Thursday, August 18, 2011

THE DEVIL....THE SIN....AND US....

Lucifer (Light-bearer) is one of the most gifted of all angels. Under his leadership, the sin of pride turned many of the angels away from God, and there rang through heaven the awful cry, "We shall not serve!"

And thus hell began. Because hell is, essentially, the eternal separation of a spirit from Almighty God. There was no second chance for the sinning angels. Because of the perfect clarity of their angelic minds and unhampered freedom of their angelic wills, even the infinite mercy of God could find no excuse for the sin of the angels. They understood what the full consequence of their sin would be. With them there was no "temptation," in the sense in which we ordinarily understand the word. Theirs was what we call a cold-blooded sin.....For them there was no turning back; they did not want to turn back. Their choice was made for eternity. There burns in them an everlasting hatred for God and all His works.

“Satan” is a Hebrew word which means “adversary” or the enemy of mankind. The devils possess a keenness of intellect and a power over nature such as is unknown to mere man. A devil is 100% evil, 100% hatred without even the faintest pinpoint of good anywhere in his being. 

But THE DEVIL CAN NEVER FORCE US TO COMMIT SIN. He cannot get inside the human soul and manipulate it to suit himself. He cannot destroy our freedom of choice. He cannot, so to speak, make us say "yes" when we really want to say "no."

There is no power on earth or in hell that can make us sin. We still have our free will. It is our choice – and no one can force that choice upon us. 

It is by conquering temptation that we acquire merit before God. It is through temptation, met and defeated, that we grow in holiness.

We shall not, of course, win our battles by ourselves. We must have God's help to reinforce our weakened wills....Frequent confession, frequent Holy Communion and prayer (particularly in time of temptation) will make us strong against any temptation - provided we do our part.  


- Excerpts from The Faith Explained 3rd edition 
by Leo J. Trese, a well-known Catholic apologist and spiritual writer 
(see also Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraph 391-395, 1849-1851)

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