Satan's Repentance

[fahey_paul]

Lucifer was an angel who decided that he would rather rule in Hell then to serve in Heaven. Since he chose to turn away from God does that imply that he had/has free will? So if he has a free will then can he repent and come back to God, and should we be praying for Satan’s repentance? I don’t understand this theology enough to answer these questions. Thanks.

 

[Bob_Crowley]

I haven’t got the Catechism here, but my understanding of Satan’s fall is that it is irrevocable. In any case, he wouldn’t want to. This is despite the fact that he was once in heaven himself and still has the memory of heaven as compared to hell.

In a practical sense, the question is purely academic, as he won’t repent.

 

[kimbaichan]

CCC 391 “Behind the disobedient choice of our first parents lurks a seductive voice, opposed to God, which makes them fall into death out of envy.”
CCC 392 “Scripture speaks of a sin of these angels. This ‘fall’ consists in the free choice of these created spirits, who radically and irrevocably rejected God and his reign.”
CCC 393 “It is the irrevocable character of their choice, and not a defect in the infinite divine mercy, that makes the angels’ sin unforgivable…‘There is no repentance for the angels after their fall, just as their is no repentance for men after death.’”

Something I was reading the other day ( and I can’t remember what) sez that the angels only got one act of free will: to be obedient or rebellion, that’s why Satan is envious of us; we can repent our sins.

 

[Joe_5859]

Part of the answer also lies in the fact that angels do not experience time the same way we do here on earth. Time exists for us because we are part of the physical universe. Angels are pure spirits who reside in eternity.

I don’t pretend to fully understand it myself. But I know enough to realize that angels aren’t simply like human beings.

 

[LBSDBS]

According to Jesus, there IS an unforgivable sin, and it’s the sin that Lucifer is best known for.

 

[VociMike]

I’m going to go out on a bit of a limb and claim that it is unique to our human nature to be able to repent and to be forgiven. I don’t think either of these things is in the nature of angels.