Brothers in Arms, Part 4

Understanding the devil's true end-game

01/30/2024

Now that we have gazed through the eyes of the good angels, we don the eyes of the fallen angels and dare to see their wicked world. In particular, I want to say a word about the practice of exorcisms and Satan’s real strategy toward human beings. Rv 12:9 explains that the devil is “the deceiver of the whole world,” and one of his best deceptions is not using satanic possessions that require an exorcism. But that is typically how we believe the devil routinely deals with us, and that is exactly what he wants us to think. In other words, the devil deceives us by making us think one thing while he does something different. Let me explain the devil’s true mindset. I saw a funny little meme some time ago that observed: “Everyone makes fun of the Catholic Church until they have a demon in their house.” Besides its value as humor, this meme also conveys an important truth, namely, demonic possessions drive people closer to God and to his Church.

Have you ever seen the movie “The Exorcist”? How did you feel after seeing that movie? Most sane people feel an intense desire to find the first Catholic priest they can, make a sincere confession, and start attending daily Mass, right? Now, if that is the effect left on people who experience a demonic possession – make them fly to God – do you think the devil is really that dumb to use possession that often? No. Demonic possession is not the devil’s first or best trick; it is his desperate, last resort. It is like trying to put out an oil fire by using dynamite. The explosion from the dynamite will either completely extinguish the fire or it will cause it to rage entirely out of control. Satan take a great risk when he tries to possess a person.

Every week we receive at least one or two phone calls at the church office from random people who want a priest to come bless their house because they believe it has evil spirits. Or, people want to see a priest and receive an exorcism because they feel they are personally possessed by a demon. Now, I have no doubt that the devil sometimes possesses people and evil spirits can inhabit homes. Such instances are clearly recorded in the Scriptures. Furthermore, every diocese designates one priest as the official diocesan exorcist to deal precisely with such situations. But again, I am confident this is not the devil’s first – or even frequent – move on the chessboard of life to conquer our souls. After all, these people (mostly not Catholic) who believe they are possessed just called the Catholic Church for help. If herding people to the Church is the devil’s best move, it has just backfired on him.

So, my advice to people who feel they may possibly be possessed is to rule out natural causes first. This is a principle called “Occam’s Razor” developed in the Middle Ages which advocates the simplest solution is the more likely answer, rather than moving immediately to more complex explanations. That is, you should rule out natural causes for symptoms of a demonic possession, like psychosomatic illnesses, paranoia, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, etc., before jumping to the spiritual or supernatural causes like the devil. So, I normally recommend a visit to the primary care physician or to the Emergency Room. Let’s rule out any physical or psychic anomalies first before we explore possible spiritual ones.

My second suggestion is to avail themselves of the already existing and enormously powerful sacramental remedies the Church offers. That is, if you are not Catholic, learn about Catholicism through the RCIA classes and receive the sacraments of initiation (Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist). Then start living a life of virtue, prayer, and love of the poor. These sacraments and spiritual exercises are the nuclear weapons in a Christian’s arsenal against the devil. No demon stands a chance against such a supernatural onslaught. But there is a good reason television commercials constantly woo customers with a new diet pill or thirty-day program to help them lose weight, whereas every respectable doctor will insist that healthy weight loss is a matter of diet and exercise. We all seek the shortcut rather than travel the long, hard road. In other words, what lies at the root of an exorcism or demonic possession is not some magic incantation with holy water and Latin prayers that automatically drives the devil away. The real heart of the matter is the choice a human being makes to serve God and neighbor or to turn to the service of Satan and become his slave. That willing slavery is the devil’s real end-game and therefore possessing people unwillingly is counter-productive.

In 1942, C. S. Lewis composed one of his most creative and popular books called The Screwtape Letters. Every chapter is essentially one letter written by a senior devil named “Screwtape” to a younger demon-in-training, named “Wormwood,” who also happens to be Screwtape’s nephew. In his Preface, Lewis reveals the devil’s deepest intentions, writing: There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight (The Screwtape Letters, ix). In other words, a balanced Christian perspective would avoid treating an exorcism as a cure-all for every ache and pain we suffer. On the other hand, it would not forget that at times even the devil can get desperate and employ a frontal attack instead of sneaking into the fortress unnoticed, like the famous Trojan Horse, hiding enemy soldiers inside. Just like the Trojan Horse was the only way to successfully attack the impregnable city of Troy, so the devil uses deception and a back door to enter our lives.

May I share with you Satan’s far more successful strategy to enslave us? It is to tempt us with money, sex, and power. Have you ever felt the allure and fallen to the temptation of money, sex, and power? Don’t worry, I have too. And so too did the Israelites in Exodus 32:4. The Israelites were encamped at the foot of Mt. Sinai while Moses had gone up the mountain to receive the Ten Commandments. But being long delayed, the people became impatient and demanded that Aaron fashion another god for them. We read: “[Aaron] received the gold at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, and made a molten calf.” In other words, this golden calf symbolized money in its gold, sex in its youthful virility, and power because it was a bull. To be sure, money, sex, and power are good in themselves. But Satan’s real play is to entice us to use these goods either to excess or defect and thereby make us addicted to them and ultimately to him. Screwtape teaches this particular lesson to Wormwood in Letter 9 instructing: Never forget that when we are dealing with any pleasure [such as money, sex, or power] in its healthy and normal and satisfying form, we are, in a sense, on the Enemy’s [God’s] grounds…All we can do is to encourage the humans to take the pleasures which our Enemy has produced, at times, or in ways, or in degrees which He has forbidden (The Screwtape Letters, 44). That is, Satan catches far more human fish when he baits his hook with disordered pleasures than with demonic possessions.

By way of conclusion, perhaps we can summarize our findings in this brief study on the angels. We began with an explanation of how angels originally ranked higher than humans on the hierarchy of being. But we also addressed the stubborn objection raised by scientism and materialism which are like blinders that are helpful for horses, but harmful for humans. Second, we reviewed the ranking of angels, how they are created simultaneously as soldiers but also singers, and how a civil war caused the loss of a third of the angels to Satan’s camp. Third, we watched how this angelic civil war engulfed mankind, and how the Christ event not only freed us from slavery but catapulted us to the status of divine sonship. And fourth we tried to unmask Satan’s real strategy with regard to humans, not as demonic possessions primarily, but rather in the world’s oldest profession, a euphemism for prostitution, one of the three temptations hidden inside the devil’s Trojan Horse. Satan’s success rate is far higher when he uses money, sex, and power than Hollywood stunts like a demonic possession. Once we look at reality through the eyes of the angels – the good and the bad – we can see more clearly how God fashioned his creation (both the visible and the invisible), what were his high hopes for man and woman (to be sons not slaves), and how the good angels serve us while the evil angels deceive us. And all this begins by getting out of bed at 4 a.m. because our guardian angel wakes us up.

Praised be Jesus Christ!