The purpose of lent as I understand it is repentance. Unlike what I used to think, that free will was a gift from God, it was a curse, which mankind choose when it decided it wanted the knowledge of good and evil. Man could have lived in blessed bliss of knowing only the good of God and the earth but decided that he wanted to be as God, eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The fact is how can one have actual free will if he or she does not even know evil? Every man and woman has the choice of whether they want to live forever in a place where everyone is following the word and desires of God or in a place where everyone is doing only what they desire, regardless of God and everyone else with them desires. A place of order and happiness where everyone cares, not only for themselves, but everybody else or a place where, if you desire, you can hurt each other, unfeelingly, unceasingly.
God has given us His Son – Jesus Christ, and His son’s Passion, to help us know God and if we want to spend an eternity with Him. If you believe what is said in the New Testament of the Bible (Matthew 28:20) Jesus Christ is with us always, with the Catholic Church forming his body continuously throughout the rest of time (1 Corinthians 12:17). Fortunately, each an everyone of us is given a dedicated guardian angel to help us, at least form the time of baptism and possibly when we are born. Unfortunately, so that we always have the free will of knowing the alternative to all our actions, God has allowed the devil to run loose in our world, and adversary we must fight, with the help of our guardian angel and thankfully our Lord Jesus Christ directly and through His One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church if we learn to pray.
The fact is, those at the very highest level of the church seemed to be infiltrated by masons, communists etc. as well as those that simply have the modernist heretical mindset. We must remember, according to the bible, we must adhere with the orthodox dogma and doctrine of Jesus Christ, given to us through his Apostles, passed down through the ages through His Church, we must adhere with only what GOD wants us to do (Galatians 1:8).
This quote considers the importance of the question of whether The Devil exists and exactly what does he do:
“ Dear reader, what are you actually doing on earth? You are journeying toward the house of your eternity, the door of which, at some turn of the way, death will throw open. To find in that new and final abode what your heart desires, HAPPINESS, religion, conscience, humanity, all warn you that you must “go about doing good,” as did the Man-God, our Master and our Model. The incomparable privilege of free-will was only given you to put you in the way of doing good. Are you convinced of this? – Assuredly. Is the practice of virtue honorable? – Evidently. Is the practice of virtue conformable to our true interests? – undoubtedly it is; under a just and good God, to do good is the sure and only means of attaining to true happiness. This all must admit; yet how does it happen that we so often commit evil, which brings us neither happiness nor real profit? Something or some one invites, solicits, entices us. The way of virtue is not always smooth and pleasant. It presents obstacles against which we may have to struggle. The kingdom of heaven – that is to say, a happy immortality – is the prize of exertion; the brave alone win it. The life of man on earth is a warfare. Either a soldier of virtue, with the hope of a Divine reward, or the slave of vice, under threat of Divine chastisement; there is nothing between.
Dear reader, I ask you not to which side your heart inclines. You reject with horror the slavery of vice; you are a soldier of virtue, a soldier of duty, a soldier of God. What is requisite for the soldier who would fain conquer? Courage. Yes, but courage alone is not sufficient: prudence is also required. Prudence demands that we apply ourselves to know our enemies, their relative strength, their tactics, the weapons they most dread – in a word, that we acquire that science, which, guiding courage, secures victory. Now, a voice which commands the attention even of those who, unhappily, ignore the infallible voice of God, the voice of Christianity, clearly indicates the several enemies of our souls. “Often,” it tells us, “you will find in yourselves, in human society, and even in the material world, incitements to infringe on duty.” But the principal sower of evil here below, the tempter most formidable, because the most skillful and the most active, is the reprobate spirit whom popular language, following the Gospel, calls the Devil; that is, the divider, the overthrower, the disperser, the destroyer. This great adversary once put to flight, the combat is mere play; if, on the other hand, he prevails, all is lost. He has made innumerable victims. You, yourself, shall one day increase the sad list, if you neglect the arms which Jesus Christ and His Church have prepared for you. By Jesus Christ you can resist, overcome, escape the gloomy kingdom of Satan, and receive, in heaven, the conqueror’s palm. Away from Jesus Christ, you are the sure prey of Satan.
Such is Catholic teaching. It sufficiently indicates that the question of the Devil is not only a curious question, but a practical question of the greatest importance.”
But in addition to the above quote we must remember the sentiment in the quote below from later in the book:
“ The present life is a conflict that lasts from dawn to night. What ever may be the number of his victories, the just man may still fall, if he cease to struggle; whatever may be the number of his defeats, the sinner may rise again, if, from the depth of his misery, he cries to God, his support. For death comes at last. And then? . . . Then? Say those spirits who, for some years, come so willingly to chat with the curious who listen to them – then? People shall begin a new life in a new sphere, where they shall be lodged according to their previous merits: and from that new hostelry, they shall pass on, by a new death, indefinitely to another. That if one sometimes turn away from God by disobedience, he need not be very much troubled, because Our Creator let us do what we may, must and will give us felicity. Those spirits know well what they are about. To say that evil shall remain unpunished, would be too much; it would horrify men! To say that the punishment shall be light and easy, is all that is necessary to make mankind, never much afraid of any purgatory whatsoever – putting off to some one of those numerous existences promised to it, the fulfilment of God’s commandments – always answer those who preach virtue: “To-morrow, to-morrow,.”.
