Here is how Satan moves his clutches

Division - In Greek the word devil means divider, he who divides, dia-bolos. So Satan by nature divides him. Jesus also said that he came to earth to divide. So Satan wants to divide us from the Lord, from his will, from the word of God, from Christ, from the supernatural good, and therefore from salvation. Instead, Jesus wants to divide us from evil, from sin, from satan, from damnation, from hell.

Both, the devil and Christ, Christ and the devil, have precisely this intention of dividing, the devil from God and Jesus from satan, the devil from salvation and Jesus from damnation, the devil from Heaven and Jesus from hell. But this division that Jesus came to bring to earth, Jesus even wanted to bring about the ultimate consequences, since the division from evil, sin, the devil and damnation, this division must also be preferred to the division from dad , from mom, from brothers.

It must not happen that in order not to divide from the father or mother, from the brothers and sisters, you must divide yourself from God. The division must have no motivation, even the strongest human one, that is, communion in the blood: dad, mom, brothers , sisters, dear friends. This example Jesus brought him in the Gospel to make us convince that no reason should make us divide by the Lord, by the will of God, by the word of God, by salvation, even if we must divide from the father, the mother, the dearest people when this union it can lead to division from Jesus.

In the Gospel there is another profound thought: if Jesus brought this motivation - I would say this division humanly absurd - he wanted to underline this his thought: that is the division that Satan wants, that is the division from Heavenly Father and Jesus, this division from eternal salvation, he must not find in us any motivation to be justified; because Jesus has such great love that he died on the cross to unite us again to Heavenly Father, to his will, to the word of God, to salvation, to the glory of Heaven. He had great anguish until he accomplished this mystery of our salvation.

What does it mean? In a certain sense he divided himself from the Father, he descended from Heaven on earth, he divided himself from the Mother whom he entrusted to John, from his loved ones, from everyone and everything, he made himself a sin. He split from everything and set an example of how he accomplished this division. The fourth thought is this: we who are those who believe in Christ, have as their program of life the division from satan, and from the atheist and materialistic world, that is, the division from excessive attachment to the goods of this world, to those pleasures of the flesh that the Commandments do not allow to enjoy, and to the pride of life: our Egocentrism.

We, as a Christian vocation, as a program of life, must radically divide ourselves from the world that hates Christ, for which we also hate; and therefore we must divide from satan. We keep this division and keep in mind the Crucified - Risen Jesus who gave us the example: at the cost of dividing us from everything and everyone in order to remain united and faithful with Christ and with Heavenly Father. We must be united firmly for the purpose of our Christian vocation: to be able to love our neighbor with the testimony of our faith. Let's delve into the mystery of attachment to evil in the light of the word of God.

"Why is he who is mighty glory in malice?" Observe, my brother, the glory of malice is the glory of wicked men, who make division from Christ their pride. They despise everything they know about religion and morality. What is this glory? Why does the mighty glory in wickedness? More precisely: why does he who is powerful in wickedness glory? We must be powerful, but in goodness, not in malice. In fact, we must also love our enemies, we must do good to all. To sow the grain of good works, to cultivate the harvest, to wait until it ripens, to rejoice in the fruit: the eternal life for which we worked, is of few; set the whole fire on fire with one match, anyone can do it instead.

Having a child, once born, feeding it, educating it, leading it to a young age, is a great undertaking; while it only takes a moment to kill him and any demented person can do it. Because when it comes to destroying the commitments and values ​​of Christianity it's easy. "Who glory, glory in the Lord": who glory, glory in goodness. It is easy to give in to temptation, instead it is difficult to reject it out of obedience to Christ. Read what St. Augustine says: Instead you glory because you are powerful in evil. What will you do, O mighty, what will you do to boast like this? Are you going to kill a man? But this can also be done by a scorpion, a fever, a poisonous mushroom. Therefore, all your power boils down to this: to be like that of a poisonous mushroom? On the contrary, here is what the good people do, the citizens of heavenly Jerusalem, who glory not in malice, but in goodness.

First of all they glory not in themselves, but in the Lord. Furthermore, what they do for building purposes, they do it diligently, taking an interest in things that have lasting value. That if they do something where there is destruction, they do it to build up the imperfect, not to oppress the innocent. If therefore that earthly structure is related to an evil power, why won't he want to listen to those words: Why does he who is powerful glory in malice? (St. Augustine). The sinner carries in his heart his punishment for his sins. In iniquity all day he tries to extort pleasure from his sin. He never tires of thinking, desiring and taking advantage of all the favorable opportunities to act, without interval, without pause. When it is engaged in something, and especially when it should reveal its iniquity, it is present and works in its heart. When he does not reach the conclusion of his infamous plans, he curses and blasphemes.

In the family he is taciturn, if asked something, he gets angry; if the husband or wife tries to insist, he becomes bad, sometimes violent and dangerous. This man, this woman, must expect the punishment that comes from his evil deeds. The greatest punishment, however, feels in the heart, he is the punishment of himself. The fact that he becomes intractable and bad is the clear manifestation that his heart is restless, he is an unhappy, he is desperate. The loyalty and serenity of those close to him annoys and irritates him. The punishment of what he is doing takes him inside. Despite his efforts, he cannot hide his uneasiness. God does not threaten him, he abandons him to himself. "I abandoned him to Satan to repent on the last day," writes Saint Paul of a believer who wanted to continue being dirty.

So the devil thinks about tormenting him by making him continue on that road that takes him lower and lower, up to exasperation and despair. St. Augustine says further: To harden harden with him, you would like to throw him to the beasts; but abandoning it to itself is worse than giving it to beasts. The beast, in fact, can tear his body apart, but he will not be able to leave his heart without wounds. In his interior he is raging against himself, and would you like to get him external wounds? Rather pray to God for him to be freed from himself. (commentary on the Psalms). I have not found a prayer for the wicked or even against the wicked. The only thing we can and must do is to forgive if we are the offended; and to invoke upon them the mercy of God, in the sense that we must ask the Lord that the punishment that they have procured for themselves, leads them to conversion to Christ to obtain forgiveness and peace.
by Don Vincenzo Carone

Source: papaboys.org