The devil is a great liar. Don’t talk to him or even get close. He tries to seduce and like a chained rabid dog, if you caress him, he bites.
According to Vatican News, Pope Francis stressed this during his daily morning Mass at Casa Santa Marta as he reflected on the figure of the devil who is not dead, but “has already been condemned” as said in today’s Gospel of today’s Liturgy, taken from John (Jn 16: 5-11).
Fighting and overcoming temptations, the Pope reminded, requires being on guard, praying and fasting.
We must be attentive to the devil, the Pontiff underscored, as he “seduces us, knows how to touch our vanity, curiosity and we buy everything,” that is “we fall into temptation” and suffer “a dangerous defeat.”
Beware, the Pope warned, of the devil’s seduction.
“The devil is a seducer,” Francis reminded, saying, he “knows what words to tell us” and this is dangerous as “we like to be seduced.”
“He has this ability; this ability to seduce. This is why it is so difficult to understand that he is a loser, because he presents himself with great power, promises you many things, brings you gifts – beautiful, well wrapped – -‘Oh, how nice!’ – but you do not know what’s inside – ‘But, the card outside is beautiful.’ The package seduces us without letting us see what’s inside. He can present his proposals to our vanity, to our curiosity.”
His light, Francis said, is dazzling, but it vanishes.
The devil who ‘is very dangerous,’ the Pope admitted, presents himself with all his power, yet “his proposals are all lies.” “We, fools,” he said, “believe.” Stressing the devil “is the great liar, the father of lies,” the Pope noted, “He can speak well,” “is able to sing to deceive.”
“He is a loser but moves like a winner,” whose light is dazzling, “like a firework” but does not last and fades, whereas the Lord’s is “mild but permanent.”
“If I know that spiritually if I approach that thought, if I approach that desire, if I go that way or the other, I am approaching the angry and chained dog. Please do not do it. ‘I have a big wound …’ – ‘Who did it?’ – ‘The dog’ – ‘But he was chained?’ – ‘Oh yes, I went to give him a caress’ – ‘But you are sought. ‘It’s like this: never approach …. Let him chained there.”
Do not converse with the devil
Finally, we must be careful not to dialogue with the devil as Eve did. Jesus does not dialogue in the desert, but rather responds with the Word of God. He hunts the demons, sometimes he asks for his name but does not make a dialogue with them. The Pope’s exhortation is therefore very clear: “With the devil he does not dialogue, because he wins us, he is smarter than us”.
Noting the devil disguises himself, the Pope said: “He is a convict, he is a loser, he is chained and about to die, but he is capable of making massacres. And we must pray, do penance, do not approach, do not talk to him. And in the end, go to the mother, like children. When the children are afraid, they go to the mother: ‘Mom, mom … I’m scared!’ When they have dreams … they go to their mothers.
“Go to the Madonna; she guards us. And the Fathers of the Church, especially the Russian mystics, say: in the time of spiritual turmoil, take refuge under the mantle of the great Mother of God. Go to the Mother. May she help us in this fight against the defeated, against the chained dog to win it.”
