03-18-2021, 08:37 PM
Chapter III
The tactics of temptation. - Immediately after death. - The name of Jesus.
The evil spirits who live in the regions of the air often produce rains, wind, storms and hail storms. They use it to frighten the souls of men, to disturb them and finally to weaken them. They take this opportunity to diminish their trust in Divine Providence and make them fail in their faith.When these souls are so weakened by the maneuvers of the demons of the air, the fallen spirits that are on earth, mixed with men, lead them more easily and quickly to commit sins of pride.
Then the devils, who fell from the second order of the Angelic Hierarchy and submitted to the demon Asmodeus, prince of the carnal vice, and who dwell in this world among us, finding these souls weakened by the spirits of the air and tempted with pride, attack them and make them fall more quickly into faults against chastity.
In turn, the fallen spirits of the last three choirs of the Heavenly Militia and subjected to Mammon, prince of avarice, whose function is to tempt humans and remain among them, attack these weakened souls and sink them into the disorders of pride and of the flesh. They are more commonly right and inspire them with greed and the exaggerated love of money.
Then comes Beelzebub, prince of darkness. He spreads the veils of error on those souls who have left the practice of virtue and distance themselves from the truth.
Thus, these unhappy souls, not resisting the suggestions of the devils, fall from one sin into another.
Each devil, designated to attack one man, occupies himself with only that person and does not try to tempt others, but he applies all his study and all his efforts to pervert him, without taking care of anything else.
But after he has succeeded in defeating this man, he persuades him to commit faults against his neighbor, in order to provide this neighbor with opportunities of temptation, scandal and sin. By this way, this devil attacks other souls and hurts them.
Although the infernal princes and spirits, who are subject to them, perform distinct functions according to the different vices, nevertheless, in their evil work, they agree among themselves and help each other in order to bring souls to their downfall. Indeed, after a man has fallen into a fault, if he does not withdraw promptly, he runs the risk of being dragged more quickly into others.
God, in His justice, has imposed on the demons in hell the same order as He established among the angels in eternal glory. Lucifer indeed dominates in his kingdom of iniquity and pain. Just as the glorious angels obey the precepts of their Creator, so do the evil spirits, each in his role, obey Lucifer's orders, because God has so decided.
It is not only those who dwell in hell, who are thus subjected to him, but also those who inhabit the air and the earth. Thus, all the acts of temptation are accomplished in one moment.
No demon would dare tempt souls without Lucifer's order, and he can only attack men with his perverse suggestions, as far as God allows it and permits him, in His solicitude, for the perfection of His saints.
Lucifer with one look sees all the devils of hell, air and earth. For their part, they understand the will of their king, each in the performance of his role. They also see each other without any obstacles. And this happens with the permission and order of the Divine Justice.
The fallen spirits who populate the air do not feel the effects of the infernal fire, however, without this torment, they suffer very great sorrows. They hit each other in general and feel very sharp pain due to the good deeds they see virtuous men do. Moreover, all the other demons are also tormented and punished by this same view.
The fate of the devils who dwell on earth among us is similar to that of their companions of misfortune, who exist in the superior regions, in terms of the sorrows they endure.
But the fallen angels who continually dwell in hell always remain in the eternal fires and suffer its pain.
It should be added that the demons of the air and earth who were part of the first or second order of the Celestial Hierarchy suffer greater torments than the others who have fallen from a lower rank.
The same is true for the prisoners of the infernal abyss. The higher they once stood in Heaven, the more cruelly they are now tormented, because they were more guilty than their inferiors.
Blessed Frances of Rome, when violent storms broke out, acknowledged that they were produced by the mischief of the demons of the air, used to light blessed candles and sprinkle the house with holy water. She assured that this was the most effective remedy against the natural turmoil caused by this.
She also said that the evil spirits who dwell among us and are given to us to test us have fallen from the last Heavenly choir, that of the Angels.
Likewise, according to her, the Angels who are granted to us by Divine Goodness, to keep us, are all also part of the last choir.
