Fall of the Angels
One
The Devil and the Demons
The Catechism in paragraphs 391-395 teaches that the Devil and the Demons were at first good angels made by God, but they became evil by their own doing.
Scripture, particularly in 2 Peter 2:4, speaks of the fall of these angels. Like humans, angels were created with intelligence and a free will. God lays before us a choice: if we want God above all created things, especially more than ourselves, then He will give us our hearts desire and we will share in the life of God forever. But if we want some created thing, if we want ourselves more than we want God and this turns us away from God, then that is all we get forever and that is hell. God gives us freedom. He won’t choose for us and He won’t force us to choose Him. If we reject Him, then God honors our freedom and allows us to live forever in a place without God and that is hell. God sends no one to hell. Humans and angels choose to go there by their own free choice.
Two
The Fall of the Angels
The Catechism says the Devil and a number of angels became evil by their own doing and they chose Hell. The book of Revelation chapter 12 seems to indicate that one-third of the angels fell. But how could someone choose hell?
Pride is the beginning of all sin, which is to turn away from God. When we make turning away from God a habit, it results in an aversion for God and the things of God. If we have an aversion to God, then we won’t like doing things related to God. We don’t like spending time in prayer, or going to Mass. We don’t like going to confession or learning about our faith or talking about it.
This is so dangerous because if we live with an aversion to God, disliking things about God and religion, then, when we die and see God after death, we will still have this aversion. It will be our habit, our nature that resulted from our choices and we will reject Him. I mean, hey, if you had an aversion to being with God while on earth, an aversion to Mass and prayer and obedience to his moral law, then that becomes second nature to you. It actually becomes your nature. We create an evil nature out of ourselves. But that won’t change at death. If you don’t choose Heaven now, you won’t choose heaven then.
That is what happened to the angels. They decided they didn’t want God, they wanted something else and rejected him.
Three
The Devil and the Demons
What could have caused Lucifer, one of the highest angels, who excelled in the knowledge of God, to reject God forever?
Teresa of Avila provides an insight. She writes “I believe His Majesty desires to bring us along this way (the way of suffering, trials, crosses and difficulties) for our own good so that we may understand well what little we amount to. The favors that come afterward are of such great worth that He desires first that before He gives them to us, we see by experience our own limitations so that what happened to Lucifer will not happen to us.” Life 11:11
Lucifer thought he had no limitations. Satan said, I have everything I need so I don’t need God and I don’t want God and he made no space in his life for God. That is why he is in hell. He had no need for God and made no space for God in his life.
Wow! That can so easily happen to us.
Four
Satan didn’t accept his limitations, he thought he didn’t need God and he chose hell.
It is so easy for us to be lured into the same trap. We want God. We want to be in heaven. But the demands that come from work and kids and all the details of life can be totally overwhelming. Then we are so exhausted or stressed that all we want to do is veg out and relax and we give into hours and hours of news, sports, entertainment, YouTube. There is no end to the distractions.
But look what happens. Our lives become consumed with busyness, overcommitment and entertainment. Then we make no space for God and that becomes the habit of our life. But remember, habits form our character and our character determines our destiny.
We always make time for what we love. If we love work and busyness (or at least the perceived identity and self-worth we get from it, not to mention the money and power money affords) and if we love our entertainment – then we make time for these. But if we don’t make time for God then we don’t love Him. We don’t want Him. Well, we don’t want to make a habit of that do we.
So what can we do? Show God your love, show Him you want Him by choosing to spend time with Him.
A daily Rosary takes less than thirty minutes. That’s 1/48th of your day. Add in reading Scripture and thinking about it. Now you’re up to 1/24th of your day. Add a daily Mass and you might break 1/12th of your day.
The way we show a person we love them and value them and want them is to spend time with them.
Five
God is more powerful than Satan and He is more powerful than our sin!
The Catechism (395) tells us God is far more powerful than Satan, and His wisdom and providence are infinitely greater than our sin. Though Satan is intelligent and more powerful than we are, his power is limited and cannot compare to God’s. The Catechism reminds us that Satan cannot stop the building of God’s reign. While Satan may cause harm, his actions are permitted by God’s providence, which guides history with strength and gentleness. Even when Satan tempts and tries to destroy us, God uses those very trials to bring about good for those who love Him.
This truth should console us: Satan cannot thwart God’s plan, and neither can we. God’s wisdom, goodness, and power take even our worst decisions and weave them into His plan for our ultimate good. By turning to God in humility and prayer, even in our sinfulness, we allow His grace to transform us and bring about His victory in our lives. God is always working for good, and we need only to turn to Him and say, "I need You. I want You."