Father Ron Rolheiser; thoughts on the devil

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"Demons, Jesus tells us, are to be confronted in the desert…What exactly does that mean? Is Satan, the devil, to be conceived of as a personified force, a fallen archangel, Lucifer? Or is Satan a code name for that vast range of inner disturbances (addictions, scars, paranoia, fear, bitterness, and sexual wounds) that habitually torment us? What exactly are the principalities and powers that are beyond us?

"The question is not so important as to whether the devil is a person, an addiction, or a paranoia. In the end we still need to battle at exactly the same place. Most of us are not called upon to confront the Satan of classical exorcisms. Rather, we meet Satan in the same way the prodigal son and his older brother met him; in weakness and bitterness. Ultimately these are the demons that must be met.

“To go into the desert means to stare our inner chaos in the face. What demons live inside this chaos? The demons of the prodigal son and his elder brother- the demons of grandiosity, loneliness, and unbridled sexuality, and the demons of paranoia, woundedness, and joylessness.”

from Prayer, Our Deepest Longing; Father Ron Rolheiser
 
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Powerful words. Thanks for sharing them.
 
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Never been a big fan of Rolheiser. The demons are the ones tempting us to all these sins. I kind of get what he is saying but seems like he is downplaying the fact that as there are angels there are demons as well.

In addition, we fight the world, the flesh, and the devil.
 
I agree!

To me it sounds like Father Ron Rolheiser is saying that the supernatural belief in angels and demons do not have to be believed in.
 
LittleFlower378 said:
Never been a big fan of Rolheiser. The demons are the ones tempting us to all these sins. I kind of get what he is saying but seems like he is downplaying the fact that as there are angels there are demons as well.

In addition, we fight the world, the flesh, and the devil.
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As C.S. Lewis pointed out in The Screwtape Letters, the devil’s work of temptation is often only a matter of keeping us in the dark we have chosen and keeping us distracted from looking at ourselves soberly, rather than making a rational argument in favor of wrongdoing. If we’re already sold, why would the devil make a direct case about what we’re selling to ourselves and risk waking us up? Fr. Rohlheiser is only saying we should take no consolation in knowing that the devil sometimes contents himself with letting sleeping dogs lie. It doesn’t matter who or what is to blame for our spiritual bondage. What matters is getting ourselves to the Physician who will free us from it.

Fr. Rohlheiser is right that it hardly matters whether the devil is actively tempting us or only keeping us in the dark about our self-centered inclinations. The last thing the devil wants in either case is for us to find the desert, the place of prayer where the light is bright and the distractions are far away, where the voice of God can reach us and the angels can wait on us.
 
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Humans have inclinations to sin and the devil capitalizes on these.

However, the devil is more than just one’s own feelings and tendencies. The devil is actually an outside being or force of evil that disrupts and harms through whatever tools are available, first and foremost through a human’s own weaknesses.

It’s wrong to reduce “the devil” to someone’s tendency towards lust or addiction. You do yourself no favors by underestimating or denying the devil in this way.
 
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The devil is real. Demons are real. This is important. In the end we need to battle evil, the devil and demons. We are called to confront the evil of the world with each and every temptation we refute or take up.
 
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