Introduction to the Catechism on the Holy Angels
Our Church led by our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, has called us to prepare
ourselves for the Millennium Jubilee Year 2000. Invoking the Holy Spirit, our Pope has
suggested a preparation of prayer and catechesis beginning in 1997 focusing on "Jesus
Christ, Son of God, Today, Now and Forever"; the year 1998 on the "Holy
Spirit, Giver of Life and Love"; and for the year 1999 - "God, the Father
Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth and of all things - seen and unseen."
Our Holy Father offers us an appropriate resource for reflection for this coming year
with his catechesis on the Holy Angels, a six-part series (General audiences July/August,
1986).And so we begin - Part 1: God, Our Father ... Creator ... of all things - seen
and unseen.
1. We cannot conclude our catechesis on God, Creator of the world, without
devoting adequate attention to a precise item of Divine Revelation; the creation of purely
spiritual beings which Sacred Scripture calls "angels". This creation
appears clearly in the Creeds, especially in the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed: "I
believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, of all things
(that is, entia or beings) "seen and unseen." We know that man enjoys a unique
position within the sphere of creation: by his body he belongs to the visible world
while, by his spiritual soul which vivifies the body; he is as it were on the boundary
between the visible and invisible creation. To the latter, according to the Creed which
the Church professes in the light of Revelation, belong other beings, purely spiritual, therefore
not proper to the visible world even though present and working therein. They
constitute a world apart.
2. Today, as in times past, these spiritual beings are discussed with greater or
lesser wisdom. One must recognize that at times there is great confusion, with the
consequent risk of passing off as the Church's faith on the angels what does not pertain
to it, or vice versa, or neglecting some important aspect of the revealed truth. The
existence of spiritual beings, which sacred Scripture usually calls "angels",
was denied already in Christ's time by the Sadducees. It is denied also by materialists
and rationalists of every age. But, as a modern theologian acutely observes,
"if one wishes to get rid of the angels, one must radically revise Sacred Scripture
itself, and with it the whole history of salvation." (A. Winklhofer Die Weir der
Engel, Ettal 1961, p. 144 note 2; In Mysterium Salutis, II, 2, p 726). The
whole of Tradition is unanimous on this point. The Church's Creed is basically an
echo of what Paul writes to the Colossians: "for in Him (Christ) all things were
created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominations or
principalities or authorities - all things were created through Him and for Him."
(Col 1:16). That is to say, Christ, who, as the Son - Word eternal and consubstantial with
the Father, is the First-Born of all creation (Col 1:15), is at the center of the
universe, as the reason and cornerstone of all creation, as we have already seen in the
previous catechesis, and as we shall see later when we shall speak more directly of Him.
3. The reference to the "primacy" of Christ helps us to understand
that the truth about the existence and activity of the angels (good and bad) is not
the central content of the Word of God. In revelation, God speaks first of all
"to men ... and moves among them, in order to invite and receive them into His own
company", as we read in the Constitution Dei Verbum of the Second Vatican
Council (DV, 2). Thus "the most intimate truth ... both about God and the salvation
of man" is the central content of the revelation which "shines forth" more
fully in the person of Christ (cf. DV,2). The truth about the angels is in a certain
sense "collateral", though inseparable from the central
revelation, which is the existence, the majesty and the glory of the Creator which
shines forth in all creation ("seen" and "unseen") and in God's
salvific action in the history of mankind. The angels are not therefore creatures
of the first order, in the reality of Revelation, though they fully belong to
it, so much so that sometimes we see them carrying out fundamental tasks in the name
of God Himself.
4. All this that pertains to creation enters, according to Revelation, into the
mystery of Divine Providence. Vatican I, which we have quoted several times, states it in
an exemplary concise manner: "All that God created, He conserves and directs by His
providence 'reaching from end to end mightily and governing all things well' (cf. Wis
8:1). 'All lies bare and exposed to His eyes (cf. Heb 4:13), even what will take place
through the free initiative of creatures" (DS, 3003). Providence then embraces also
the world of pure spirits, which are intellectual and free beings still more fully
than men. In Sacred Scripture we find important references to them.
There is also the revelation of a mysterious, though real, drama concerning these angelic
creatures, without anything escaping Divine Wisdom, which strongly (fortiter) and
at the same time gently (suaviter) brings all to fulfillment in the Kingdom of
the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
We recognize above all that Providence, as the loving
Wisdom of God, was manifested precisely in the creation of purely spiritual beings, so as
to express better the likeness of God in them who are so superior to all that is created
in the visible world including man, who is also the indelible image of
God. God, who is absolutely perfect Spirit, is reflected especially in spiritual beings,
which, by nature, that is by reason of their
spirituality, are nearer to Him than material creatures, and which constitute as it
were the closest "circle" to the Creator. Sacred Scripture offers abundant,
explicit evidence of this maximum closeness to God of the Angels, who are spoken of
figuratively as the "throne" of God, as His "legions", His
"heavens". It has inspired the poetry that represent the angels to us as
the "Court of God".
