Transcript

Why do Catholics believe in the devil? Are we stuck in the Dark Ages First of all we don’t believe in the devil. We believe that the devil exists like we believe that two plus two is four. But we believe in Jesus. When Jesus talks about believing in him, the original Greek of the New Testament uses the word Ace. This is a very Dynamic word that means “into, unto, towards.” There’s a movement toward unity, a striving for communion. We believe in Jesus. We strive for communion with him. We don’t believe in the devil, we are not striving for communion with him. But we know that he exists. Demonology is closely related to angelology. There is an order to Creation, minerals, plants, animals, man, God. It would be a little narcissistic to think that we are so close to the almighty. There is a big gap between God and man, in which we find angels, spiritual Immortal beings with Free Will and supernatural intelligence. God made all angels good but a third of the angels had no humility, they would not serve him. So they chose to rebel against him. A war broke out and Saint Michael and his angels cast the devil and his demons out of heaven. Jesus himself said that he saw Satan fall like lightning. The word diabolic comes from two Greek words dia and bolic and literally mean to tear apart to rend asunder. God builds up, the devil tears down. God unites, but the devil divides. Think of all those d words: death, destruction, division, decay. Jesus gives life and gives life abundantly. The Devil is a murderer from the beginning. He dishes out death, Eternal death. As misery loves company, the devil would love for you to share in his misery forever. Believe it or not this is actually a compliment. The devil is interested enough in you to hate you because you carry within yourself the Divine image and likeness of God. The devil loves to push people to the extremes but virtue lies in between. C.S Lewis warns us that one extreme is to deny the existence of the devil. The other is to be overly fascinated with him. As Catholics we stay away from those extremes. We acknowledge that the devil exists but our eyes are on Jesus. We believe in him.