The Devil Made Me Do It

Ever since Adam and Eve put on a fig leaf, we have been trying to cover up our guilt over freely choosing to sin. The remedy is Confession, where we say to Christ through His ear, the Church, we sinned through our own fault and we seek forgiveness. Confession is a major step in changing our hardened hearts. Yet, while we seem to have no problem sinning, there is still the belief we are victims of trickery by the old enemy in the garden, Lucifer.

So, what do we know about the devil and his followers?

1Peter: 5-8 tells us that the devil is prowling like a roaring lion ready to devour someone.

St. Peter writes about a real being. To guard against the attacks from this devil, the Saint goes on to write:

¹⁴ As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. ¹⁵ But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do;

The other leader in the early Church, St. Paul, goes back to the fall of mankind to explain this spiritual battle:

2 Corinthians 11:3, 14 But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ … And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.

St. Paul, just like St. Peter, describes how Satan operates. The devil distracts us from the clear commandments God gives us. In the garden, Satan twists the words of God just enough, and flatters Eve ever so artfully, to get her to question God’s (not her own) motives. As with most sin, we tend to want group participation to make us feel we’re okay, and so Eve tempts Adam.

How to avoid this trap of temptation? One way is to ask ourselves if we are following God’s ways, not our own desires. It’s a constant testing of what we are doing that keeps us honest. It’s very easy to forget that we are weak, and we might be led astray by the smallest of temptations.

St. Paul explains the spirt of evil:

Ephesians 2:2 …in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—

Disobedience is a key word. We know that God is superior to us in every way and so we must believe Him. The Commandments are for our own protection.

St. John tells us:

1 John 5:19 We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

From this passage, we gather the world is in error, and there is a power behind it that is not of God. Since we love God, we reject the world’s empty promises.

A most revealing example of what the devil is like is from Jesus’ own words in John 8:43-44:

"Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear My word. You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies."

In the gospel of St. John, Jesus indicates that we can allow Satan to possess us through our own neglect of heavenly things. Judas is told by Jesus:

John 13: 27 Then after he had taken the morsel, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, “What you are going to do, do quickly.”

Perhaps this passage is the reason the phrase “the devil made me do it” is a punchline. Yet, we know Jesus takes the time to try to reach Judas up until the moment he decides to betray Him, meaning there is always hope for us to turn back to Him. The gift of humility allows us the freedom to reject Satan’s temptation. A rich prayer life crowds out those temptations with the words of Christ. The best way to be healed when we sin is Confession.

In the Sacrament of Confession, we no longer say: “the devil made me do it.” We say: “Christ sheds His light on my actions” and in that a victory is snatched from defeat.