Today's gospel features Jesus and his battle with Satan.

A Haitian parable is told of a man who wanted to sell his house for $2,000. Another man wanted very badly to buy it; but, because he was poor, he couldn't afford the full price. After much bargaining, the owner agreed to sell the house for half the original price with just one stipulation: He'd retain ownership of one small nail protruding over the door. After several years, the original owner wanted the house back; but, the new owner was unwilling to sell. So the first owner hung the carcass of a dead dog from the nail he still owned. Soon the house became unlivable and the family was forced to sell the house to the owner of the nail.

The point of the parable is simple. If we leave the devil one small area of our life, he'll return to hang his rotting garbage on it, making it unfit for Christ to live in our lives.

The Existence of the Devil

Some, perhaps many Christians and, I assume, New Agers do not believe in a personal force of evil that we call the devil or Satan. In a General Audience in November 1973, the late Pope Paul VI had this to say about the existence of the devil.

"One of our greatest needs is our defense from the evil which is called the Devil . . . We know that this dark and disturbing spirit really exists, and that he still acts with treacherous cunning; he is the secret enemy that sows errors and misfortunes in human history . . . The question of the devil and the influence that he can exert on individual persons, as well as on communities and whole societies, is a very important chapter of Catholic doctrine.

The Work of the Devil

In general we can say that the work of the devil is to destroy, destroy and destroy. To destroy our relationship with God, to destroy relationships between nations, between ethnic groups, between churches, religions, to destroy the unity within the church, in parishes, marriages and families, finally, to destroy our sense of self worth. If the work of the Holy Spirit is to build up and create unity between nations, churches, families etc., the work of Satan and his legions of devils is to do the very opposite.

Where Does Satan Operate?

Where is Satan's field of activity? His primary field of activity is in individuals and groups that seek to promote faith in God, in Jesus, that promote justice, peace, truth and goodness. If we believe this, then we can assume that Satan sends his top lieutenants to places like the Vatican, Chancery offices, retreat houses, parishes, the White House, the State Department, the Pentagon, the Supreme High Court and all lower courts. We can assume Satan is very active in CEO's offices, where decisions about the economy and environment are made.

Genesis 3:1 tells us that Satan (a fallen angel see Revelations 12) is the "most cunning of creatures". This means that he is a very smart cookie, smarter than any Harvard graduate, Pope John Paul, George Bush or even Osama bin Laden. He knows well their weaknesses and strengths and is able to exploit both for his own evil ends. He also knows our weaknesses and strengths and also exploits both for his own ends. He uses our tendencies to be proud, jealous, angry, unforgiving, greedy, promiscuous, controlling etc., etc., to hurt us and others, to tear down and hurt our relationships, communities and environments. He seeks to get us to misuse, overuse and under use our strengths. For example, I have some talent in the area of writing. God's plan is that I use this talent to communicate his truth and to inspire etc. Satan's desire is that I use this gift to communicate falsehoods, half-truths etc. His plan may be that I overuse this gift and neglect other duties or that I neglect this gift, convincing me that it is of no use to anyone.

Satan - A Liar

In John 8:44, Jesus says of the devil:

"Lying speech is his native tongue; he is a liar and the father of lies"

He deceived Adam and Eve in the garden. He tried to deceive Jesus in the desert. We can assume he wants to manipulate us into believing that God does not love us-especially during the tough times. "How could a loving God allow you or your loved ones to suffer this much. See, he really doesn't care about you", Satan whispers to us when we are vulnerable, depressed and discouraged.

Steals the Word of God

In Matthew 13:19, Jesus speaks of the devil as "stealing the word" of God that had been sown in our hearts, "stealing the word", an interesting phrase. How often have we heard a word that touched our heart and at the time we wanted to act on that word. But, hours or days later that inspiring word is gone and we have gone back to our old ways.

Satan can enter our hearts

In John 13:27, we read how Satan "entered the heart" of Judas, moving him to betray Jesus into the hands of sinful men. How awfully sad. We can be sure that Satan also wants to enter our hearts and move us to do all kinds of things that are contrary to the Word of God. For example, he wants to harden our hearts against those who have hurt us, telling us that they are little monsters and evil people, undeserving of our forgiveness. He wants to exploit to the full any tendency we have to be angry, moving us to use our anger in a very destructive way. As I already said, Satan is a very smart cookie and we need to have no doubts about his presence and activity in our world. Yet, we don't need to give him too much focus. Our eyes should be fixed on Jesus without us losing sight of the fact that Satan is our arch enemy. C.S. Lewis once said that Satan is equally happy when we exaggerate or minimize his presence in the world.