Pontifical Household Preacher Comments on Sunday's Gospel

In addition to the commentary from the Navarre Bible on the Gospel for the !st Sunday of Lent, "Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa, the preacher of the Pontifical Household, alerts the faithful about the devil's action and reminds them that Christ has conquered him."

Today the devil, Satanism, and other related phenomena, are gaining momentum and this is very disturbing. Our technological and industrialized world is overrun with wizards, witches, occultism, spiritualism, voluble fortune tellers, vendors of spells and amulets, as well as authentic Satanic sects. Thrown out the door, the devil has come back in through the window. That is, expelled from faith he has returned with superstition.

The episode of Jesus' temptations in the desert helps to clarify matters. First of all, does the devil exist? Does the word devil really indicate a personal reality, gifted with intelligence and will or is he only a symbol, a way of speaking to indicate the sum of the moral evil of the world, the collective unconscious, collective alienations, etc.? Among intellectuals, many do not believe in the devil understood in the first sense.

Complete Zenit article here.