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Who is the Devil? What Pope Francis says
by Rev Nick Donnelly
All booklets are published thanks to the generous support of the members of the Catholic Truth Society
CATHOLIC TRUTH SOCIETY PUBLISHERS TO THE HOLY SEE
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Contents Pope Francis takes the devil seriously . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Who is the devil? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Pope Francis’s advice to the Church on fighting against the devil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Pope Francis’s advice on fighting the devil in our daily lives. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Join Pope Francis in spiritual combat against the devil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
All rights reserved. First published 2014 by The Incorporated Catholic Truth Society, 40-46 Harleyford Road London SE11 5AY Tel: 020 7640 0042 Fax: 020 7640 0046. Copyright © 2014 The Incorporated Catholic Truth Society.
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ISBN 978 1 86082 923 9
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Pope Francis takes the devil seriously One of the things that has surprised everyone about Pope Francis is the number of times that he has referred to the devil. What’s striking is that Pope Francis doesn’t refer to the devil in an academic or theoretical way but in the sense of a real and present danger to each one of us. There is the sense that the devil is someone the Holy Father has encountered personally and with whom he often fights, as he explains: “And in my personal experience, I feel him every time that I am tempted to do something that is not what God wants for me”.1 It’s clearly important to Pope Francis that we take the devil seriously, and he wants to warn us about the strategies and snares that our enemy uses to lead us deeper into sin, and nearer to hell. Every time the Holy Father speaks about the devil he assumes that we believe that Satan and the legion of demons are real, objective creatures. But do we? Pope Francis, when he was Cardinal Bergoglio, gave an extended interview that was published in the book On Heaven and Earth in which he states, “I believe that the devil exists” and “his greatest achievement in these times has been to make us believe he doesn’t exist.” Given our
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secular environment, it’s understandable why so many modern Christians have problems believing that the devil exists. The secular understanding that the devil is a hangover from a medieval world view that was discarded a long time ago due to science and modern medicine is easy to accept. For many, the devil is viewed as a mythical figure from more primitive times that the modern Church has left behind. It’s even rare nowadays to hear homilies that mention the devil. Do you believe in the devil? As a minister of baptism I have prayed this prayer: Almighty and ever-living God, you sent your only Son into the world to cast out the power of Satan, spirit of evil, to rescue man from the kingdom of darkness, and bring him into the splendour of your kingdom of light. We pray for this child: set her free from original sin, make her a temple of your glory, and send your Holy Spirit to dwell with her. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. When teaching on baptism I have explained that this doesn’t mean that the Church believes that the unbaptised are ‘possessed’ by the devil, but that baptism already makes Jesus’s victory over the devil and evil, our victory over sin and evil.
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Some do remain amazed, even shocked, when they realise that the Church teaches that the devil is an objective, real creature. Educated in Catholic schools, some have been taught that the devil was a metaphor for the evil within all of us, and nothing more. When told that Our Lord Jesus Christ is the main source of our knowledge of the devil, and that he makes more references to the devil than any other person in the Bible, there are those who attempt to explain this by saying that Jesus was conditioned by the times in which he lived, and that he used the terms ‘Satan’ and ‘possession’ to talk about mental illnesses. Even though Our Lord lived two thousand years ago in a pre-scientific world it’s important to remember that he is both true God and true man. Time and again in his ministry Jesus showed that he was above and beyond the culture in which he lived. Pope Francis has explored the modern difficulty in believing in the existence of the devil this way: There are some priests who, when they read this Gospel passage (Lk 11:15-26),2 this and others, say: “But, Jesus healed a person with a mental illness”. It is true that at that time, they could confuse epilepsy with demonic possession; but it is also true that there was the devil! And we do not have the right to simplify the matter, as if to say: “All of these people were not possessed; they were mentally ill”. No! The presence of the devil is on the first page of the Bible, and the Bible ends as well
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with the presence of the devil, with the victory of God over the devil. We should not be naïve.3 Pope Francis is aware that others may have difficulties about his many references to the devil, to which he responds: Maybe some of you might say: “But Father, how old fashioned you are to speak about the devil in the twentyfirst century!” But look out because the devil is present! The devil is here even in the twenty-first century! And we mustn’t be naïve, right? We must learn from the Gospel how to fight against Satan.4 Pope Francis is certain that we need to know that the devil really exists and that we need to tell others about him because the devil and the fallen angels hate you and everyone that you know. To not tell others that the devil is real is like knowing that the world’s worst serial killer is living in the house next door and not warn your family, friends and neighbours. Pope Francis’s purpose in talking so often about the devil is not to scare us, but to make us wary and cautious about the presence and snares of the devil. He hopes to help us get over any embarrassment about talking about the devil. The Holy Father wants us to be totally faithful to the Gospel of Our Lord and that includes the recognition that the devil and demons are a reality in our world.
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Our baptismal promises Every Easter we renew our baptismal promises during the celebration of the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Repeat your promise now in the sure knowledge that Satan is a real, objective creature: V. R. V. R. V. R. V. R. V.
R. V.
R.
