Beloved Father, in today’s liturgy we encounter the devil, who dares to try to seduce Your divine Son. How presumptuous of him, for there is no “weakness” in Jesus that he could exploit for his own ends, and no one could be more faithful to You than He, Your beloved Son.
Thank You, Father, that Jesus rejected these temptations for us. It is not always easy for us to understand how this creature of Yours, whom You created as a glorious angel, turned away from You, becoming Your enemy and directing his hostility against us. What a terrible condition, what a perversion of what You had planned for him. Sometimes we can also perceive this perversion in human beings, yet always with the hope that, as long as their earthly life lasts, they can still be converted. Dangers can also lurk in our own “abysses” and in the shadows of our hearts, from which we beg You to always protect us with Your goodness.
In a hymn to the holy angels, St. Hildegard of Bingen alludes to the fall of Lucifer. She says:
“What triumphant joy dwells in your nature, untouched by any wicked deed, by that iniquity that sprang up in your companion, the lost angel, who desired to fly above the highest pinnacle of God and thus fell, tormented, into ruin. But with the very thing that was the cause of his fall, he tempted man, the work of God’s hand.”[1]
Beloved Father, how painful it is when one of Your creatures fails to reach the goal for which You created it—You who are such a good Father and came in the person of Your Son to redeem us.
Although the fallen angels are subject to Your just judgment, we pray to You, O Father, for all people, that they may not waste this time of grace but may reach their eternal destiny; that they may experience with You, and with all the faithful angels and saints, the joy and glory of Heaven.
[1] You can find the song here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjIAXI2xkEM