgment" (2 Pet 2:4). It is clear that if God "does not forgive" the sin of the angels, he does so because they remain in their sin, because they are eternally "in the chains" of that choice they made at the beginning, rejecting God, against the truth of the supreme and definitive Good that is God himself. In this sense, St John writes that "the devil is a sinner from the beginning . . ." (1 Jn 3:8). And "from the beginning" he has been murderous and "has not persevered in the truth, because there is no truth in him" (Jn 8:4)
5. These texts help us to understand the nature and dimension of Satan's sin, consisting in the rejection of the truth about God, known in the light of intelligence and revelation as infinite Good, Love and subsistent Holiness. The greater the spiritual perfection and cognitive perspicacity of the angelic intellect, the greater its freedom and closeness to God. By rejecting the known truth about God by an act of his own free will, Satan becomes a cosmic "liar" and "the father of lies" (Jn 8:4). He therefore lives in radical and irreversible denial of God and seeks to impose his tragic "lie about the Good" that is God on creation, on other beings created in God's image, and particularly on mankind. In the Book of Genesis we find a precise description of this lie and falsification of the truth about God, which Satan (in the form of a serpent) attempts to pass on to the first representatives of the human race: God would be jealous of his prerogatives and would therefore impose limitations on man (cf. Gen 3:5). Satan invites man to free himself from the imposition of this yoke, making himself 'like God'.
6. In this condition of existential lie Satan becomes - according to St John - also a "murderer", that is, a destroyer of the supernatural life that God from the beginning had grafted into him and into creatures, made in the "image of God": other pure spirits and men; Satan wants to destroy life according to truth, life in the fullness of goodness, the supernatural life of grace and love. The author of the Book of Wisdom writes: ". . death has entered the world through the devil's envy, and those who belong to him experience it" (Wis 2:24). And in the Gospel, Jesus Christ admonishes: "Fear rather him who has the power to cause both soul and body to perish in hell" (Mt 10:28).
7. As the effect of the sin of the progenitors, this fallen angel gained dominion over man to a certain extent. This is the doctrine constantly confessed and proclaimed by the Church, and which the Council of Trent confirmed in its treatise on original sin (cf. DS 1511): it finds dramatic expression in the liturgy of Baptism, when the catechumen is asked to renounce the devil and his seductions.
Of this influence on man and the disposition of his spirit (and body), we find various indications in Holy Scripture, where Satan is called "the prince of this world" (cf. Jn 12:31; 14:30; 16:11), and even the God "of this world" (2 Cor 4:4). We find many other names describing his nefarious dealings with man: "Beelzebul" or "Beelzebul", "unclean spirit", "tempter", "evil one" and finally "antichrist" (1 Jn 4:3). He is compared to a "lion" (1 Pet 5:8), a "dragon" (in Revelation) and a "serpent" (Gen 3). Very frequently the name 'devil' is used to designate him, from the Greek 'diaballein' (hence 'diabolos'), which means: to cause destruction, to divide, to slander, to deceive. And to tell the truth, all this takes place from the very beginning through the work of the evil spirit, who is presented in Holy Scripture as a person, even though he asserts that he is not alone: "there are many of us", the devils cry out to Jesus in the region of the Gerasenes (Mk 5:9); "the devil and his angels", says Jesus in the description of the coming judgement (cf. Mt 25:41).
8. According to Holy Scripture, and especially the New Testament, the dominion and influence of Satan and other evil spirits encompasses the whole world. Let us think of Christ's parable about the field (which is the world), about the good seed and the bad seed that the devil sows in the midst of the wheat trying to snatch from hearts that good which has been "sown" in them (cf. Mt 13:38-39). Let us think of the numerous exhortations to vigilance (cf. Mt 26:41; 1 Pet 5:8), prayer and fasting (cf. Mt 17:21). Let us think of that strong affirmation of the Lord: "This kind of demons can in no other way be driven out except by prayer" (Mk 9, 29). Satan's action consists first of all in tempting men to evil, influencing their imagination and higher faculties to turn them in a direction contrary to God's law. Satan even puts Jesus to the test (cf. Lk 4:3-13), in an extreme attempt to thwart the demands of the economy of salvation as God has preordained it.
It is not excluded that in certain cases the evil spirit also goes so far as to exert its influence not only on material things, but also on man's body, for which one speaks of "diabolic possessions" (cf. Mk 5:2-9). It is not always easy to discern what is preternatural in these cases, nor does the Church readily acquiesce in or go along with the tendency to attribute many facts to direct intervention by the devil; but in principle it cannot be denied that in his desire to harm and lead to evil, Satan can reach this extreme manifestation of his superiority.
9. Finally, we must add that the striking words of Apostle John: "The whole world lies under the power of the evil one" (1 John 5:19), also allude to the presence of Satan in the history of mankind, a presence that grows more acute as man and society move away from God. The influence of the evil spirit can 'hide' itself in a deeper and more effective way: to be ignored corresponds to its 'interests'. Satan's ability in the world is to induce men to deny his existence in the name of rationalism and every other system of thought that seeks every loophole in order not to admit his work. However, this does not mean the elimination of man's free will and responsibility, nor does it mean the frustration of Christ's saving action. It is rather a conflict between the dark forces of evil and those of redemption. The words that Jesus addressed to Peter at the beginning of his passion are eloquent in this regard: ". . Simon, behold Satan has sought you out to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail" (Lk 22:31).
This is why we understand how Jesus, in the prayer he taught us, the "Our Father", which is the prayer of the kingdom of God, ends almost abruptly, unlike many other prayers of his time, by calling us back to our condition of being exposed to the snares of the Evil One. The Christian, appealing to the Father with the spirit of Jesus and invoking his kingdom, cries out with the power of faith: grant that we may not succumb to temptation, deliver us from Evil, from the Evil One. Grant, O Lord, that we may not fall into the unfaithfulness to which he who was unfaithful from the beginning seduces us.
[Pope John Paul II, General Audience 13 August 1986]
