Pope
Paul VI
General
Audience November 15, 1972. "Liberaci dal male"
What
are the Church's greatest needs at the present time? Don't be surprised at Our
answer and don't write it off as simplistic or even superstitious: one of the
Church's greatest needs is to be defended against the evil we call the Devil. Before
clarifying what We mean, We would like to invite you to open your minds to the
light that faith casts on the vision of human existence, a vision which from
this observation point of faith reaches out to immense distances and penetrates
to unique depths. To tell the truth, the picture that we are invited to behold
with an all-encompassing realism is a very beautiful one. It is the picture of
creation, the work of God. He Himself admired its substantial beauty as an
external reflection of His wisdom and power.[1]
Christian
vision of the universe
Then
there is the interesting picture of the dramatic history of mankind, leading to
the history of the Redemption and of Christ; the history of our salvation, with
its stupendous treasures of revelation, prophecy and holiness, of life elevated
to a supernatural level, of eternal promises.[2] Knowing how to look at this
picture cannot help but leave us enchanted.[3] Everything has a meaning, a
purpose, an order; and everything gives us a glimpse of a Transcendent
Presence, a Thought, a Life and ultimately a Love, so that the universe, both
by reason of what it is and of what it is not, offers us an inspiring, joyful
preparation for something even more beautiful and more perfect.[4] The
Christian vision of the universe and of life is therefore triumphantly
optimistic; and this vision fully justifies our joy and gratitude for being
alive, so that we sing forth our happiness in celebrating God's glory.[5]
The
mystery of evil
But
is this vision complete and correct? Are the defects in the world of no
account? What of the things that don't work properly in our lives? What of
suffering and death, wickedness, cruelty and sin? In a word, what of evil?
Don't we see how much evil there is in the world-especially moral evil, which
goes against man and against God at one and the same time, although in
different ways? Isn't this a sad spectacle, an unexplainable mystery? And
aren't we-the lovers of the Word, the people who sing of the Good, we
believers-aren't we the ones who are most sensitive and most upset by our
observation and experience of evil?We find evil in the realm of nature, where
so many of its expressions seem to speak to us of some sort of disorder. Then
we find it among human beings, in the form of weakness, frailty, suffering,
death and something worse: the tension between two laws-one reaching for the
good, the other directed toward evil. St. Paul points out this torment in
humiliating fashion to prove our need a salvific grace, for the salvation
brought by Christ,[6] and also our great good fortune in being saved. Even
before this, a pagan poet had described this conflict within the very heart of
man: "I see what is better and I approve of it, but then I follow the
worse."[7] We come face to face with sin which is a perversion of human
freedom and the profound cause of death because it involves detachment from
God, the source of life. And then sin in its turn becomes the occasion and the
effect of interference in us and our work by a dark, hostile agent, the Devil.
Evil is not merely an absence of something but an active force, a living,
spiritual being that is perverted and that perverts others. It is a terrible
reality, mysterious and frightening.
Seeking
an explanation
It
is a departure from the picture provided by biblical Church teaching to refuse
to knowledge the Devil's existence; to regard him as a self-sustaining
principle who, unlike other creatures, does not owe his origin to God; or to
explain the Devil as a pseudo-reality, a conceptual, fanciful personification
of the unknown causes of our misfortunes. When the problem of evil is seen in
all its complexity and in its absurdity from the point of view of our limited
minds, it becomes an obsession. It poses the greatest single obstacle to our
religious understanding of the universe it is no accident that St. Augustine
was bothered by this for years: "I sought the source of evil, and I found
no explanation."[9]Thus we can see how important an awareness of evil is
if we are to have a correct Christian concept of the world, life and salvation.
We see this first in the unfolding of the Gospel story at the beginning of
Christ's public life. Who can forget the highly significant description of the
triple temptation of Christ? Or the many episodes in the Gospel where the Devil
crosses the Lord's path and figures in His teaching?[10] And how could we
forget that Christ, referring three times to the Devil as His adversary,
describes him as "the prince of this world"?[11]
Other
New Testament passages
The
lurking shadow of this wicked presence is pointed up in many, many passages of
the New Testament. St. Paul calls him the "god of this world,"[12]
and warns us of the struggle we Christians must carry on in the dark, not only
against one Devil, but against a frightening multiplicity of them. "I put
on the armor of God," the Apostle tells us, "that you may be able to
stand against the wiles of the devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh
and blood, but against the Principalities and the Powers, against the
world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness on
high."[13]Many passages in the Gospel show us that we are dealing not just
with one Devil, but with many.[14] But the principal one is Satan, which means
the adversary, the enemy; and along with him are many others, all of them
creatures of God, but fallen because they rebelled and were damned[15]—a whole
mysterious world, convulsed by a most unfortunate drama about which we know
very little.
Man's
fatal tempter
There
are many things we do know, however, about this diabolical world, things that
touch on our lives and on the whole history of mankind. The Devil is at the
origin of mankind's first misfortune, he was the wily, fatal tempter involved
in the first sin, the original sin.[16] That fall of Adam gave the Devil a
certain dominion over man, from which only Christ's Redemption can free us. It
is a history that is still going on: let us recall the exorcisms at Baptism,
and the frequent references in Sacred Scripture and in the liturgy to the
aggressive and oppressive "power of darkness."[17] The Devil is the
number one enemy, the preeminent tempter.So we know that this dark disturbing
being exists and that he is still at work with his treacherous cunning; he is
the hidden enemy who sows errors and misfortunes in human history. It is worth
recalling the revealing Gospel parable of the good seed and the cockle, for it
synthesizes and explains the lack of logic that seems to preside over our
contradictory experiences: "An enemy has done this."[18] He is
"a murderer from the beginning, . . . and the father of lies," as
Christ defines him.[19] He undermines man's moral equilibrium with his
sophistry. He is the malign, clever seducer who knows how to make his way into
us through the senses, the imagination and the libido, through utopian logic,
or through disordered social contacts in the give and take of our activities,
so that he can bring about in us deviations that are all the more harmful
because they seem to conform to our physical or mental makeup, or to our
profound, instinctive aspirations.
