The Devil

The third adversary is the Prince of Darkness and his demons with their thousands of years of experience in luring, tempting, and destroying humans. Based on the general prevalence of darkness and evil, and the father of evil, the Devil, in media, culture, songs, movies and society in general, one might not know it but modern man tends to not really believe in the existence of the Devil and demons. As it was famously put by someone: “The greatest trick the devil has ever pulled off was convincing people he does not exist.” The well-known Catholic teacher, Bishop Fulton J. Sheen († AD 1979) of the 20th century said: 

Very few people believe in the devil these days, which suits the devil very well. He is always helping to circulate the news of his own death. The essence of God is existence, and He defines Himself as: ‘I am Who I am.’ The essence of the devil is the lie, and he defines himself as: ‘I am who am not.’ Satan has very little trouble with those who do not believe in him; they are already on his side.

Some of the most famous chapters in literature, and in world history as some might view it, involve this personification of evil. Nearly all world religions and even smaller primitive cultures have some form of the Devil in their belief systesm. Many of us have some experience with “our demons” and have become quite friendly and comfortable with them. When we enter unseen warfare, the fight with them is inevitable. St. Paul famously said that wrestle “against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” (Ephesians 6:12).

St. Paul is not saying that we aren’t warring with our own flesh and blood, but in this context, he is stating that this particular war against the devil is not against a person or an army. He is reminding us of the gravity of this unseen fight. St. Theophan the Recluse († AD 1894) warns us:

He who goes according to the will of the evil one does not experience attacks, but is simply turned more and more toward evil. As soon as one begins to come to himself and intends to begin a new life according to God’s will, immediately the entire satanic realm enters into action: they hasten to scatter good thoughts and the intentions of the repentant one in any way they can.

The devil and his demons, especially the fallen angels that we invite into our lives, treat us like play things or toys. We allow them to wind us up and then they sit back and watch us carelessly crash around in our passions. When we wind down, they wind us up again, and the cycle doesn’t stop until we wake up and stop being the play thing of our demons.

He goes on and reminds us that, although the proposition of one small person fighting this giant goliath of evil seems daunting, the devil actually has minimal power over us:

For a believer there is nothing terrifying here, because near a God-fearing man, demons only busy themselves, but they do not have any power over him. A sober man of prayer shoots arrows against them, and they stay far away from him, not daring to approach, and fearing the defeat which they have already experienced.

He continues:

If they succeed in something, it is due to our blundering. We slacken our attention, or allow ourselves to be distracted by their phantoms, and they immediately come and disturb us more boldly. 

Our demons want us to be suspended in a state of captivity and failure. They want more than anything for us to be numb, passive, and in a state of ignorance. They thrive when they se that we are enslaved by the deadening effects of sin and the passions. St. Nilus of Sinai:

Why do demons wish to excite in us gluttony, fornication, greed, anger, rancor and other passions? So that the mind, under their weight, should be unable to pray as it ought; for when the passions of our irrational part begin to act, they prevent the mind from acting rationally.

Among other things, we should be warned of one thing when talking about these adversaries. There is a temptation to blame our sinful actions on the devil. We can say to ourselves, “The devil made me do it.” Or “the demons tricked me and made me do it.” Often this is not the case at all. One of the stories from St. Anthony the Great illustrates this. The story is told here in his own words: 

Once someone knocked at the door of my cell, and going forth I saw one who seemed of great size and tall. Then when I enquired, ‘Who are you?” he said, “I am Satan.” Then when I said, “Why are you here?” he answered, “Why do the monks and all other Christians blame me undeservedly? Why do they curse me hourly?” Then I answered, “Why do you trouble them?” He said, “I am not he who troubles them, but they trouble themselves… Let them take heed to themselves, and let them not curse me unreservedly.”

One of the great proofs of God and goodness is the devil and evil. Over the centuries he has revealed himself to people by way of visitation, possession, and through all sorts of witchcraft and divination. In addition, the endless stream of chaos, devastation and suffering that has been accomplished in humanity through his influence is a testament to him being “the prince of this world.”

Until recent times, the devil had no problem operating in the open so as to influence, terrify and captivate people. However, his cunning has evolved so that today his plan is propagated in the open by human cooperation through culture and media. This cooperation is successful in that humans tend to gravitate towards sin and ignorance. Now we say, “Look there is no evil, and there is no devil, and there are no demons.” On this St. Sebastian Dabovich said:

I have heard people say that there are no demons or devils. . . . . the Devil surely will NOT reveal himself to people who do not believe ; for, should he do so, they might believe, and that would be against his own sly, diabolical policy, as he would have all in the dark…

We should not be faint hearted in this. We have known since the beginning that our demons have limited power over us. We know that the fall from perfection to imperfection, that took place at the tree of the knowledge of good an evil, was rectified through the sacrifice of Christ on the wood of the cross. Through Him we can be restored. All we must do is fight. What greater weapon do we have against evil than the sign of the cross? And, what greater friend do we have in battle than Christ Himself? And what greater army do we have than the saints and the angles?