On The Devil and Demons -

By Anthony Dryden

This is an independently submitted op-ed for our Quill section. Views and statements made in this article do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Tower.

As we enter into October, a month of frights, paranormal, and poltergeists, it is important to keep in mind the reality and ultimate folly of the demonic. As Catholics, we understand the truth behind the demons, and how all of their trickery pales in comparison to the power of Christ the King, from which they recoil. However, certain elements of society do not share our understanding of the demonic. We will analyze two countering strains of thought that can be problematic. The first is disbelief in the existence of the demonic. The second is an undue fascination with the demonic.

Let us begin with the denial. “The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he did not exist.” This famous quote from The Usual Suspects gives us great insight into those who do not believe in him or his demons, they have been fooled. For non-believing Christians, the Devil and demons are just a way of representing evil. For other more cynical nonbelievers, the demonic is a ploy to ensure adherence to doctrine. In a quest to loose themselves from the yoke of the Church, the nonbeliever has allowed the Devil and his minions to have greater reign in their lives via a willed ignorance.

For those fascinated by the demonic, the issue lies in a fundamental misunderstanding of freedom. For they see freedom as the right to do what you will. When in reality, as Pope Saint John Paul II tells us, “freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought.” The fascinated see the Devil and his demons as the original rebels, living for themselves and no one else. The heroic rebel idea of the Devil has been exacerbated in modern times by the misinterpretation of Milton’s Paradise Lost. Those fascinated by the demonic wish to live without restraint, praising the Devil for rebuking the ultimate authority, existing truly without any restraint, they believe.

The demons should not be praised in their rebellion, for it is contrary to nature and does them no good. Freedom does not consist in living for one’s self as the demons do. Freedom consists of doing right by our nature. The demons have broken from their nature. As the Catechism teaches, they “were indeed created naturally good by God, but they became evil by their own doing.” For humanity, freedom is the ability to live according to our nature, that is “to know, love, and to serve Him, and so to come to paradise.”

Suppose we humor the fascinated for a moment, disregarding arguments of nature. In what way are the Devil and demons free? The answer would be they serve no one. This is a lie, everyone serves something. In response, the fascinated would say the Devil and his demons serve themselves. And what does this self-service consist of? It consists of disobeying God and partaking in rampant debauchery. This self-service is in reality a self-destruction. The demons are not free, they are slaves to their passions, lacking the ability to lift themselves from the most base desires. The Devil himself is not free, doomed to be defeated by Christ. As Saint Augustine tells us in his City of God, “the mind of the demons is in subjection to the passions of desire, of fear, of anger, and the rest” (City of God 350).

As St. Augustine points out, anger is another way the Devil and his demons are not free. The Devil consumed by anger, understands that in our humanity we “are superior to him, are due greater honor than him, and occupy higher places than his in the whole universe created by God.” Thus he tempts and sends his demons to tempt us. Recall the words of St. Augustine, “Those immortals, in their pride, those wretches, in their wickedness, sought to seduce men into misery by their boast of immortality” (City of God 360). In their anger, they seek to drag man down to their level, one of eternal misery. Is this the mark of true freedom?

It is abundantly clear that the Devil and demons exist, and by all metrics, are not free. To be truly free, we must understand their reality and guard against their temptations. Let not the knowledge of their existence consume your life. Instead, continue to prove your superiority to the Devil and his demons by being truly free in Christ.