Christianity, that teaching brought from heaven by a God, and attested by so many prophecies and miracles; Christianity, which, by the splendor of the proof of all kinds which it brought in support of the truth, made itself acceptable, in spite of the sacrifices it requires, by the Pagan and by the barbarian world; Christianity, which has withstood eighteen centuries of attack; Christianity, in which we must believe, if we believe in anything – Christianity maintains, against this renewal of the errors of India, of Pythagoras, the decree of the Apostle: “it is appointed for men once to die, and after this the judgement.” (Heb., 9:27).
God does not permit men to mock Him and imitate the scholar who says: “My master will punish me, I know; but, no matter, I am going to carry out my own notion; punishment will come after, and when it is over, I shall have got the better of the master; I shall have done my own will, and, in spite of his punishment, I shall have been the strongest.” The faculty of disobeying God, that is to say, of doing under the eyes of God, and with the power we hold from God, that which God forbids, is granted to intelligent beings for a time, in order that trial may be made, and merit acquired; but this astonishing position is not to last always; war between the Creator and the creature is not the normal state of creation. After having regarded the contest for some time, God says: “It is enough.” And death goes in search of the combatants, whom it brings before His judgement-seat. There, each one is judged and introduced into the house of his eternity.
What does the victorious Christian find in that house of eternity? A glory and a bliss which he shall enjoy in assured peace.
“He that hath an ear, let him hear what the spirit saith: to him that overcometh, I will give to eat of the tree of life which is in the paradise of my God. Behold, the Devil shall cast some of you into prison, that you may be tried. Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee the crown of life. To him that over cometh , I will give the hidden manna, a new name which no man knoweth, but he that receiveth it. . . .He that shall over come, shall be clothed in white garments, and I will confess his name before my father and before His angels. . . . He that shall overcome, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go out no more. . . . To him that shall overcome, I will grant to sit with me in my throne.” (Apoc., II and III)
God , whose infinite power is equaled by His infinite generosity, will not be sparing in the reward of the man who shall have fought the good fight; Himself will be the eternal joy of His faithful servant.
But what shall happen to him whom death shall surprise loaded with the chains of Satan, become through malice of through cowardice, the companion and slave of the revolted spirits? In vain will he allege the strength of his enemies. He had been enrolled under the banner of an ever-victorious Chief. An Apostle had told him: “Be subject to God, but resist the Devil, and he will fly from you.” (St. James, 4:7) Another Apostle had warned him that the sting of Satan must be opposed by the grace of Jesus Christ. (2 Cor., 12:7,9) It was sufficient for him to look around him and consider the just in their ways to know that a Liberator exists. He proffered the shame of a slothful bondage to the hardships of the fight. That which he chose of his own free will is now imposed upon him; he shall remain far form the God he has forsaken, far from the courageous soldiers of the Lord from whom he separated; he shall be banished to the lowest depths of creation with the masters he has preferred, because they favored his passions, to the God who, for him, died on a cross. There is the future of the willfully conquered.
And, in the lapse of ages an hour will come – the last – when all creation shall be summoned to hear the judgement of every creature pronounced. Then the Man-God shall appear surrounded by HIs faithful angels, and He shall say to the victorious: “Cone, ye blessed of my Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world.” And to the conquered: “Go, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the Devil and his angels.” Immediately, the last separation shall take place: the victors shall go into “life everlasting,” the conquered into “everlasting punishment.” (St. Matth., 25.)
Thenceforward, no more combatants; but the just rewarded and the wicked punished. The triumph of good over evil will be final, complete, eternal.”
The advice at the end of the book ends with the admonition to avoid things like seances, Ouija boards and trying to contact unknown spirits to elicit their help. Talking to spirits of saints and good angels such as Saint Micheal and your guardian angel are of course okay. But contacting unknown others for power and trying to benefit from witch craft is a door into the realm of demons which one should avoid at all costs. Do not be like Adam and Eve wishing the complete knowledge of good and evil, it will result in no good to you. In addition, before that, in the realm of everyday problems from the devil that menace us all on earth the author has this final advice:
“ Now, dear readers, we must conclude, The misfortune of most men is that they know not how to conclude. They hear a discourse, they read a book, and go to their business, or their pleasures without having asked themselves: “What is the result of this in relation to my personal conduct? What is the warning that Providence now gives me?”
The question of the Devil is not one of mere curiosity. The question is of a living enemy, powerful, present, dangerous, furious. You are reminded that he has caused the terrible, irremediable ruin of a multitude of your fellow -beings. You are warned, in particular, to avoid dark associations, inspired by him, mysterious operations, of which he himself (as often as jugglery is not the sole mover) is the invisible agent.
When flight is impossible, fight. Avoid more carefully even those trivial faults which make the Devil bolder and stronger against you; avoid, especially, mortal sin, which would deliver your soul to him. Never sleep, if you possibly can, in the captivity of Saten. Be on your guard against the love of riches, which fills his nets; the love of pleasure, which leads to idolatry; and pride, the father of all errors. Grieve not the Spirit of God. Watch, pray. Soon you shall repose in the triumphant peace of heaven.” The name of the book this is quoted from is “The Devil: Does He Exist? And What Does He Do?” By Father Delaporte and is published by Tan books and publishers, Inc. Rockford, Illinois 61105 copyright 1982.
Traditional Thomistic Catholic 