Compiled by: Opus Sanctorum Angelorum, 2495 - Fatima, Portugal
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CREATOR OF THE ANGELS WHO ARE FREE BEINGS
This is part two of a six part series on the Catechism of the Holy Angels given by the
Holy Father, John Paul II, at St. Peter's Square, Rome to the General Audience, July 23,
1986. And so we continue...
1. Today we continue our catechesis on the angels whose existence, willed by an act of
God's eternal love, we profess in the words of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed:
"I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, of all that
is, seen and unseen".
In the perfection of their spiritual nature the angels are called from the beginning,
by virtue of their intelligence, to know the truth and to love the good which they know in
truth in a more full and perfect way than is possible to man. This love is an act of a
free will, and therefore for the angels also freedom implies a possibility of a choice for
or against the Good which they know, that is, God himself. It must be repeated here what
we already mentioned earlier in regard to man: by creating free beings, God willed that
there should be realized in the world true love which is possible only on the basis of
freedom. He willed therefore that the creature, constituted in the image and likeness of
his Creator, should be able in the greatest degree possible to render himself similar to
God who "is Love" (1 Jn 4:16). By creating the pure spirits as free beings, God
in his Providence could not but foresee also the possibility of the angels' sin. But
precisely because Providence is eternal wisdom which loves, God would have been able to
draw from the history of this sin, incomparably more radical inasmuch as it was in the sin
of a pure spirit, the definitive good of the whole created cosmos.
In fact, as Revelation clearly states, the world of the pure spirits appears divided
into good angels and bad ones. This division is not the work of God's creation, but is
based on the freedom proper to the spiritual nature of each one of them. It is the result
of choice, which for purely spiritual beings possesses an incomparably more radical
character than that of man, and it is irreversible given the degree of intuitiveness and
penetration of the good wherewith their intelligence is endowed.
In this regard it must also be said that the pure spirits were subjected to a test of
a moral character. It was a decisive test regarding first of all God himself, a God known
in a more essential and direct way than is possible to man, a God who granted to these
spiritual beings the gift of participating in his divine nature, before doing so to man.
A radical and irreversible choice
3. In the case of pure spirits, the decisive choice regarded first of all God
himself, the first and supreme Good, accepted or rejected in a more essential and direct
way, than could happen within the scope of action of human free will. The pure spirits
have a knowledge of God incomparably more perfect than that of man, because by the power
of their intellect, not conditioned nor limited by the mediation of sense knowledge, they
see to the depths the greatness of infinite Being, of the first Truth, of the supreme
Good. To this sublime capacity of knowledge of the pure spirits God offered the mystery of
his divinity, making them thus partakers, through grace, of his infinite glory. Precisely
as beings of a spiritual nature they had in their intellect the capacity, the desire of
this supernatural elevation to which God had called them, to make of them, long before
man, "partakers of the divine nature" (cf. 2 Pt 1:4), partakers of the intimate
life of him who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, of him who in the communion of the three
Divine Persons, "is Love" (1 Jn 4:16). God had admitted all the pure spirits,
before and to the eternal communion of love.
4. The choice made on the basis of the truth about God, known in a higher way because
of the clarity of their intellects, has divided also the world of pure spirits into the
good and the bad. The good chose God as the supreme and definitive Good, known to the
intellect enlightened by Revelation. To have chosen God means that they turned to him with
all the interior force of their freedom, a force which is love. God became the total and
definitive scope of their spiritual existence. The others instead turned their backs
on God contrary to the truth of the knowledge which indicated him as the total and
definitive good. Their choice ran counter to the revelation of the mystery of God,
to his grace which made them partakers of the Trinity and of the eternal friendship with
God in communion with him through love. On the basis of their created freedom they made a
radical and irreversible choice on a parity with that of the good angels, but
diametrically opposed. Instead of accepting a God full of love they rejected
him, inspired by a false sense of self-sufficiency, of aversion and even of hatred which
is changed into rebellion.
5. How are we to understand such opposition and rebellion against God in beings
endowed with such profound and enlightened intelligence? What can be the motive for such a
radical and irreversible choice against God? Of a hatred so profound as to
appear solely the fruit of folly? The Fathers of the Church and theologians do not
hesitate to speak of a "blindness" produced by the overrating of the perfection
of their own being, driven to the point of ignoring God's supremacy, which requires
instead an act of docile and obedient subjection. All this summed by concisely in the
words: "I will not serve" (Jer 2.20), which manifest the radical and
irreversible refusal to take part in the building up of the kingdom of God in the created
world. Satan, the rebellious spirit, wishes to have his own kingdom, not that of God, and
he rises up as the first "adversary" of the Creator, the opponent of Providence,
and antagonist of God's loving wisdom. From Satan's rebellion and sin, and likewise from
that of man, we must conclude by accepting the wise experience of Scripture which states:
"In pride there is ruin" (Tob 4:13).
