Master·evangeli.net
Today's Gospel + short theological explanation
Is there still the devil?
EDITORIAL TEAM evangeli.net (based on texts by Benedict XVI) (Città del Vaticano, Vatican)Today, it is strange to hear someone talk about "the devil". Does it still exist? The devil existed, exists now and will never cease to exist! Who are the demons? Where do they come from? They are not anonymous forces, but they are “someone”: persons that, being created by God for the Good, were eternally damned for using their freedom for the Evil.
"Damnation" is an eternal and regretful personal state in which the soul does not find satisfaction in anything, doesn't want anything or anyone, neither admits being wanted. It's a state of self-exclusion from the ability of loving, it's the absolute emptiness, in which the person lives in contradiction with oneself and making one's existence a real failure. Since God is the Good, can He accept that? We have to think it through from the divine perspective: Being infinite Good, God respects the freedom of the damned, allowing them to keep existing the way they have chosen to exist.
—Lord, Our Sovereign King, I don't want more freedom than that of serving You; my only fear is that of offending You and losing You forever.