Real Devils and Real Remedies
Most people consider demons as metaphors for the bad things that happen to good people. Why?
The rationalist mind withdraws from the thought of an immaterial creature irrevocably set against God and His plan of merciful love for the human creature. Again, modern folk prefer instead to think about demons as ciphers for the impersonal power of evil that human ingenuity can uncover and remedy. They err, however. Demons should put us on guard.
The church teaches us to reject modern skeptical rationalism. The Gospel offers no suggestion that Satan is a metaphor. On the contrary, the Catechism of the Catholic Church provides five paragraphs on the fall of the angels (seeCCC391-395). We learn among other things that the devil and the other demons were created by God but lost their natural goodness by their own doing.
For His own purposes, God still permits them to seek the ruin of souls.
Christ assures us that His strength outstrips that of the devil. Those who belong to Christ’s kingdom remain safe from the wiles of the devil. Even when Christians succumb to devilish temptations, they remain fundamentally safe from final destruction.
Why?
In the sacrament of penance and reconciliation, the divine goodness counters every strategy of the devil. Thus the devil hates the confessional.
During Lent especially, Catholics should love the place where divine mercy always triumphs.
Meditation of Fr Romanus Cessario; O.P.