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CREATOR OF THINGS UNSEEN: THE ANGELS
(General audience: July 30, 1986)
1. In the previous catechesis we dwelt on the article of the Creed in which we
proclaim and confess God as creator not only of the whole visible world, but also of the
"things unseen", and we treated of the question of existence of the angels who
were called upon to make a decision for God or against God by a radical and irreversible
act of acceptance or rejection of his salvific will.
According to Sacred Scripture the angels, inasmuch as they are purely spiritual
creatures, are presented for our reflection as a special realization of the "image of
God", the most perfect Spirit, as Jesus himself reminds the Samaritan woman in the
words: "God is spirit" (Jn 4:24). From this point of view the angels
are creatures closest to the divine exemplar. The name given to them by
Sacred Scripture indicates that what counts most in Revelation is the truth concerning the
tasks of the angels in regard to man: angel (angelus) in fact means "messenger".
The Hebrew malak, used in the Old Testament, signifies more precisely
"delegate" or "ambassador". The angels, spiritual creatures,
have a function of mediation and of ministry in the relationships between God and
man. Under this aspect the Letter to the Hebrews says that Christ has been given a
"name", and therefore a ministry of mediation, far superior to that of the
angels (cf.Heb 1:4).
Care and solicitude.
2. The Old Testament emphasizes especially the special participation of the
angels in the celebration of the glory which the creator receives as a
tribute of praise on the part of the created world. The Psalms are in a special way
the interpreters of this voice, when, for example, they proclaim: "Praise the
Lord from the heavens, praise him in the heights! Praise him all his angels..."
(Ps 148:1-2). Similarly in Psalm 102 (103): "Bless the Lord, O you his angels,
you mighty ones who do his word, hearkening to the voice of his word!" (Ps 102
[103]:20). This last verse of Psalm 102 indicates that the angels take part,
in a way proper to themselves, in God's government of creation, as "the mighty ones
who do his word" according to the plan established by Divine Providence. To the
angels in particular is entrusted a special care and solicitude for people, whose requests
and prayers they present to God as mentioned, for example, in the Book of Tobit (cf.
especially Tob 3:17 and 12:12). Psalm 90 proclaims: "For to his angels he has
given command about you...upon their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot
against a stone" (cf. Ps 90[91]:11-12). Following the Book of Daniel it can be
said that the tasks of angels as ambassadors of the living God extend not only to
individual human beings and to those who have special duties, but also to entire nations
(Dan 10:13-21).
3. The New Testament highlights the role of the angels in Christ's Messianic
mission, and first of all in the mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God, as we
observe in the account of the announcement of the birth of John the Baptist (cf. Lk1:11),
of Christ himself (cf Lk 1:26), in the explanation and orders given to Mary and Joseph
(cf.Lk 1:30-37; Mt 1:20-21), in the indications given to the shepherds on the night of the
Lord's birth (Lk 2:9-15), in the protection of the newborn child from the danger of
persecution by Herod (cf. Mt 2:13).
Further on the Gospels speak of the presence of the angels during Jesus' forty days of
fast in the desert (cf. Mt 4:11) and during the prayer in Gethsemani. After
Christ's resurrection there will also be an angel, appearing under the form of a young
man, who will say to the women who had hastened to the tomb and were surprised to find it
empty: "Do not be amazed; you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified.
He has rise, he is not here...go, tell his disciples..." (Mt. 16:5-7). Two
angels were seen also by Mary Magdalene, who was privileged with a personal apparition of
Jesus (Jn 20:12-17; cf. also Lk 24:4). The angels appears to the Apostles after
Christ's ascension, to say to them: "men of Galilee, why do you stand here
looking up into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come
in the same way as you saw him go into heaven" (Acts 1:10-11). They are the
angels of him who, as St. Peter writes, "has gone into heaven and is at the right
hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers subject to him" (1 pet 3:22).
4. If we pass to the Second Coming of Christ, in the Parousia,
we find that all the Synoptic Gospels note that "the Son of man...will come in the
glory of the Father with the holy angels" (thus Mk 8:38; as also Mt 16:27; and Mt
25:31 in the description of the Last Judgement; and Lk 9:26; cf. also St. Paul in 2 Thess
1:7). It can therefore be said that the angels, as pure spirits, not only
participate in the holiness of God himself, in the manner proper to them, but in the
key moments they surround Christ and accompany him in the fulfillment of his salvific
mission in regard to mankind. In the same way also the whole of Tradition and
the ordinary Magisterium of the Church down the centuries has attributed to the angels
this particular character and this function of Messianic ministry.
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ANGELS PARTICIPATE IN HISTORY OF SALVATION
General Audience: August 6, 1986
In his general audience of August 6th, Pope John Paul II noted that the modern
mentality does not see the importance of angels. Yet in the encounter with the world of
angels, man comes to see his own being not only as body but also as spirit.