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Do you renounce Satan? I do. And all his works? I do. And all his empty show? I do. Do you believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth? I do. Do you believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was born of the Virgin Mary, was crucified, suffered death, and was buried, rose again from the dead and is seated at the right hand of the Father? I do. Do you believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting? I do.
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V. And may almighty God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has given us new birth by water and the Holy Spirit and bestowed on us forgiveness of our sins, keep us by his grace, in Christ Jesus our Lord, for eternal life. R. Amen. Do not be afraid of the devil Pope Francis wants us to take the devil seriously, and he also wants us to know that we don’t need to be afraid of the devil. The Holy Father advises us to see fear as a temptation of the devil, and to take to heart Our Lord’s encouraging words, “Do not be afraid”: Fear is also a temptation of the devil: to be afraid to continue on the Lord’s path. Fear, however, is not a good counsellor. Jesus said so many times: “Do not be afraid”. When faced with sin, nostalgia, fear we must always look at the Lord and contemplate the Lord. We must say: “Save us Lord, we are perishing”. Yes we are weak, but we must be courageous in our weakness.5 We receive Christ’s strength to defeat the devil by sharing in his victory on the cross over sin, death and the diabolic powers - his striking of the serpent’s head. This is why Pope Francis has so often insisted that Christians must build their lives on the crucified Christ:
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Jesus enters Jerusalem in order to die on the Cross. And it is precisely here that his kingship shines forth in godly
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fashion: his royal throne is the wood of the Cross! Why the Cross? Because Jesus takes upon himself the evil, the filth, the sin of the world, including the sin of all of us, and he cleanses it, he cleanses it with his blood, with the mercy and the love of God. Let us look around: how many wounds are inflicted upon humanity by evil! Jesus on the Cross feels the whole weight of the evil, and with the force of God’s love he conquers it, he defeats it with his resurrection. This is the good that Jesus does for us on the throne of the Cross. Christ’s Cross embraced with love never leads to sadness, but to joy, to the joy of having been saved and of doing a little of what he did on the day of his death.6 If we want Jesus to defeat the devil and evil in our lives then we must remain close to his cross through prayer, the sacraments and corporal and spiritual acts of mercy. Pope Francis knows that for those Christian whose lives are centred on Christ Crucified there is no need to fear the devil because as baptised Christians we are strengthened by the vigour and resolve of Our Lord Jesus Christ, true God and true man. Jesus describes himself as the “strong one” who binds the devil, as the one who has the power to vanquish and disarm Satan (Lk 11:21-22; Mk 3:27). A truly Christian understanding of the devil always begins from the knowledge that we approach him from a position of strength if, and only if, we remain in the
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sanctifying grace of Our Lord that we receive through the Sacrament of Baptism. The New Testament frequently refers to the strength that we receive from Christ that enables us to not only resist the devil, but also to defeat him. “Be calm but vigilant, because your enemy the devil is prowling round like a roaring lion, looking for someone to eat. Stand up to him, strong in faith” (1 P 5:8-9). “Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armour of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil” (Ep 6:10-11).
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Who is the devil? Pope Francis refers to the devil using a number of titles that can be traced back to Scripture and Tradition - tempter, enemy, Satan, demon, spirit of the world, and prince of this world. So who exactly is the devil? The tempter Pope Francis mentions the devil most in the context of the many temptations that we receive to commit sins. The Holy Father said, “we are all sinners and we are all tempted. Temptation is our daily bread. So much so that were one of us to say: ‘I have never been tempted’ the right response would be, ‘either you’re a cherub, or you’re a little stupid’. In fact, struggle and battle are normal in life: the devil doesn’t stay still and he wants his victory”.7 The first thing that Jesus tells us about our adversary is that he is the tempter of humanity. This is the role the devil played at the beginning of our history when he tempted our first parents. It is the role he continually takes against us all, even Jesus when he became man. The Son of God allowed himself to become ‘vulnerable’ to the devil as tempter when he assumed our human nature. He became “one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” (Heb 4:15)
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We only know about Jesus’s temptation by the devil in the desert because he chose to recount his personal struggle to his apostles. Our Lord clearly thinks it’s important that we are aware of the perpetual threat from the tempter, and how to successfully defeat him by following his example. We can call on his assistance through the grace of his victory in the desert over the tempter. As the Catechism puts it, this is why Christ vanquished the tempter for us so that during the solemn forty days of Lent the Church can unite herself each year to the mystery of Jesus in the desert (CCC 540). Pope Francis draws the following conclusions from Jesus’s resistance against the tempter: “Note well how Jesus responds: He doesn’t dialogue with Satan, as Eve did in the terrestrial Paradise. Jesus knows well that one can’t dialogue with Satan, because he is so cunning. For this reason, instead of dialoguing, as Eve did, Jesus chooses to take refuge in the Word of God and to respond with the power of this Word. Let us remind ourselves of this in the moment of temptation, of our temptation: not arguing with Satan, but defending ourselves with the Word of God. And this will save us.”8 The Holy Father also warns that the devil uses people to spread his temptations in order to draw more people into his evil schemes to corrupt and destroy: Satan got involved with Jesus’s enemies and what seemed at first like a calm trickle of water turned into
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