Knowing Christ Through Satan

The interaction between Satan and Christ took place in the desert when Satan presented Christ with three temptations, quoted without paragraph numbers and footnotes [1]:

1. "'If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread.'"
2. "'If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down.  For it is written: "He will command his angels concerning you" and "with their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone."'"
3. "Then the devil took him up to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence, and he said to him, 'All these I shall give to you, if you will prostrate yourself and worship me.'"

The first two temptations began with these words of Satan: "'If you are the Son of God...'" [2]  Of course Satan knew that Christ was the Son of God.  It tracked Him down in the desert, singled Him out and tempted Him, and Jesus certainly knew He was God's Son.  Jesus was only twelve when He asked His Mother Who together with Joseph were looking for Him when He asked, "Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?'" [3]

Satan began its first two temptations with the word "if" as if to cast a doubt, one which both tempter and the Tempted knew without a doubt what was the Truth.  Yet, the word "if" was not superfluous; it was meant to irk Jesus Who was also human, Who could have easily proved to Satan by turning stones into bread or showed Satan that angels would have attended to Him had He thrown Himself down off the parapet of the temple [4], but He did not find the need to prove to Satan that He was God's Son because He was truly humble.  Had Jesus been proud and wanted to show that He was indeed the Son of God, then He would have figuratively bowed to Satan and carried out its command.  When it did not work the first time, Satan tried a second time with a more dramatic temptation, allowing Jesus His chance to show off more spectacularly Who He was, and still it did not work.

Exasperated, Satan gave all that it could give in its third temptation to the Son of God,  Even then, it failed to move Christ from a position above Satan to a position under it.  As Satan's enemy, Christ was unconquerable.

Man ought to learn that strength and invincibility arise out of humility and not pride but man has yet to realize it and to know that humility is the one effective weapon against Satan.  With humility, one is able to rise above evil and make it go away.  With any break in humility, evil enters and like a virus, it weakens its host; like a cancer, it festers and claims its life.

What one is also able to take away from Satan's interaction with Christ is His power.  Even before Christ began His ministry [5], Satan already knew Christ had the power to perform all kinds of miracles, evidenced by its first temptation.  It also knew that Christ would be watched over by God and attended to constantly by Heaven's angels.  Satan knew this well, for before its fall, it was Lucifer, and had attended to God as Heaven "most beautiful of all the angels." [6]

If Lucifer, although fallen, who is (still) "aware of his extreme intelligence" [7] knows God and Christ as the Son of God, then what does it say about those "intellectuals" in academia and in the press, and those "short-of-being-intellectuals" everywhere else who are indifferent to or who do not believe in God or the Son of God?  After all, they must realize that evil exists and if that is the case, they could not deny Satan which, in turn, does not deny the existence of God, Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary "[Who] is [its] replacement," [8] Whose "star shines even brighter. Mary’s radiance is much more beautiful and intense than Lucifer‘s ever was because she shines with the light of grace, not merely nature," [9] and Whose "obedience to the will of God that has made [H]er powerful beyond limits....This is Satan’s humiliation and his doom." [10]  Satan knows these Truths well, and therefore so should Satan's admirers (including secularists and atheists) know them well.


[1] http://www.usccb.org/bible/matthew/4 at 3, 6, 8-9.
[2] Ibid at 3, 6.
[3] http://www.usccb.org/bible/luke/2 at 42, 48-50.
[4] http://www.usccb.org/bible/matthew/4 at 5.
[5] Ibid at 12.
[6] http://catholicexchange.com/facts-satan-fallen-angels
[7] Ibid.
[8] https://www.catholicgentleman.net/2015/01/devil-hates-blessed-virgin-much-love/
[9] http://www.spiritualdirection.com/2014/05/09/gods-greatest-creation-lucifer-blessed-virgin-mary
[10] https://www.catholicgentleman.net/2015/01/devil-hates-blessed-virgin-much-love/