In the recent catecheses we have seen how the Church, illuminated by the light that
comes from Sacred Scripture, has professed throughout the centuries the truth about the
existence of the angels as purely spiritual beings, with the Nicene-Constantinopolitan
Creed, and has confirmed this in the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), whose formulation was
repeated by the First Vatican Council in the context of the doctrine on creation:
"God at the beginning of time created from nothing both creatures together, the
spiritual and the corporeal, that is, the angelic and the earthly, and thus He created
human nature as having both, since it is made up of spirit and body" (Constitution De
Fide Catholica, DS 3002).
In other words, God created both realities from the very beginning: the spiritual
reality and the corporeal, the earthly world and the angelic world. He created all this at
one and the same time(simul) with a view to the creation of man, constituted of spirit and
matter and set, according to the biblical narrative, in the framework of a world already
established according to His laws and already measured by time(deinde).
Together with their existence, the faith of the Church recognizes certain distinctive
characteristics of the nature of the angels. Their purely spiritual being implies first of
all their nonmateriality and their immortality. The angels have no "body" (even
if, in particular circumstances, they reveal themselves under visible forms because of
their mission for the good of men), and therefore they are not subject to the laws of
corruptibility which are common to all the material world.
Jesus Himself, referring to the condition of the angels, will say that in the future
life, those who are risen "cannot die any more, because they are equal to the
angels" (Lk 20-36).
As creatures of a spiritual nature, the angels are endowed with intellect and free
will, like man, but in a degree superior to him, even if this is always finite because of
the limit which is inherent in every creature. The angels are therefore personal beings
and, as such, are also "in the image and likeness" of God.
Sacred Scripture refers to the angels also by using terms that are not only personal
(like the proper names of Raphael, Gabriel, Michael), but also "collective"
(like the titles: seraphim, cherubim, thrones, powers, dominions, principalities), just as
it distinguishes between angels and archangels. While bearing in mind the analogous and
representative character of the language of the sacred text, we can deduce that these
beings and persons, as it were grouped together in society, are divided into orders and
grades, corresponding to the measure of their perfection and to the tasks entrusted to
them. The ancient authors and the liturgy itself speak also of the angelic choirs (nine,
according to Dionysius the Areopagite).
Theology, especially in the patristic and medieval periods, has not rejected these
representations, seeking to explain them in doctrinal and mystical terms, without,
however, attributing an absolute value to them. St. Thomas preferred to deepen this
researches into the ontological condition, the epistemological activity and will and into
the loftiness of these purely spiritual creatures, both because of their dignity in the
scale of beings and also because he could investigate more deeply in them the capacities
and the activities that are proper to the spirit in the pure state, deducing no little
light to illuminate the basic problems that have always agitated and stimulated human
thought: knowledge, love, liberty, docility to God, how to reach His Kingdom.
The theme which we have touched on may seem"far away" or "less
vital" to the mentality of modern man. But the Church believes that she renders a
great service to man when she proposes sincerely the totality of the truth about God the
Creator and also about the angles.
Man nurtures the conviction that it is he (and not the angels) who is at the center of
the divine Revelation in Christ, Man and God. It is precisely the religious encounter with
the world of the purely spiritual being that becomes valuable as a revelation of his own
being not only as body but also as spirit, and of his belonging to a design of salvation
that is truly great and efficacious within a community of personal beings who serve the
providential design of God for man and with man.
Let us note that Sacred Scripture and Tradition give the proper name of angels to
those pure spirits who chose God, His glory, and His Kingdom in the fundamental test of
their liberty. They are united to God by the consummate love which flows from the beatific
vision, face to face, of the most Holy Trinity.
Jesus Himself tells us this: "The angels in Heaven always see the face of my
Father who is in Heaven" (Mt 18:10). "To see the face of the Father always"
in this way is the highest manifestation of the adoration of God. One can say that this
constitutes the "heavenly liturgy", carried out in the name of all the universe,
with which the earthly liturgy of the Church is incessantly joined, especially in its
culminating moments.
Let it suffice here to record the act with which the Church, every day and every hour,
in all the world, before beginning the Eucharistic Prayer in the center of the Mass, makes
appeal "to the angels and archangels" to sing the glory of the thrice-holy God,
uniting herself thus to those first adorers of God, in the worship and the loving
knowledge of the unspeakable mystery of His Holiness.
According to Revelation, the angels who participate in the life of the Trinity in the
light of glory are also called to play their part in the history of the salvation of man,
in the moments established by divine Providence. "Are they not all ministering
spirits sent forth to serve, for the sake of those who are to possess salvation?",
asks the author of the Letter to the Hebrews(l:14).
This is believed and taught by the Church, on the basis of Sacred Scripture, from
which we learn that the task of the good angels is the protection of people and solicitude
for their salvation.
