Fr. Richard Simon, host of Father Simon SaysTM on Relevant Radio®, spoke about the unique power that humans have that the devil does not possess, and why he hates us for it. He said:
“The first chapter of the Book of Wisdom says, ‘God did not make death.’ This fascinates me. Well, who did? We did! Seriously. This is something that we don’t realize. Later in the passage, we read, ‘By the envy of the devil, death entered the world.’ What does the devil have to be jealous of in me?
“Compared to me, the devil is as if omniscient—he’s not omniscient, but certainly knows a lot more than I do. And he’s compared to me as if all-powerful—he’s not all-powerful but he’s a lot more powerful than me. The devil is immortal; the devil is a fallen angel. Why would he be jealous of me? Because God has shared with me, with you, with all of humanity, a power that he has not shared with the angels.
“This is huge. A man and a woman in their coming together can create something immortal. Now, there is a very strange word in Hebrew, bara, that is used only of God. It’s in the very beginning: Bereshit bara Elohim, In the beginning God created. That word create, bara, is used only of God and it’s never used of human beings. So God has unique creative power.
“But Jesus says when he’s talking about marriage that in heaven we will be like the angels, neither giving nor taking in marriage. The angels don’t have children; angels don’t have art in a certain sense. They have music but they don’t have the kind of creativity that we have. We human beings have been given an amazing gift by God—we can create something immortal. What do you mean we create something immortal, doesn’t God create the soul? Yeah, the soul is immortal but if the resurrection is true—which is what Christ has promised us—in a certain sense the body is immortal. This mortal body will be transformed. A man and a woman in their coming together can create something immortal. That’s breathtaking, and the devil hates us for this.
“If the devil can make a mess of the human giving and creating of life, well that’s a thumb in God’s eye, as far as the devil is concerned. So, the devil invents sterile marriage—abortion, birth control, the permutations of relationship that are trying to be called marriage in our time. These sterilities are not marriage, because marriage is essentially creative. Now, there are people who cannot have children but their faithfulness to each other strengthens the society that it might be a fruitful society. So even marriages that by nature are childless, such as people who are past the time of childbearing who marry, even these are about children. And we are all called to parenthood, be it spiritual and not physical; but even physical parenthood should also be spiritual. So, the devil hates this and so the devil hates children.”
St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the devil. Amen!
