Sin and Temptation
01-08

If the devil were to write his beatitudes, they would probably go something like this:

1. Blessed are those who are too tired, too busy, too distracted to spend an hour once a week with their fellow Christians - they are my best workers.

2. Blessed are those Christians who wait to be asked and expect to be thanked - I can use them.

3. Blessed are the touchy who stop going to church - they are my missionaries.

4. Blessed are the trouble makers - they shall be called my children.

5. Blessed are the complainers - I'm all ears to them.

6. Blessed are those who are bored with the minister's mannerisms and mistakes - for they get nothing out of his sermons.

7. Blessed is the church member who expects to be invited to his own church - for he is a part of the problem instead of the solution.

8. Blessed are those who gossip - for they shall cause strife and divisions that please me.

9. Blessed are those who are easily offended - for they will soon get angry and quit.

10. Blessed are those who do not give their offering to carry on God's work - for they are my helpers.

11. Blessed is he who professes to love God but hates his brother and sister - for he shall be with me forever.

12. Blessed are you who, when you read this think it is about other people and not yourself - I've got you too!

- by Rod Benson

A priest that I met while studying for a certificate in Spiritual Direction is fond of saying that the devil only has two lies.

The first lie is that "you are not good enough," and the second lie is that "you are alone." All temptations boil down to these two lies. God though has promised that we can do all things with Him and that He is Emmanuel "God with us." Thus making the devil the "father of lies."

“Respect.” God has made us free and respects our freedom to chose his Kingdom or not. Now the Kingdom of God is not a mere abstraction. It has some very specific values and these values are realized and experienced perfectly in heaven. The values of the Kingdom of God include: Love, kindness, forgiveness, justice to the poor, generosity, humility, mercy, chastity, love of Scripture, love of the truth, worship of God, God at the center and so forth. Now the fact is that there are many people in our world who do not want a thing to do with chastity, or forgiveness, or being generous and so forth. And God will not force them to adopt and live these values. While it is true that everyone may want to go to heaven, heaven is not merely what we want, it is what it is, as God has set it forth. Heaven is the Kingdom of God and the values thereof in all their fullness. Hence there are some (many?) who live in such a way that they consistently demonstrate that they are not interested in heaven, since they are not interested in one or many of the Kingdom values. Hell “has to be” since God respects their freedom to live in this way. Since they demonstrate they do not wnat heaven, God respects their freedom to choose “other arrangements.” - Msgr. Charles Pope of the Diocese of Washington D.C.

“It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels,” observed Saint Augustine.

According to ancient Christian legend, God created the angels to worship and to serve Him. Then, after he had begun the creation of our world but before the creation of human beings, God granted the angels a vision not only of humankind but of the Christ. And God commanded the angels to serve humans and to worship the Christ.

To the angels, this was a strange command—that they, pure spirits, should so defer to beings lesser than themselves, creatures mingled with matter.

Now it happened that of all the angels God created, the most beautiful and most brilliant was Lucifer, the “light bearer.” This greatest of angels, immersed in his own brilliance and enamored of his own beauty, refused God’s command, declaring: “I will not serve!”

And so Lucifer and the angels who followed him were cast out from heaven, becoming the “bad angels” termed “devils.”*

“It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels,” observed Saint Augustine.

According to ancient Christian legend, God created the angels to worship and to serve Him. Then, after he had begun the creation of our world but before the creation of human beings, God granted the angels a vision not only of humankind but of the Christ. And God commanded the angels to serve humans and to worship the Christ.

To the angels, this was a strange command—that they, pure spirits, should so defer to beings lesser than themselves, creatures mingled with matter.

Now it happened that of all the angels God created, the most beautiful and most brilliant was Lucifer, the “light bearer.” This greatest of angels, immersed in his own brilliance and enamored of his own beauty, refused God’s command, declaring: “I will not serve!”

And so Lucifer and the angels who followed him were cast out from heaven, becoming the “bad angels” termed “devils.”*

There was a large group of people. On one side of the group stood a man, Jesus. On the other side of the group stood Satan. Separating them, running through the group, was a fence.

The scene set, both Jesus and Satan began calling to the people in the group and, one by one - each having made up his or her own mind - each went to either Jesus or Satan. This kept going. Soon enough, Jesus had gathered around him a group of people from the larger crowd, as did Satan.

But one man joined neither group. He climbed the fence that was there and sat on it. Then Jesus and his people left and disappeared. So too did Satan and his people. And the man on the fence sat alone.

As this man sat, Satan came back, looking for something which he appeared to have lost. The man said, "Have you lost something?" Satan looked straight at him and replied, "No, there you are. Come with me."

"But", said the man, "I sat on the fence. I chose neither you nor him."

"That's okay," said Satan. "I own the fence."

“There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, in the end, "Thy will be done." All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. Those who knock it is opened.” ― C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce

“What is hell? I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love.” 
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov