Satan Revisited

Satan Revisited….

In a traditional language that speaks of God and Satan or of Good and Evil, Satan is an embodiment of evil, and an agent in his own right.

I tend to think of all language as necessarily inexact when it is used to describe things beyond the experiential world – or, better, as free from the narrowness of meaning this-worldly understanding implies for it.

I think of evil as an aspect of human choices and actions, a failure to honor the sanctity of other human beings, as well as the abuse of creation with its inevitable human consequences.

In some contexts it may be useful to speak of these undeniable tendencies in us by personifying them and, in effect, externalizing them, but historically this has been dangerous and it has empowered Satan, so to speak.

Satan appears in the Book of Job to prepare the occasion for God’s overwhelming statement of his power when he speaks from the whirlwind.

The Paschal Mystery of our Lord put the whole struggle between God and Satan and between good and evil in a clearer perspective. Both the Passion and Death of the Lord and his resurrection show clearly the choices between the love for good and hatred for evil; and the choice for life even unto death that others thus become partakers of the resurrection with the Risen Lord.

BEWARE OF OUR CHOICES…!

Jun Mercado, OMI

Badaliyya – Philippines

October 14, 2018