We find these experiences in various passages of Sacred Scripture, like for example,
Psalm 90 which has already been quoted several times: "He will give His angels charge
over you, to keep you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you
dash your foot against a stone"(Ps 90:11-12). Jesus Himself, speaking of children and
warning against giving them scandal, refers to "their angels" (Mt 18:10).
Besides this, He attributes to the angels the function of witnesses in the last divine
judgement about the fate of those who have acknowledged or denied Christ: "Whoever
acknowledges me before men, the Son of man likewise will acknowledge him before the angels
of God; but whoever denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God" (Lk
12:8-9;cf.Rev 3:5).
These words are significant because, if the angels take part in the judgement of God,
then they are interested in the life of man. This interest and participation seem to be
accentuated in the eschatological discourse, in which Jesus has the angels appear in the
Parousia, that is, in the definitive coming of Christ at the end of history (cf. Mt 24:31;
25:31-4).
Among the books of the New Testament, it is especially the Acts of the Apostles that
show us some facts that bear witness to the solicitude of the angels for man and for his
salvation.
Thus the angel of God liberates the Apostles from the prison (cf.Acts 5:18-20) and
first of all Peter, when he was threatened with death at the hands of Herod (cf.Acts
12:5-10). Or he guides the activity of Peter with regard to the centurion Cornelius, the
first pagan to be converted (Acts 10:3-8, 11:1-12), and analogously the activity of the
deacon Philip along the road from Jerusalem to Gaza (Acts 8:26-29).
From these few facts which we have cited as examples, we understand how the Church
could come to the conviction that God has entrusted to the angels a ministry in favor of
people. Therefore the Church confesses her faith in the guardian angels, venerating them
in the liturgy with an appropriate feast and recommending recourse to their protection by
frequent prayer, as in the invocation "Angel of God". This prayer seems to draw
on the treasure of the beautiful words of St. Basil: "Every one of the faithful has
beside him an angel as tutor and pastor, to lead him to life"
(cf.St.Basil,Adv.Eunonium,III:cf.also St. Thomas, Summa Theol, I,q,11,a.3).
Ministering Spirits
Finally, it is appropriate to note that the Church honors the figures of three
angels with a liturgical cult; these are called by name in Sacred Scripture.
The first is Michael the Archangel (cf. Dan 10:13-20; Rev 12:7; Jude 9). His name is a
synthesis that expresses the essential attitude of good spirits. "Mica-EL" in
fact means: "Who is like God?". In this name, therefore, we find expressed the
salvific choice thanks to which the angels "see the face of the Father" who is
in Heaven.
The second is Gabriel: a figure bound especially to the mystery of the Incarnation of
the Son of God (cf.Lk 1:19-26). His name means: "my power is God" or "power
of God", as if to say that the culmination of creation, the incarnation is the
supreme sign of the omnipotent Father.
Finally, the third archangel is called Raphael. "Rafa-EL" means: "God
heals". He is made known to us by the story of Tobias in the Old Testament (cf. Tob
12:15-20, etc.) which is so significant for what it says about entrusting to the angels
the little children of God, who are always in need of custody, care, and protection.
If we reflect well, we see that each one of these figures, Mica-EL, Gabri-EL, and
Rafa-EL reflects in a particular way the truth contained in the question posed by the
author of the Letter to the Hebrews: "Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth
to serve, for the sake of those who are to possess salvation?" (Heb 1:14).
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THE FALL OF THE REBELLIOUS ANGELS
(Pope John Paul II, General Audience: August 13, 1986)
1. Continuing the theme of the previous catecheses, which were dedicated to the
article of the faith that concerns the angels, God's creatures, we shall begin today to
explore the mystery which some of them have turned against God and his plan of
salvation for mankind. As the evangelist Luke testifies, when the disciples returned
to the Master full of joy at the fruits they had gathered in their first missionary
attempt, Jesus utters a sentence that is highly evocative:" I saw Satan fall from
heaven like lightning"(Lk 10:18). With these words, the Lord affirms that the
proclamation of the Kingdom of God is always a victory over the devil, but at the same
time he also reveals that the building up of the Kingdom is continuously exposed to the
attacks of the spirit of evil. When we consider this, as we propose to do with
today's catechesis, it means that we prepare ourselves for the condition of struggle which
characterizes the life of the Church in this final time of the history of salvation(as the
Book of Revelation asserts:CF.12:7). Besides this, it will permit us to
clarify the true faith of the Church against those who pervert it by exaggerating the
importance of the devil, or by denying or minimizing his malevolent power.
The preceding catecheses on the angels have prepared us to understand the truth which
Sacred Scripture has revealed and which the Tradition of the Church has handed on about
Satan, that is, the fallen angel, the wicked spirit, who is also called the devil or
demon.
