Deliver Us From Evil
One
The Ancient Dragon
In the book of Revelation, John has a vision of a great dragon, the ancient enemy, Satan. This demon attempted to make war on the Woman Clothed with the Sun, the Mother of the King of Kings. Satan wanted Mary. He wanted to enslave her, as he had enslaved the rest of humanity. He wanted to kill her, as he had killed all her ancestors. But God would not permit it. God kept the woman free from all sin, and so free from the Dragon’s enslavement. And then God ordained that the woman should be assumed into heaven, and should not be subject to the corruption of the Dragon’s death.
What was left, then, for the Dragon to do?
The book of Revelation says, “Then the dragon became angry with the woman and went off to wage war on the rest of her offspring – those who keep God’s commandments and bear witness to Jesus.” (Rev. 12:17).
When the dragon failed at Mary, he came for us. He failed to enslave or kill the woman. He comes at us now, seeking to enslave and kill us, her children. And that is why we end the Our Father by saying, “Deliver us from evil!”
Two
The Lord of This World
“Deliver us from evil.” The Catechism says it plainly, “In this petition, evil is not an abstraction, but refers to a person, Satan, the Evil One, the angel who opposes God.” (CCC #2851).
The force of evil isn’t an idea, and Satan isn’t a metaphor. He is, according to his natural endowment, the most powerful person ever created. He has only one goal in life, one obsession, one monomania, one single purpose towards which he strains with every force at his disposal, to attack and violate and torture and mutilate every human being on the planet.
On several occasions, Jesus Himself calls Satan the Lord of this world, and St. John writes to the early Christians, warning them that, “The Whole World is in the Power of the Evil One” (I John 5:19).
That doesn’t mean that everything in the world is evil. What it does mean is that Satan can use any part of this world, any member of society, any creature whatsoever, to bring about our eventual and eternal destruction. It is this horrific and tireless enemy that we’re asking God to deliver us from.
Three
Deliver us from Satan’s empty promises
In the rite of Baptism, we are asked, as a community, to profess our faith and we begin by renouncing Satan. The priest says, “Do you reject Satan?” And we all say, “I do.” Then the priest says, “And all his works?” And we all say, “I do.” But then the priest adds as a final renunciation, as though he needs to make sure our rejection of Satan is complete, the priest asks, “And all his empty promises?” And we all say, “I do.”
Because this is how Satan gets us. He makes promises, completely empty promises. He tells us that a romantic relationship or a sexual experience will make us totally happy and so it’s worth sinning for. He tells us that getting a job, or standing up for ourselves, or getting attention will make us totally happy, and so it’s worth being uncharitable for. He tells us that free time, and personal space, and beautiful surroundings will make us totally happy – and it’s worth neglecting God and generosity to others for.
These are such laughably empty promises. None of these things makes us happy. None of these things, in themselves, even sustain our interest for very long. For sure none of these things is worth betraying Our Lord for, trading our integrity for, neglecting the love of others for.
So when we say, “Deliver us from evil,” we mean first of all, “Deliver us from believing Satan’s lies. Deliver us from the idols he sets before us. Deliver us from sacrificing You, Lord, for what is incomparably inferior.”
Four
Deliver us from Satan’s empty threats
Satan doesn’t just make empty promises. He also makes war on us by making empty threats. He tells us we can’t handle the sacrifices of the Gospel. He tells us we won’t be able to endure the suffering of following the Church’s teaching.
He says, “You’d better contracept, you know you can’t handle another kid.” He says, “You’d better lie about this, you know you won’t be able to handle it if people find out.” He says, “You’d better keep your money, you know you won’t be able to make it financially if you actually give a full tithe.” He says, “You’d better watch TV or browse social media instead of praying, you know you’ll be a mess if you don’t relax.”
And the biggest empty threat of all, “You’d better have a good time now because you know death is coming, and that’s the end of everything.” It’s all absurd.
The Church’s teaching is precisely what leads to the greatest peace and happiness in this life. Then, it leads to happiness beyond comparison in the next life. Why do we believe the devil’s nonsense? It’s totally ridiculous.
“Deliver us from evil, Lord. Deliver us from giving a moment’s consideration to the completely empty threats of the evil one. He lies, and as long as we disbelieve his lies, we will be happy and safe. So deliver us from evil.”
Five
Death – the work of Satan by which Satan is defeated
The letter of Hebrews says that Satan is the one with the power of death. He incites people to sin and then kills them. He is the lord of sin and death. But Christ completely used Satan’s power against him.
When Satan entered the heart of Judas to set Christ’s death in motion, Jesus simply rose in His glorified state, showing all of us that we have nothing to fear from death. That death is nothing but the portal to enhanced life.
Satan tries to terrorize us with death, make us think that life is ending, so we’d better run around frantically trying to make the most of it that we can. But it isn’t true. From Easter Sunday to the end of time, Satan is condemned to inflicting death on people and so setting them free from all his threats and temptations. If Satan is the one who is behind all death, then it must be a terrible frustration to him to know that whenever he brings about the death of a Christian, he is actually setting that Christian free from his influence forever.
So when we say, “Lord, Deliver us from Evil,” we should remember what St. Theresa of Avila said, “that the only way to be fully delivered from evil is by death, which is, in fact, entrance into new life.”
Lord, Deliver us from evil. You have exploited Satan’s malice to achieve victory over the grave in the case of your Son. Do the same for each one of us. Amen.