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Image: The Devil depicted in The Temptation of Christ, by Ary Scheffer, 1854
Pope Francis’ General Audience
Cycle of Catechesis. The Spirit and the Bride 7 – The Holy Spirit
Saint Peter’s Square – Wednesday, 25 September 2024
Cycle of Catechesis. The Spirit and the Bride. The Holy Spirit guides the people of God towards Jesus our hope. 7. Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. The Holy Spirit, our ally in the fight against the spirit of evil
Matthew 4:1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil
Extract from St. Luke’s Gospel – chapter 4
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit 2 for forty days in the wilderness, tempted by the devil . . . when the devil had finished every test he departed from him until the opportune time . . .then Jesus filled with the power of the Spirit returned to Galilee
Dear brothers and sisters,
Immediately after His baptism in the Jordan, “Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil” according to the Gospel of Matthew.
The initiative was God’s, not Satan’s. By going into the wilderness, Jesus obeys an inspiration of the Holy Spirit; he does not fall into the trap of the enemy, no, no!
It is written – Once the trial was over, He – returned to Galilee ‘with the power of the Holy Spirit’ (Lk 4:14).
In the wilderness, Jesus liberated himself from Satan, and can liberate (us) fromSatan.
He freed Himself, He frees from Satan.
This is what the Evangelists highlight with the numerous stories of the deliverance from Satan.
Jesus says to his opponents: “If I cast out demons by the Spirit of God that, the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Mt 12:28). And Jesus casts out the demons, in the pursuit of the kingdom of God.
Today we are witnessing a strange phenomenon with regard to the devil.
On a certain cultural level, it is said that he (the devil) simply does not exist.
He would be a symbol of the collective subconscious, or alienation; in short, a metaphor.
But “the greatest cunning of the devil is to make us believe that he does not exist!”, as someone wrote (Charles Baudelaire).
He is cunning: he makes us believe that he does not exist, and thus dominates everything.
And yet our technological and secularized world is teeming with magicians, occultism, spiritualism, astrologers, sellers of spells and amulets, and unfortunately with real satanic sects.
Driven out the door, the devil has re-entered, one might say, through the window.
Driven out of faith, he re-enters with superstition.
And if you are superstitious, unconsciously you are conversing with the devil.
One does not converse with the devil.
The strongest proof of Satan’s the existence is not to be found not in sinners or in the possessed, but in the saints! “And how can this be, Father?”. Yes, it is true that the Devil is present and active in certain extreme and “inhuman” forms of evil and wickedness that we see around us.
But by this way, it is practically impossible to reach the certainty that it is truly him, in individual cases, since we cannot know exactly where his action ends and our own evil begins.
This is why the Church is so cautious so rigorous when it comes to exorcisms, unlike what unfortunately happens in certain films!
It is in the lifes of the saints, that the devil is forced to come out into the open, to place himself “against the light”.
All the saints, all the great believers, some more, some less, bear witness to their struggle with this obscure reality, and one cannot honestly assume that they were all deluded or mere victims of the prejudices of their time.
The battle against the spirit of evil is won as Jesus won it in the wilderness: by striking with the word of God.
You see that Jesus does not talk with the devil, He never talked with the devil.
He either casts him out or he condemns him, but he never talks to him.
And in the desert he does not answer with his word, but with the word of God.
Brothers, sisters, never talk to the devil when you are tempted: “this would be nice, that would be nice” – stop. Raise your heart to the Lord, pray to Our Lady and cast him out as Jesus taught us. Saint Peter also suggests another means that Jesus did not need, but we do – vigilance. “Be sober, be vigilant. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour” (1 Pt 5:8).
And Saint Paul tells us: “Give the devil no opportunity” (Eph 4:27).
After Christ, on the cross, had forever defeated the power of the “ruler of this world” ( Jn 12:31), a Father of the Church said, “The devil is bound like a dog on a leash; he cannot bite anyone except those who, despite the danger, come close to him. He can bark, he can urge, but he can only bite those who want it”. If you are a fool and you go to the devil and say, “Ah, how are you?”, and everything, he will ruin you. The devil – distance. One does not converse with the devil. One banishes him. Distance.
And all of us, everyone, we have experience of how the devil approaches with some temptation.
The temptation of the ten commandments: when we feel this, we stop, we keep your distance: we do not approach the chained dog.
Modern technology, for example, in addition to the many positive resources that are to be appreciated, also offers countless opportunities to “give the devil his chance”, and many fall into the trap.
Think of online pornography, which has a thriving market behind it: we all know about it. The devil is at work there. And it is a very widespread phenomenon that Christians should be wary of and strongly reject. Because every smartphone has access to this brutality, to this language of the devil: online pornography.
The awareness of the devil’s action in history should not discourage us. The final thought, also in this case, must be one of trust and security: “I am with the Lord, be gone”. Christ overcame the devil and gave us the Holy Spirit to make His victory our own. The very action of the enemy can be turned to our advantage if, with God’s help, we use it for our purification. Let us therefore ask the Holy Spirit, in the words of the hymn Veni Creator: “Drive far away our wily Foe, And Thine abiding peace bestow; If Thou be our protecting Guide, No evil can our steps betide”.
Beware, the devil is astute – but we Christians, with God’s grace, are more astute than him. Thank you.