2. This"fall", which has the character of rejection of God with the
consequent state of "damnation" , consists in the free choice of those created
spirits who have radically and irrevocably rejected God and his kingdom, usurping his
sovereign rights and attempting to subvert the economy of salvation and the very order of
the entire creation. We find a reflection of this attitude in the words addressed by the
tempter to our first parents: "You will become like God" or "like
gods"(cf. Gen 3:5). Thus the evil spirit tries to transplant into man the attitude of
rivalry, insubordination and opposition to God, which has, as it were, become the
motivation of all his existence.
3. In the Old Testament, the narrative of the fall of man as related in the Book of
Genesis, contains a reference to an attitude of antagonism which Satan wishes to
communicate to man in order to lead him to sin(Gen 3:5). In the Book of Job, too, we read
that Satan seeks to generate rebellion in the person who is suffering(cf. Job 1:11;
2:5-7). In the Book of Wisdom(cf. Wis 2:24), Satan is presented as the artisan of death,
which has entered man's history along with sin.
4. In the Fourth Lateran Council(1215), the Church teaches that the devil (or Satan)
and the other demos "were created good by God but have become evil by their own
will". In fact, we read in the Letter of St. Jude: "... the angels who did
not keep their dignity, but left their own dwelling, are kept by the Lord in eternal
chains in the darkness, for the judgment of the great day"(Jude 6). Similarly,
in the second letter of St. Peter, we hear of "angels who have sinned" and
whom God "did not spare, but...cast in the gloomy abysses of hell, reserving them
from the judgement"(2 Pet 2:4). It is clear that if God "does not forgive"
the sin of the angels, this is because they remain in their sin, because they are
eternally "in the chains" of the choice that they made at the beginning,
rejecting God, against the truth of the supreme and definitive Good that is God himself.
It is in this sense that St. John writes that "the devil has been a sinner from the
beginning..."(JN.3:8). And he has been a murderer "from the beginning", and
"has not persevered in the truth, because there is no truth in him"(Jn 8:44).
Satan: cosmic liar and murderer
5. These texts help us to understand the nature and the dimension of the sin
of Satan, which consists in the denial of the truth about God, as he is known by the light
of the intellect and revelation as infinite Good, subsistent Love and Holiness. The sin
was all the greater, in that the spiritual perfection and the epistemological acuteness of
the angelic intellect, with his freedom and closeness to God, were greater. When, by an
act of his own free will, he rejected the truth that he knew about God, Satan became the
cosmic "liar and the father of lies:(Jn 8: 44)". For this reason, he
lives in radical and irreversible denial of God, and seeks to impose on creation-on the
other beings created in the image of God, and in particular on people-his own tragic
"lie about the good" that is God. In the Book of Genesis, we find a precise
description of this lie and falsification of the truth about God, which Satan(under the
form of a serpent) tries to transmit to the first representatives of the human race: God
is jealous of his own prerogatives and therefore wants to impose limitations on
man(cf.Gen3:5). Satan invites the man to free himself from the impositions of
this joke, by making himself "like God".
6. In this condition of existential falsehood, Satan-according to St. John-also
becomes a "murderer", that is , one who destroys the supernatural life which God
had made to dwell from the beginning in him and in the creatures made "in the
likeness of God": the other pure spirits and men, Satan wishes to destroy life lived
in accordance with the truth, life in the fullness of good, the supernatural life of grace
and love. The author of the Book of Wisdom writes:"...death has entered the world
through the envy of the devil, and those who belong to him experience it"(Wis 2:24).
And Jesus Christ warns in the Gospel:"...fear rather him who has the power to destroy
both soul and body in Gehenna''(Mt. 10:28).
7. As the result of the sin of our first parents, this fallen angel has acquired
dominion over man to a certain extent. This is the doctrine that has been constantly
professed and proclaimed by the Church, and which the Council of Trent confirmed in its
treatise on original sin. (cf. DS 1511):it finds a dramatic expression in the liturgy of
baptism, when the catechumen is asked to renounce the devil and all his empty promises.
In Sacred Scripture we find various indications of this influence on man and on the
dispositions of his spirit (and of his body). In the Bible, Satan is called
"the prince of the world" (cf. Jn 12:31; 14:30; 16:11), and even "the god
of this world" (2 Cor 4:4). We find many other names that describe his
nefarious relationship with man: "Beelzebul" or "Belial",
"unclean spirit", "tempter", "evil one" and even
"Antichrist" (1Jn 4:3). He is compared to a "lion" (1 Pet 5:8),
to a "dragon" (in Revelation) and to a "serpent" (Gen 3). Very
frequently, he is designated by the name "devil", from the Greek diaballein
(hence diabolos), which means: to "cause destruction, to divide, to calumniate, to
deceive". In truth, all this takes place from the beginning through the working
of the evil spirit who is presented by Sacred Scripture as a person, while it is declared
that he is not alone: "there are many of us", as the devils cry out to
Jesus in the region of the Gerasenes (Mk 5:9); and Jesus, speaking of the future judgment,
speaks of "the devil and his angels" (cf. Mt. 25:41).