The demons charged with tempting us are working tirelessly to destroy us. They attack in so many ways, with such powerful means, with so much astuteness, malice and skill, that the man who can escape such a number of traps and pitfalls must consider himself truly happy; for the soul, unless it is extraordinarily strong and courageous, is perpetually bothered and attacked by the army of perverse spirits either in one way or another.
When the virile souls do not let themselves be defeated by these temptations, but resist them with constancy, the devils, fallen from the last choir of angels, acknowledge their powerlessness and call upon other spirits who are smarter and more malicious to help them.
These newcomers then teach the devils in charge of testing us how to tempt and torment souls who defend themselves with extraordinary courage and perseverance, by attacking them with extreme violence.
Thus it happened to Blessed Frances of Rome, as she declared to her confessor; for not only was she tempted and tormented by the iniquitous spirit charged with this role over her, but she was still continually tormented by the demons of the air, fallen from the choir of Seraphim, and by other devils of the earth; and she was under attack not only from one of them but from several.
Indeed, Christ's handmaid understood and knew, by a special favor of Divine grace, what rank each of the enemies who fought her had fallen from.
When these evil spirits come to tempt a soul that defends itself courageously, some of them attack it head-on and others from behind, like traitors.
This often happened to Saint Frances of Rome. She saw the devils behind her waving at those who were standing in front of her, and at their companion who was especially charged with testing her. She saw them, in different ways, performing this merry-go-round, and she understood it. It was then in its natural sense and not in ecstasy.
The blessed woman was questioned by her spiritual Father, in the name of obedience, as to whether she distinguished these demons from each other, both those who fell from the last angelic choir and those who fell from other ranks of the heavenly army.
She replied that she distinguished them perfectly because of their trickery and malice, the degree of which made them easily recognizable from each other. She saw and understood it in the devils themselves and in their temptations and struggles against herself and others.
When souls harden themselves in mortal sin, evil spirits settle on them, as if on a throne, and dominate them in various aspects and by various means, according to the number and gravity of their sins.
But when these souls repent of their faults and confess them, the demons lose their power over them and see themselves overthrown from the seat they had established there; then they prowl all around them, tempt them, trying to penetrate again by some perfidious suggestion, and cause them great concern.
However, after a good confession they can no longer torment them so much, because they have been weakened by the power and preventive effectiveness of the sacrament of penance.
However, the soul which, during its earthly life, failed in winning victory over the evil spirits, comes to leave the body which it had been granted to it to win eternal bliss in battle.
The devil who had been given to it, to test it, rushes upon it with great thrust and fury, and drags it to hell.
Saint Frances of Rome saw these wretched souls, led with unheard-of rage and cruelty, bear their sins inscribed on their foreheads. She read these characters of shame and thus understood the causes of their damnation; but each of these wretches knew the faults of their companions of misfortune by a simple operation of the spirit.
The other demons who dwell on earth among men also accompany the condemned soul. They torment it cruelly and tear it apart fiercely until they have cast it into hell.
Then the evil spirit that was victorious over this human creature, and his companions of iniquity who united with him to make him suffer, rejoice and celebrate their triumph with great joy, while their victim falls into the abyss.
But the guardian angel who, throughout the earthly life of this soul, had constantly stood by it and had constantly suggested to it good advice that it rejected, does not leave it immediately after death.
After it has left the body, he accompanies it to the moment where it is thrown into hell that it justly deserves by its sins, then he ascends to the place that has been fixed for him in eternal glory.
But when, by an operation of Divine grace, the soul is sent to purgatory, and when it is placed in the lower abode of that place of purification, the demon who, during his time on earth, had been given to this soul to test it, stands before its eyes outside purgatory. There it is cruelly tormented by Lucifer's order, because he had not succeeded in winning a new recruit for the infernal kingdom. The torment he endures for this reason is distinct and separate from the general punishments he suffers for not having taken the side of God during the great revolt, and it is added as an increase in torment.
