Stealing Lollipops

Seeing how Satan is always plagiarizing God

12/2/2023

Dn 7:2-14 In a vision I, Daniel, saw during the night, the four winds of heaven stirred up the great sea, from which emerged four immense beasts, each different from the others. The first was like a lion, but with eagle's wings. While I watched, the wings were plucked; it was raised from the ground to stand on two feet like a man, and given a human mind. The second was like a bear; it was raised up on one side, and among the teeth in its mouth were three tusks. It was given the order, "Up, devour much flesh." After this I looked and saw another beast, like a leopard; on its back were four wings like those of a bird, and it had four heads. To this beast dominion was given. After this, in the visions of the night I saw the fourth beast, different from all the others, terrifying, horrible, and of extraordinary strength; it had great iron teeth with which it devoured and crushed, and what was left it trampled with its feet.

One of my all-time favorite movies is “Hunt for Red October.” There is a little known scene when the president’s national security advisor is talking to Jack Ryan, the hero. In a very honest moment, the National Security Advisor admits: “Listen, I’m a politician, which means I am a cheat and a liar. And when I’m not kissing babies, I am stealing their lollipops.”

Now, to be sure I know lots of honorable and virtuous politicians, so not all politicians are a corrupt as the one in the movie. But it’s a real tragedy when a politician goes bad because we rightly expect more from our elected officials. We don’t want just good policies, we want good people in office.

Have you heard of the old Latin maxim, “Corruptio optimi pessima”? It means “the corruption of the best becomes the worst.” Or sometimes we say, “The higher they climb, the harder they fall.” For example, when a pope goes bad he doesn’t just go a little bad, he causes the Protestant Reformation.  When the highest angel Lucifer falls he doesn’t become some second-rate demon, he becomes the Prince of Demons.

And one of the ways Satan shows his corrupted nature is that he has no capital of his own, like the National Security Advisor said, he has to “steal lollipops.” In other words, all Satan can ever do is “steal” what God creates and distort its original beauty and goodness. The Devil never does anything original; he is a born plagiarist, a copy-cat.

In the first reading today we see Satan sort of “stealing lollipops” and plagiarizing God’s perfect creation. In Daniel 7 we hear of four evil beasts that come out of the sea. They take the form of a lion, a man, a bear, and a leopard. But these four earthly creatures are only cheap imitations of the four living creatures that Ezekiel sees in heaven. In Ezekiel 1:10, the prophet describes the four living creatures as a lion, a man, an ox, and an eagle.

In the New Testament, these four symbolic creatures would represent the four Gospels: the lion for St. Mark, the man for St. Matthew, the ox for St. Luke, and the eagle for St. John. In other words, all the Devil ever does is take God’s original masterpieces and duplicates and defaces them like graffiti on the Mona Lisa. He has not capital or currency of his own: “he’s a cheat and a liar, and when he’s not kissing babies, he’s stealing their lollipops.” The Devil doesn’t have his own lollipops.

Let me give you some modern examples of how all Satan can do is “steal” when he wants to commit sacrilege. Have you heard of the so-called “Black Mass”? It is a mockery of a Catholic Mass by mimicking the words and gestures of a priest but giving them diabolical meanings. But notice Satan does not “create” his own liturgy, he has to plagiarize God’s perfect Eucharist.

And a little more subtle stealing is when Satan tempts someone to get drunk and become an alcoholic, which is a mockery and mimicry of receiving the Precious Blood in the form of wine at Mass. Corruptio optimi, pessima: the corruption of the best – the Eucharist – becomes the worst that Satan can do.

This same kind of stealing of lollipops happens in sexual sins. How so? What sacred action if being copies and caricatured – blown out of proper proportion – in all sexual sins, like pornography, adultery, sex before marriage? The holiness of Marriage, which is consummated by the sexual relations of a husband and wife on their honeymoon. Is sexual sins we act like the four evil beasts of Daniel 7 rather than the four living creatures of Ezekiel 1, that is, we take what is holy and make it hideous. All Satan can do is “steal lollipops” because he has none of his own.

Here is another sacrament that Satan tries to sabotage, namely, confession. How does he corrupt the best here? Well, in confession we tell our deepest, darkest secrets to a priest. And every priest is bound under pain of excommunication to guard the seal of the confessional. That means we have to take everything we hear to the grave. And by the way that is pretty easy because men forget everything we hear.

And that is the real reason women cannot become priests: because you would remember everything you hear in confession. And how does Satan make a mockery of the seal of the confessional? Through the sin of gossip and slander, where we take other people’s secrets – which they might confide to us like a confession – and we broadcast them to the world. Satan never does anything original; he’s a plagiarist through and through.

My friends, remember the Latin phrase, “corruptio optimi pessima.” It doesn’t just refer to politicians and popes. It also refers to Satan, who always takes the best and tries to make it the worst. That is what is does because that is what he is: the greatest angel who became the worst devil. Satan is always just “stealing lollipops.”

Praised be Jesus Christ!