8. According to Sacred Scripture, and especially the New Testament, the dominion
and the influence of Satan and of the other evil spirits embraces all the world. We
may think of Christ's parable about the field (the world), about the good seed and the bad
seed that the devil sows in the midst of the wheat, seeking to snatch away from hearts the
good that has been "sown" in them (cf. Mt 13:38-39). We may think of the
numerous exhortations to vigilance (cf. Mt 26:41; 1 Pet 5:8), to prayer and fasting (cf.
Mt 17:21). We may think of the strong statement made by the Lord: "This
kind of demon cannot be cast out by any other means than prayer" (Mk 9:29). The
action of Satan consists primarily in tempting men to evil, by influencing their
imaginations and higher faculties, to turn them away from the law of God. Satan even
tempts Jesus (cf. Lk 4:3-13), in the extreme attempt to thwart what is demanded by the
economy of salvation, as this has been pre-ordained by God.
It is possible that in certain cases the evil spirit goes so far as to exercise his
influence not only on material things, but even on man's body, so that one can speak of
"diabolical possession" (cf. Mk 5:2-9). It is not always easy to discern
the preternatural factor operative in these cases, and the Church does not lightly support
the tendency to attribute many things to the direct action of the devil; but in principle
it cannot be denied that Satan can go to this extreme manifestation of his superiority, in
his will to harm and lead to evil.
9. To conclude, we must add that the impressive words of the Apostle John,
"The whole world lies under the power of the evil one" (1 Jn 5:19), allude also
to the presence of Satan in the history of humanity, a presence which becomes all the more
acute when man and society depart from God. The influence of the evil spirit can
conceal itself in a more profound and effective way: it is in his
"interest" to make himself unknown. Satan has the skill in the world to
induce people to deny his existence in the name of rationalism and of every other system
of thought which seeks all possible means to avoid recognizing his activity. This,
however, does not signify the elimination of man's free will and responsibility, and even
less the frustration of the saving action of Christ. It is, rather, a case of
conflict between the dark powers of evil and the powers of redemption. The words
that Jesus addressed to Peter at the beginning of the Passion are eloquent in this
context: "...Simon, behold, Satan has sought to sift you like wheat: but I have
prayed for you, that your faith may not fail" (Lk 22:31).
This helps us understand how Jesus, in the prayer that he taught us, the "Our
Father", that is, the prayer of the Kingdom of God, terminates almost brusquely,
unlike so many other prayers of his era, by reminding us of our condition as people
exposed to the snares of evil and of the evil one. The Christian, appealing to the
Father with the Spirit of Jesus and invoking his Kingdom, cries with the power of faith:
let us not succumb to temptation, free us from evil, from the evil one. O Lord, let
us not fall into the infidelity to which we are seduced by the one who has been unfaithful
from the beginning.
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Christ's victory conquers evil
(Pope John Paul II, General Audience of 20 August 1986)
The Holy Father concluded his catechesis on God as the Creator of "the things
that are unseen" by speaking of the victory of Christ over the spirit of evil.
1. Our catechesis on God, the Creator of the things "that are unseen", have
brought fresh light and strength to our faith concerning the truth about the evil
one, or Satan; he is certainly not willed by God, who is supreme Love and Holiness, and
whose wise and strong Providence knows how to guide our existence to victory over the
prince of darkness. The Church's faith, in fact, teaches us that the power of Satan is not
infinite. He is only a creature - powerful, in that he is pure spirit, but nevertheless
always a creature, with the limits proper to creatures, subordinated to the will and
dominion of God. If Satan is at work in the world because of his hatred of God and of his
Kingdom, this is permitted by Divine Providence which directs the history of man and of
the world with power and goodness (fortiter et suaviter ). It is certainly true that
Satan's action causes much damage, both of a spiritual kind and also indirectly of a
material kind, to individuals and to society, but he is not able ultimately to neutralize
the definitive end towards which man and all creation tend. the Good. He cannot block the
construction of the Kingdom of God, in which at the end there will be the full realization
of the righteousness and the love of the Father for the creatures who are eternally
"predestined" in Jesus Christ, his Son and Word. Indeed, we can say with St.
Paul that the work of the evil one cooperates for the good (cf. Rom 8:28) and that it
helps to build up the glory of the "chosen" ones (cf. 2 Tim 2:10).
