The devil: the cunning
deceiver
He is the father of lies.
He is to be always mistrusted, disdained and denied. St. Peter
describes him as a lion always prowling about looking for someone to devour,
and we are exhorted to resist him solid in our faith. He will certainly tempt and entice with words
of honey and half-truths of spice.
How to Combat
A best offence is a great defense, and we have to first know
what we are to defend against. The
devil's plan is not, as is commonly thought, that we should simply do great
evil. He is far more crafty than
that. He wants only that we fail to do
God's will. So when God says do good,
the devil either says do great evil or do a little evil. But when God says do better, the devil says
just do good. And when God says be
perfect, the devil says, just be a little better.
Your great weapon here is the sacrament of confession. This followed by the Sacrament of the
Eucharist is a powerful combo against his lies because this keeps us in a state
of grace, a state of active friendship with God. And the best part about being close friends
with God is that he shares with us his Divine Nature (or grace). Sharing in his divine nature means that we
walk in his light which enables us to see more clearly the advances of the
enemy and therefore resist them more thoroughly.
The Moral
You are master over yourself. God's grace, his divine nature elevates our
human nature to a divinized state that empowers us to see more clearly the lies
of the devil. If we should reject this
state of life by a deadly sin, we may regain it by humble repentance and the
sacrament of confession, but the more we can maintain divine life in our soul
the greater will our resources against evil be.
+ Br. Joseph Michael Fino, CFR
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