Pope at Audience: Against the devil’s deception, Jesus protects us
During his weekly General Audience Wednesday morning, Pope Francis continues his catechesis series on the Holy Spirit and reminds that despite Satan’s attempts to distract and tempt us, the Lord enables us to free ourselves of his trickery...
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During his weekly General Audience Wednesday morning, Pope Francis continues his catechesis series on the Holy Spirit and reminds that despite Satan’s attempts to distract and tempt us, the Lord enables us to free ourselves of his trickery and deception.
By Deborah Castellano Lubov
The Lord protects us from being deceived by the devil….
Pope Francis gave this comforting observation during his Wednesday morning General Audience in St. Peter’s Square, while, at the same time, he urged the faithful to “never dialogue with the devil.”
As he continued his catechesis series on the Holy Spirit, he turned this week to the Gospel account of Jesus’ temptations in the desert.
Never converse with the devil
After Christ, on the Cross, defeated forever the power of the ‘prince of this world’, the devil – said a Church Father – ‘is bound, like a dog on a chain; he cannot bite anyone, except he who, braving the danger, goes near him…. He can bark, he can urge, but he cannot bite, except he who wants to [be bitten].”
“If you are a fool and you go to the devil and [say], ‘Ah, how are you?'” Pope Francis said, “he ruins you.”
With the devil, he said, we must always keep distance.
“With the devil you don’t dialogue. You chase him away. Distance”
The Holy Father acknowledged how we all in one way or another have experienced the devil trying to approach us with some temptation, but when this may happen, also through technology, he appealed, we must stop and create distance.
“Do not,” he warned, “approach the dog tied with a chain.”
Saints as our models
Pope Francis suggested that the greatest proof of the existence of the devil is not to be found in the evidence of evil in our world, but rather in the lives and witness of the saints.
The saints’ efforts to growth in virtue and holiness, he observed, testify to the sinister reality “of the spirit of evil and the need to struggle against temptations to sin.”
Devil is cunning, but Christians are smarter
The Holy Father emphasized that the Lord’s victory over the power of evil and sin “gives us sure hope” that, by trusting in His word and strengthened by the grace of the Holy Spirit, we can overcome the devil’s attempts to distract us.
Pope Francis concluded by stressing that the Lord, despite the greatness of any temptation, can help us overcome any such attempt, purify our hearts, and grow in union with the Lord.
“Be careful, because the devil is cunning – but we Christians, with God’s grace,” the Pope reassured, “is smarter than he is.”
