Give The Devil His Due

“But what comes out of the man, that is what defiles him.
From within the man, from his heart,
come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder,
adultery, greed, malice, deceit,
licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.
All these evils come from within and they defile.”

It was William Shakespear who coined the phrase "Give the devil his due."  We always have the devil to blame when something evil happens to us or to others in this world.  And truly, there are things in the world that the devil is the cause of and many things where he, through our deeds, is the root cause.  Ever since that day in the garden, he has shown his particular expertise at drawing us away from God using sly methods such as half-truths and exaggerations while appealing to our weakness.  But even if you remove the devil from the equation, there would still be evil in the world because of our fallen nature.  Where temptation exists, grace exists in abundance. But there are times when only the taste of the forbidden fruit will satisfy us and we turn away from God, grab the apple and we eat the sweet fruit and enjoy every bit of it until it turns sour and caustic in our mouths and we wonder why we have done what we have done.  We then tend to say that "the devil made me do it."  Chances are better than good that the devil was busy elsewhere when we committed our sin. 

 It is the prodigal son story told yet again but this time in real-time with us choosing to leave the Father and go off on our own.  This act came not from the devil, although it pleases him when we do his work for him, it rather comes from deep within our own selves.  The prodigal son was thinking only of himself and his own pleasures and he ate of the fruit and drank the sweet wine until the whole of his inheritance was spent.  He then humbly returned to his father who received him with open arms. This is what we must do as well.  We must turn away from what we have done and return to the father.  It is now that the devil and his demons will work very hard to convince us that the sin or sins we have committed are too damning to ever be forgiven.  Sometimes this tactic works and some of us never return to the Father but we keep taking fruit from the forbidden tree and we gouge ourselves with it until it festers within us and we die to the Father's love and turn away from Him forever. We need not have this fate.  Being sent to stoke the fires of hell with our body and soul is something that never needs to be. 

Today, right now, we are in a time of mercy,  The mercy of Jesus is there for us.  No sin is too great, no absence from the house of the Father too long for us to go back.  Jesus died on the cross for our sins and he came back to life to defeat sin and death.  All we need to do is to know the route back to Him.  The road back to the Father's house starts with the realization that we have sinned.  We should carefully and ruthlessly examine our conscience and ask the Holy Spirit to help reveal our sins.  Then we should join the line in front of the confessional. It is inside the confessional or confessional room that we will meet Christ and He, through the action of the priest, will forgive us for what we have done and He will shower us with graces that will turn the blackest soul a bright white again. Give the devil his due, he will do what he can to convince you that you did not sin, that sin does not exist and even if it does either it doesn't affect you or you are an exception to the rule.  Don't let the devil get inside your defenses, call on the Holy Spirit to fight for your soul and soon you will be enrobed with the love of the Father, you will have the ring of salvation on your finger and you will have eaten from the table of life and have inside of you the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus in the Eucharist. 

Nothing pleases the devil more that when we believe in something that just is not true.  For example, that everyone goes to heaven after they die.  Some of us do, but others choose to go to Purgatory where the attachments to sin and this world are removed and cleaned away.  But sadly, there are many millions of faithful followers of Christ in Purgatory who have no one to pray for them.  For example, deceased Protestants who do not believe that Purgatory exists so their relatives and friends have no one to pray for them.  Please pray for the Poor Souls today, they will appreciate it very much.  Also remember, as they are someday you might be.