The Devil You Say?

Donald R. McClarey - Devil

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Considering all the extravagant evil in the world, I have always found it remarkable that so many people do not believe in the existence of Satan and his fallen angels. Pope Leo XIII foresaw this, which is why he gave us the prayer to Saint Michael. In 1942 CS Lewis in The Screwtape Letters wrote what may be an epitaph for the age in which we live:

When humans disbelieve in our existence we lose all the pleasing results of direct terrorism and we make no magicians. On the other hand, when they believe in us, we cannot make them materialists and skeptics. At least, not yet. I have great hopes that we shall learn in due time how to emotionalize and mythologize their science to such an extent that what is, in effect, a belief in us (though not under that name) will creep in while the human mind remains closed to belief in the Enemy. The “Life Force,” the worship of sex, and other aspects of psychoanalysis, may here prove useful. If once we can produce our perfect work — the materialist magician, the man, not using, but veritably worshiping, what he vaguely calls “Forces” while denying the existence of “spirits” — the end of the war will be in sight. But in the meantime we must obey orders.

Man without God is nothing, but prey for Satan. With God and Man united Satan is  impotent. Alexander Solzhenitsyn when asked why Communism seized power in Russia, said the following:

More than half a century ago, while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of older people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia: Men have forgotten God; that\’s why all this has happened.

Since then I have spent well-nigh fifty years working on the history of our Revolution; in the process I have read hundreds of books, collected hundreds of personal testimonies, and have already contributed eight volumes of my own toward the effort of clearing away the rubble left by that upheaval. But if I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous Revolution that swallowed up some sixty million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: Men have forgotten God; that\’s why all this has happened.

In the natural realm, nature abhors a vacuum. This is also true in the spiritual realm. If we do not have God to fill up our spiritual emptiness, there is another entity ever eager to attempt to usurp the place of God in our souls.

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3 thoughts on “The Devil You Say?”

  1. Pingback: Faith and Inclusion | St. John

  2. Excellent article, Donald. You made it very simple and clear to understand. Yes, “materialists and skeptics” we have become. I liked Father Barron’s video. Oh, accusers we have become, and scatterers. And the alibis we give bad behavior: psychological, environmental, the system needs to be changed, ad nauseam. What about sin and doing the works of the devil?
    Makes me think of G.K. Chesterton’s last words, “In the end it all comes down to a matter of light and darkness; and each must choose which side he is on.”

  3. Completely and totally agree. Science says there can’t be “nothing,” indeed. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, like Dylan said, “You gotta serve somebody.” Thank you for writing this Donald!

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