Total salvation
2. Thus, the whole history of humanity can be considered as serving total salvation which
means the victory of Christ over the "prince of this world" (Jn 12:31; 14:30;
16:11). "You shall bow down only before the Lord your God, you shall adore him
alone" (Lk 4:8), says Christ eternally to Satan. At a dramatic moment of his
ministry, when he was openly accused of casting out the demons because of his alliance
with Beelzebul, the chief of the demons, Jesus replied with these words that are at once
severe and comforting. "Every kingdom that is divided falls into ruins, and no city
or family that is divided can stand upright. Now if Satan drives out Satan, then he is
divided in himself. How then can his kingdom stand upright?... And if it is by the power
of the Spirit of God that I cast out the demons, then it is certain that the Kingdom of
God has come among you" (Mt 12:26-26, 28). "When a strong man, well armed,
guards his palace, all his goods are secure. But if one stronger than he comes and
overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which he trusted, and divides his spoils"
(Lk 11:21-22). The words which Christ speaks about the tempter find their historical
fulfillment in the cross and resurrection of the Redeemer. As we read in the Letter to the
Hebrews, Christ became a sharer in human nature even to the cross "in order to reduce
to powerlessness, by means of death, the one who has the power over death, that is, the
devil... and thus to free those who... were held in slavery" (Heb 2:14-15). This is
the great certainty of the Christian faith: "the prince of this world has been
judged" (Jn 16:11); "the Son of God has appeared, in order to destroy the works
of the devil" (1 Jn 3:8), as St. John bears witness. It is therefore the crucified
and risen Christ who has revealed himself as that "stronger one" who has
overpowered "the strong man", the devil, and has cast him down from his throne.
The Church shares in Christ's victory over the devil, for Christ has given to his
disciples the power to cast out demons (cf. Mt 10:1 and parallels; Mk 16:17). The Church
uses this victorious power through faith in Christ and prayer (cf. Mk 9:29; Mt 17:19ff.),
which in particular cases can take the form of exorcism.
3. It is to this historical phase of the victory of Christ that the announcement and
the beginning of the final victory, the Parousia, belongs: this is the second and
definitive coming of Christ at the close of history, and it is towards this that the life
of the Christian is orientated. Even if it is true that earthly history continues to
unfold under the influence of "that spirit who now is at work in rebellious
men", as St. Paul says (Eph 2:2), believers know that they have been called to
struggle for the definitive triumph of the Good. "for our battle is not against
creatures made of blood and of flesh, but against the Principalities and Powers, against
those who hold dominion over this world of darkness, against the spirits of evil that
dwell in the heavenly places" (Eph 6:12).
Definitive victory
4. As the end of the struggle gradually draws nearer, it becomes in a certain
sense ever more violent, as Revelation, the last book of the New Testament, shows in a
special emphasis (cf. Rev 12:7-9). But it is precisely this book that emphasizes the
certainty that is given to us by all of divine Revelation, that the struggle will finish
with the definitive victory of the good. In this victory, which is contained in
anticipation in the paschal mystery of Christ, there will be the definitive fulfillment of
the first announcement in the Book of Genesis, which is significantly called the
Proto-Evangelium, when God admonishes the serpent: "I will put enmity between you and
the woman" (Gen 3:15). In this definitive phase, God will complete the mystery of his
fatherly Providence and "will set free from the power of darkness" those whom he
has eternally "predestined in Christ" and will "bring them over into the
kingdom of his beloved Son" (cf. Col 1:13-14). Then the Son will subject even the
whole universe to the Father, so that "God may be all in all" (1 Cor 15:28).
5. Here we finish the catecheses on God as the Creator of "the things that are
visible and invisible", which are united, in our structuring of the catecheses,
with the truth about Divine Providence It is obvious to the eyes of the believer that the
mystery of the beginning of the world and of history is joined indissolubly to the mystery
of the end, in which the finality of all that has been created reaches fulfillment. The
creed, which unites so many truths in such an organic manner, is truly the harmonious
cathedral of the faith.
In a progressive and organic way, we have been able to admire, struck dumb with
wonder, the great mystery of the intelligence and love of God, in his action of creation,
directed to the cosmos, to the human person, and to the world of pure spirits. We have
considered the Trinitarian origin of this action and its wise orientation towards the life
of man who is truly the "image of God", called in his turn to rediscover fully
his own dignity in the contemplation of the glory of God. We have been enlightened about
one of the greatest problems that perturb man and characterize his search for truth: the
problem of suffering and of evil. At the root, there is no mistaken or wicked decision by
God, rather his choice - and in a certain manner the risk he has undertaken - of creating
us free, in order to have us as friends. Evil too has been born of liberty. But God does
not give up, and he predestines us with his transcendent wisdom to be his children in
Christ, directing all with strength and sweetness, so that the good may not be overcome by
evil.
We must now let ourselves be guided by Divine Revelation in our exploration of the
other mysteries of our salvation. We have now received a truth which must be profoundly
important for every Christian: that there are pure spirits , creatures of God, initially
all good and then, through a choice of sin, irreducibly separated into angels of
light and angels of darkness. And while the existence of the wicked angels requires of us
that we be watchful so as not to yield to their empty promises, we are certain that the
victorious power of Christ the Redeemer enfolds our lives, so that we ourselves may
overcome these spirits. In this, we are powerfully helped by the good angels, messengers
of God's love, to whom, taught by the tradition of the Church, we address our prayer:
"Angel of God, who are my guardian, enlighten, guard, govern and guide me, who have
been entrusted to you by the heavenly goodness. Amen".
Updated: 12 September, 2005
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