For its part, the soul, placed in the lower part of purgatory, suffers particular punishments because of the partial victories it allowed the evil spirit to have over it, and also because of the fear it feels to see the devil so horrible, and the pain it feels, to hear his reproaches. Its former tempter, indeed, makes it feel ashamed of the torments it endures, and repeats to it that it has earned them by obeying his perverse suggestions and offending its Creator.
After this soul has been purified from its faults in the lower abode of purgatory and has been released, the devil returns to the earth and is mocked by the other evil spirits, because he has lost this soul through his softness and neglect.
When these hell-bearers, charged with the role of tempters, have not succeeded in the mission entrusted to them by Satan, they are no longer delegated to other men to tempt them; but they wander the earth, sad and miserable, and commit other wrongdoings, as they can.
Sometimes, by divine permission, they are sent, for their confusion, into the bodies of brute beasts. At other times they possess living men and women and claim to be the spirits of the deceased. They even frequently take the names of the deceased in order to defame their memory.
But the demons who won the souls that they were in charge of tempting, after leading their victims to hell, come back to earth and remain among us with the reputation of valiant and victorious champions of Lucifer's cause. Their leader then entrusts them with similar new missions with men.
These evil spirits become more malicious, more learned and iniquitous in their undertakings against souls whom they could not defeat by their own strength and personal science, they were instructed with more treacherous tricks by their companions, fallen from a higher heavenly choir, and who are more astute and more powerful than they.
All the demons on earth who have fallen from the last rank of the Angelic Militia are not busy tempting us. Those who do not perform this function do not, however, remain inactive. Their role is to torment their companions of misfortune charged with tempting men, when they cannot defeat them and make them obey their suggestions.
Divine Justice has so ordered, whenever a tempting spirit fails to overcome the soul it has been charged with inducing to evil, whenever it cannot, despite its efforts, incline it towards sin, is itself struck by other devils. This torment is in addition to the other general punishments he suffers.
All the sins we commit makes hell rejoice, but also all the acts of virtue we perform, all the prayers we say, are occasions of humiliation and suffering for the rebel and his slaves.
When the Holy Name of Jesus is pronounced by a man with devotion, all demons, both those in the darkness of the abyss and those who fly in the air or inhabit the earth, are forced to genuflect. They do not do so of their own free will, but they are compelled to do so by the divine power of this Most Holy Name.
It happened once, recounts St. Frances of Rome, that, speaking with her spiritual director about spiritual matters and pronouncing the name of Jesus. Immediately demons, whom the blessed woman saw in various aspects, struck the earth with their mouths with great fear.
The more the person who says this Blessed Name excels in charity and Christian perfection, the more pain and suffering the fallen spirits experience.
On the other hand, when sinners transform this Name into a blasphemy or a vain formula, the devils, although forced to genuflect despite themselves, do not mourn, but are happy and rejoice because of the sin that is committed. In this way, sometimes they feel sad and sometimes they feel satisfied, but in either case, they are forced to show respect to their Creator.
Likewise, whenever the Name of Jesus is pronounced either in vain, blasphemy or perjury, all the glorious spirits who inhabit the Heavenly Homeland, whether of an angelic nature or of human nature, genuflect with great respect. They do not feel the same joy as when they hear Him praised and blessed, but they greet Him with extreme reverence.
But when this Holy Name is invoked and exalted, especially by persons consecrated entirely to God, the inhabitants of Heaven manifest a deep veneration and an unspeakable joy.
Likewise, when men pronounce the other names of God and the Virgin Mother, glorious spirits, angels and saints, experience joy and exultation in proportion to the merits of those who are saying them.
Saint Frances of Rome said that whenever she uttered the name of Jesus, or someone pronounced it before her, her angel, whom she saw continuously, bowed with a face bursting with happiness and a movement full of joy. He brought to this action such dignity, such grace, that the blessed woman, in her sight, felt all inflamed with the love for God.