Ignoring
the Devil
This
matter of the Devil and of the influence he can exert on individuals as well as
on communities, entire societies or events, is a very important chapter of
Catholic doctrine which should be studied again, although it is given little
attention today. Some think a sufficient compensation can be found in
psychoanalytic and psychiatric studies or in spiritualistic experiences, which
are unfortunately so widespread in some countries today. People are afraid of
falling back into old Manichean theories, or into frightening deviations of
fancy and superstition. [use for demythologizing the devil]Nowadays they prefer
to appear strong and unprejudiced to pose as positivists, while at the same
time lending faith to many unfounded magical or popular superstitions or, worse
still, exposing their souls-their baptized souls, visited so often by the
Eucharistic Presence and inhabited by the Holy Spirit!-to licentious sensual
experiences and to harmful drugs, as well as to the ideological seductions of
fashionable errors. These are cracks through which the Evil One can easily
penetrate and change the human mind. This is not to say that every sin is directly
due to diabolical action;[20] but it is true that those who do not keep watch
over themselves with a certain moral rigor[21] are exposed to the influence of
the "mystery of iniquity" cited by St. Paul[22] which raises serious
questions about our salvation. Our doctrine becomes uncertain, darkness
obscured as it is by the darkness surrounding the Devil. But our curiosity,
excited by the certainly of his multiple existence, has a right to raise two
questions. Are there signs, and what are they, of the presence of diabolical
action? And what means of defense do we have against such an insidious danger?
Presence
of diabolical action
We
have to be cautious about answering the first question, even though the signs
of the Evil One seem to be very obvious at times.[23] We can presume that his
sinister action is at work where the denial of God becomes radical, subtle and
absurd; where lies become powerful and hypocritical in the face of evident
truth; where love is smothered by cold, cruel selfishness; where Christ's name
is attacked with conscious, rebellious hatred,[24] where the spirit of the
Gospel is watered down and rejected, where despair is affirmed as the last
word; and so forth. But this diagnosis is too extensive and difficult for Us to
attempt to probe and authenticate it now. It holds a certain dramatic interest
for everyone, however, and has been the subject of some famous passages in
modern literature.[25] The problem of evil remains one of the greatest and most
lasting problems for the human mind, even after the victorious response given
to it by Jesus Christ. "We know," writes St. John the Evangelist,
"that we are of God, and the whole world is in the power of the evil
one."[26]
Defense
against the Devil
It
is easier to formulate an answer to the other question- what defense, what
remedy should we use against the Devil's action?—even though it remains
difficult to put into practice. We could say: everything that defends us from
sin strengthens us by that very fact against the invisible enemy. Grace is the
decisive defense. Innocence takes on the aspect of strength. Everyone recalls
how often the apostolic method of teaching used the armor of a soldier as a
symbol for the virtues that can make a Christian invulnerable.[27] The
Christian must be a militant; he must be vigilant and strong;[28] and he must
at times make use of special ascetical practices to escape from certain
diabolical attacks. Jesus teaches us this by pointing to "prayer and
fasting" as the remedy.[29] And the Apostle suggests the main line we
should follow: "Be not overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
"[30] With an awareness, therefore, of the opposition that individual
souls, the Church and the world must face at the present time, we will try to
give both meaning and, effectiveness to the familiar invocation in our
principal prayer: "Our Father . . . deliver us from evil!" May Our
apostolic blessing also be a help toward achieving this.
Endnotes
1.
See Gn 1, 10 etc.
2.
See l Eph 1, 10.
3.
See St. Augustine, Soliloquies.
4.
See l Cor 2, 9; 13, 12; Rom 8, 19-2:3.
5.
See the Gloria of the Mass.
6.
See Rom 7.
7.
Ovid, Met. 7, 19.
8.
Rom 5, 12.
9.
Confessions VII, 5, 7, 11 etc.: PL :32, 736, 739.
10.
For example. Mt 12, 43.
11.
Jn 12, 31; 14, 30; 16, 11.
12.
Cor 4, 4.
13.
Eph 6, 11-12.
14.
Lk. 11, 21; Mk 5, 9.
15.
See DS 800-128.
16.
Gn 3; Wis 1, 24.
17.
See Lk 22, 53; Col 1, 13.
18.
Mt 13, 28.
19.
See Jn 8, 44-45.
20.
See S. th. 1, 104, 3.
21.
See Mt 12, 45; Eph 6, 11.
22.
2 Thes 2, 3-12.
23.
See Tertullian, Apol. 23.
24.
See 1 Cor 16, 22; 12, 3.
25.
See, for example, the works of Bernanos, studied by Ch. Moeller, Litter. du xx
siecle, I, p. 39, ff.; P. Macchi, Il volto del male in bernanos; see also
Satan, etudes carmelitaines, Desclee de Br. (1948).
26.
1 Jn 5, 19.
27.
See Rom 13, 12; Eph 6, 11, 14 17; I Thes 5, 8.
28.
1 Pt 5, 8.
29.
Mk 9, 29.
30.
Rom 12, 21; Mt 13, 29.