Pope at Audience: Against the devil's deception, Jesus protects us

By Deborah Castellano Lubov

The Lord protects us from being deceived by the devil....

Pope Francis gave this comforting observation during his Wednesday morning General Audience in St. Peter's Square, while, at the same time, urging the faithful to "never dialogue with the devil."

As he continued his catechesis series on the Holy Spirit, he turned this week to the Gospel account of Jesus’ temptations in the desert.

Never converse with the devil

The Pope recalled a Church Father's observation that once Christ, on the Cross, "defeated forever the power of the ‘prince of this world’, the devil was "bound, like a dog on a chain; he cannot bite anyone, except he who, braving the danger, goes near him..."

"He can bark, he can urge," the Pope said, "but he cannot bite, except he who wants to [be bitten]." 

"If you are a fool and you go to the devil and [say], ‘Ah, how are you?'" Pope Francis said, "he ruins you."

With the devil, he said, we must always keep distance.

The Holy Father acknowledged how we all in one way or another have experienced the devil trying to approach us with some temptation, but when this may happen, also through technology, he appealed, we must stop and step away.

"Do not," he warned, "approach the dog tied with a chain."

Saints as our models

Pope Francis suggested that the greatest proof of the existence of the devil is not to be found in the evidence of evil in our world, but rather in the lives and witness of the saints.

The saints' efforts to grow in virtue and holiness, he observed, testify to the sinister reality "of the spirit of evil and the need to struggle against temptations to sin." 

Devil is cunning, but Christians are smarter

The Holy Father emphasized that the Lord's victory over the power of evil and sin "gives us sure hope" that, by trusting in His word and strengthened by the grace of the Holy Spirit, we can overcome the devil's attempts to distract us.

"Be careful, because the devil is cunning," Pope Francis said, "but we Christians, with God's grace," he reassured, "are smarter than he is."