We Fear Nothing With Christ, Says Father Cantalamessa
FREE Catholic Classes
Pontifical Household Preacher Comments on Sunday's Gospel
ROME, FEB. 13, 2005 (Zenit) - In his commentary on the Gospel of the first Sunday of Lent, Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa, the preacher of the Pontifical Household, alerts the faithful about the devil's action and reminds them that Christ has conquered him.
* * *
Matthew (4:1-11)
"Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry. The tempter approached and said to him, 'If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread.' He said in reply, 'It is written: 'One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.'' Then the devil took him to the holy city, and made him stand on the parapet of the temple, and said to him, 'If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written: 'He will command his angels concerning you' and 'with their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone.'' Jesus answered him, 'Again it is written, 'You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.'' Then the devil took him up to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence, and he said to him, 'All these I shall give to you, if you will prostrate yourself and worship me.' At this, Jesus said to him, 'Get away, Satan! It is written: 'The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve.'' Then the devil left him and, behold, angels came and ministered to him."
Today the devil, Satanism, and other related phenomena, are gaining momentum and this is very disturbing. Our technological and industrialized world is overrun with wizards, witches, occultism, spiritualism, voluble fortune tellers, vendors of spells and amulets, as well as authentic Satanic sects. Thrown out the door, the devil has come back in through the window. That is, expelled from faith he has returned with superstition.
The episode of Jesus' temptations in the desert helps to clarify matters. First of all, does the devil exist? Does the word devil really indicate a personal reality, gifted with intelligence and will or is he only a symbol, a way of speaking to indicate the sum of the moral evil of the world, the collective unconscious, collective alienations, etc.? Among intellectuals, many do not believe in the devil understood in the first sense.
But we must note that great writers and thinkers, such as Goethe and Dostoyevsky, took the existence of Satan very seriously. Charles Baudelaire, who was certainly not of the race of saints, said that "the devil's greatest cunning is to make people believe he doesn't exist." The principal proof in the Gospels of the devil's existence is not in the numerous episodes of exorcism of the possessed, because the interpretation of these events might have been influenced by beliefs on the origin of these illnesses. The real proof is in the saints!
And Jesus, who was tempted in the desert by the devil, is the obvious confirmation of it. Proofs also are the many saints who fought in life with the prince of darkness. They are not "Don Quixotes" who fought against windmills. On the contrary, they are very concrete men of very sound psychology.
If many find it absurd to believe in the devil it is because they base themselves on books, spend their lives in libraries or at a desk, while the devil is not interested in books, but in people, especially saints. What can someone know about Satan who has never had anything to do with the reality of Satan, but only with the idea of him, namely, with cultural, religious, ethnological traditions about Satan? They usually address the topic with great certainty and superiority, dispatching it all as "Medieval obscurantism."
But it is a false certainty. As someone who boasts of not being at all afraid of a lion, adducing as proof that he has seen many paintings and photographs of lions which have never terrified him.
We ask you, humbly: don't scroll away.
Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! It's a little awkward to ask, but we need your help. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $14.76 and fewer than 1% of readers give. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. Thank you.Help Now >
Moreover, it is all together normal and consistent that someone who doesn't believe in God doesn't believe in the devil either. It would even be tragic if someone who doesn't believe in God believes in the devil! The most important thing that the Christian faith has to tell us is not, however, that the devil exists, but that Christ has conquered the devil. Christ and the devil are not for Christians two equal and opposing princes. Jesus is the only Lord. Satan is only a "ruined" creature. If he is granted power over men it is so that men will have the possibility to make a free choice, and also so that they will not "become proud" believing that they are self-sufficient and not in need of a redeemer.
"Old Satan is crazy," says a Negro spiritual. "He shot me to destroy my soul, but missed and destroyed my sin instead." With Christ, we have nothing to fear. Nothing and no one can harm us, if we ourselves don't will it. Satan, said an early Father of the Church, after the coming of Christ, is like a dog tied to a pole: he can bark and hurl himself as much as he likes, but if we don't get close to him, he cannot bite. Jesus in the desert freed himself from Satan to free us from Satan! This is the joyful news with which we begin our Lenten journey.
