Destroying the Devil
Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
The devil is real. He is a fallen angel and personifies the corruption of the angelic essence. Because of this, his fall is so thorough, there is no repentance for him. Repentance isn’t possible for an angel.
Behind the disobedient choice of our first parents lurks a seductive voice, opposed to God, which makes them fall into death out of envy. Scripture and the Church's Tradition see in this being a fallen angel, called "Satan" or the "devil". (CCC 391)
We know from Scripture and Sacred Tradition that satan was at first an angel created good, and that he and the other demons became evil by their own doing, i.e. their decision to revolt against God. We also know from Scripture that only one third of all the created angels chose to become demons.
It was the evil one that orchestrated the temptation of our first parents. Even in their sin, however, God did not leave mankind orphaned to destruction. In the Book of Genesis, we have the Protoevangelium: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; They will strike at your head, while you strike at their heel” (Genesis 3:15). This is called the Proto-Evangelium to mean the “First Gospel.” It was the first announcement of God’s salvific work in fallen man’s life.
The Hebrew scholars who worked at translating Genesis into Greek in the 3rd century BC all unanimously understood that this text spoke of a future redeemer who would come to destroy the works of the evil one in binding mankind in sin and death. The text also points out how he will be wounded in His battle with the serpent. The words “you will strike its heel,” is a Semitic expression meaning to "do violence to, or to wound.” The foretold redeemer will crush the head of the Serpent: “he will bruise/crush your head.” This is yet another Semitic expression for “striking a mortal wound.”
God says that He will send someone who will be the seed of a woman. This is yet another peculiarity. The Scriptures always speak of the seed of the man. The Hebrew Toledoth always tracks genealogy from the father. That God would say this is odd. Unless it is fulfilled in the messiah-redeemer being born of a virgin woman, thereby being truly the seed of the woman.
Simply put, God was saying to the serpent that He would send a redeemer who would be born of a virgin woman who would destroy the evil one, but in the process, the redeemer Himself would be harmed/injured/killed.
The Psalmist, ever cognizant of this connection, understands that man is only a slave when he is bound to sin and evil. He is only free when he is living a life of virtue. So when he says, “… He will redeem Israel from all its sins” (Psalm 130:8), it is because this is the great deliverance of man from the evil one. Once sin and death are destroyed, evil has no hold on the soul and life of man!
Christ became man to embrace the fallen human nature and to take on the weight of that slavery without ever being a slave to sin Himself. “He went before without sin, that He may blot out the sins of those that follow Him...” (St. Augustine of Hippo). This is why we can trust in Him. Because He didn’t just come to die for us, He took our very lives up with Him on the Cross. Now, our every suffering and pain has eternal value because evil does not have the final say, God does! “For this momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,” (2 Cor 4:17).
The language that Paul uses for glory is the Greek word δόξα (doxa) which is translated from the Hebrew word, כָּבוֹד (kabod). The term ‘kabod’/glory in the Old Testament is used to describe the visible manifestation of God’s presence among the people of Israel. Typically this would be in the form of the Shekinah cloud of glory. Kabod also means “heavy,” and is translated as “gloria” in Latin.
The biblical authors often saw this “weight of glory” as connected to being heavy with riches (Isaiah 10:3 is one such example). The term kabod also almost always had a reference to the glory of God in the temple of Jerusalem. This was particularly above the mercy seat. The mercy seat was the lid of the ark of the covenant. The premise was that this would be where the Lord would sit upon and reign over Israel. The mercy seat was perceived to be place where the Lord dwelled, and the place from where the Lord dispensed His benevolent mercy toward Israel. Israel experienced the richness of YHWH’s mercy as a heavy, infinitely flowing gift of God. This imagery is what led to the belief that the glory of the Lord would fill the temple, not just with His divine presence but also His mercy.
God’s mercy upon mankind stands as the judgment against the evil one. Christ became the living incarnation of the mercy of the Father for mankind. Hence, Christ’s entire ministry, culminating upon the Cross, was the great manifestation of the mercy of God and His judgement against satan. Hence, Christ says, “now is the time of judgment on this world; now the ruler of this world* will be driven out. And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself” (John 12:31-32). As Christ is lifted high on the Cross, this great tool of death became for all mankind the wondrous instrument of salvation and redemption, and for the devil and his demons, the Cross becomes the great instrument of their judgment and the sign of their final condemnation.
In the Gospel of Mark, Christ teaches that “No one can enter a strong man’s house to plunder his property unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can plunder his house” (Mark 3:27). Christ, in His death on the Cross has bound up the “strong man” that is the devil. Christ has assured his destruction. The devil has already lost. the kingdom of evil has already been defeated. Jesus Christ is King over Heaven and earth. Ours is now the great honor of proclaiming Christ’s victory to all those who are still in the bondage of satan who need to hear the Good News. This is the essence of the Gospel! What satan did in Eden, Christ defeated and triumphed over on Calvary. We have infinite cause for rejoicing! The evil one has been destroyed; We have been set free.
Deus Benedicat