Contact
Catholic Online
https://www.catholic.org
CA, US
Catholic Online - Publisher, 661 869-1000
info@yourcatholicvoice.org
Keywords
Christ, Jesus, Fear, Cantalamessa, Devil, Faith, Gospel
More Catholic PRWire
Showing 1 - 50 of 4,716
A Recession Antidote
Randy Hain
Monaco & The Vatican: Monaco's Grace Kelly Exhibit to Rome--A Review of Monegasque-Holy See Diplomatic History
Dna. Maria St. Catherine Sharpe, t.o.s.m., T.O.SS.T.
The Why of Jesus' Death: A Pauline Perspective
Jerom Paul
A Royal Betrayal: Catholic Monaco Liberalizes Abortion
Dna. Maria St.Catherine De Grace Sharpe, t.o.s.m., T.O.SS.T.
Embrace every moment as sacred time
Mary Regina Morrell
My Dad
JoMarie Grinkiewicz
Letting go is simple wisdom with divine potential
Mary Regina Morrell
Father Lombardi's Address on Catholic Media
Catholic Online
Pope's Words to Pontifical Latin American College
Catholic Online
Prelate: Genetics Needs a Conscience
Catholic Online
State Aid for Catholic Schools: Help or Hindrance?
Catholic Online
Scorsese Planning Movie on Japanese Martyrs
Catholic Online
2 Nuns Kidnapped in Kenya Set Free
Catholic Online
Holy See-Israel Negotiation Moves Forward
Catholic Online
Franchising to Evangelize
Catholic Online
Catholics Decry Anti-Christianity in Israel
Catholic Online
Pope and Gordon Brown Meet About Development Aid
Catholic Online
Pontiff Backs Latin America's Continental Mission
Catholic Online
Cardinal Warns Against Anti-Catholic Education
Catholic Online
Full Circle
Robert Gieb
Three words to a deeper faith
Paul Sposite
Relections for Lent 2009
chris anthony
Wisdom lies beyond the surface of life
Mary Regina Morrell
World Food Program Director on Lent
Catholic Online
Moral Clarity
DAN SHEA
Pope's Lenten Message for 2009
Catholic Online
A Prayer for Monaco: Remembering the Faith Legacy of Prince Rainier III & Princess Grace and Contemplating the Moral Challenges of Prince Albert II
Dna. Maria St. Catherine Sharpe
Keeping a Lid on Permissiveness
Sally Connolly
Glimpse of Me
Sarah Reinhard
The 3 stages of life
Michele Szekely
Sex and the Married Woman
Cheryl Dickow
A Catholic Woman Returns to the Church
Cheryl Dickow
Modernity & Morality
Dan Shea
Just a Minute
Sarah Reinhard
Catholic identity ... triumphant reemergence!
Hugh McNichol
Edging God Out
Paul Sposite
Burying a St. Joseph Statue
Cheryl Dickow
George Bush Speaks on Papal Visit
Catholic Online
Sometimes moving forward means moving the canoe
Mary Regina Morrell
Action Changes Things: Teaching our Kids about Community Service
Lisa Hendey
Easter... A Way of Life
Paul Spoisite
Papal initiative...peace and harmony!
Hugh McNichol
Proclaim the mysteries of the Resurrection!
Hugh McNichol
Jerusalem Patriarch's Easter Message
Catholic Online
Good Friday Sermon of Father Cantalamessa
Catholic Online
Papal Address at the End of the Way of the Cross
Catholic Online
Cardinal Zen's Meditations for Via Crucis
Catholic Online
Interview With Vatican Aide on Jewish-Catholic Relations
Catholic Online
Pope Benedict XVI On the Easter Triduum
Catholic Online
Holy Saturday...anticipation!
Hugh McNichol