The Catechism of the Council of Trent/Part 4: But deliver us from evil
" BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL."
This petition, with which the Son of God concludes this prayer, embodies the substance of all the rest. To mark its force and weight, praying on the eve of his passion for the salvation of mankind, he thus concluded: "I pray thou keep others. them from evil." [1] The force and efficacy of the other petitions, he, as it were, epitomized in this form of prayer, which he delivered by way of precept, and confirmed by example. If we obtain what is comprehended in this prayer, the protection of God against evil, that protection which enables us to defeat, with security and safety, the machinations of the world and the devil, we are fortified by the authority of St. Cyprian in affirming, that nothing more remains to be asked. [2]
Such, then, being the nature of this petition, the diligence of the pastor in its exposition should be commensurate to its importance. The difference between it and the preceding petition consists in this, that in the one we beg to avoid sin, in the other, to escape punishment. It cannot, therefore, be necessary to remind the faithful of the numerous evils and calamities to which we are exposed, and how much we stand in need of the divine petition; assistance. The picture of our misery has been drawn in lively colours by sacred and profane writers; but the dangers which beset himself and others have given each one a melancholy experience of the number and magnitude of the miseries incidental to human life. We are all convinced of the truth of these words of holy Job, which was exemplified in his own sufferings: " Man, born of woman, and living for a short time, is filled with many miseries. He cometh forth like a flower, and is destroyed, and fleeth as a shadow, and never continueth in the same state." [3] That no day passes without its own trouble or inconvenience is evinced by these words of our Lord: "Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof;" [4] and indeed, the condition of human life is pointed out by our Lord himself, when he admonishes us, that we are to take up our cross daily, and follow him. [5]
Feeling, therefore, as every one must, the labours and dangers inseparable from human life, it will not be difficult to convince them, that to implore of God deliverance from evil is an imperative duty: a duty to the performance of which they will be the more easily induced, as no motive exercises a more powerful influence on human action than a desire and hope of deliverance from those evils, which oppress, or impend over them. To fly to God for assistance in distress is a principle implanted in the human mind by the hand of nature; as it is written, "Fill their faces with shame, and they shall seek thy name, O Lord." [6]
If, then, in calamities and dangers the wnbidden impulse of nature prompts men to call on God, it surely becomes the duty of those, to whose fidelity and prudence their salvation is in trusted, to instruct them, in a special manner, in the proper performance of this duty. There are some who, contrary to the command of Jesus Christ, invert the order of prayer: he, who commands us to have recourse to him in the day of tribulation, [7] has also prescribed to us the order in which we should solicit the divine favours. It is his will that, before we pray to be delivered from evil, we pray that the name of God be sanctified; that his kingdom come, and so of the other petitions of the Lord's Prayer, which are so many gradations by which we ascend to this their summit. Yet there are those who, if their head, their side, or their foot, ache; if they sustain loss of property; if menaces or dangers from an enemy alarm them; if famine, war, or pestilence afflict them, omit all the other petitions of the Lord's Prayer, and ask only to be delivered from these evils. This preposterous practice is at variance with the express command of Christ: " Seek first the kingdom of God." [8] To pray, therefore, as we ought, when we beg to be delivered from calamities and evils, we should have in view the greater glory of God. Thus, when David offered this prayer: " Lord rebuke me not in thine anger," he subjoined the reason, " For there is no one in death, that is mindful of thee, and who shall confess to thee in hell;" [9] and, having implored God to have mercy on him, he added: "I will teach the unjust thy ways; and the wicked shall be converted to thee." [10]
The faithful are to be excited to the adoption of this salutary manner of praying, and to an imitation of the example of the prophet; and at the same time, their attention should also be pointed to the marked difference that exists between the prayers of the infidel and those of the Christian. The infidel, too, begs of God to cure his diseases, and to heal his wounds, to deliver him from approaching or impending ills; but he places his principal hope of recovery, or deliverance in the remedies provided by nature, or prepared by art. He makes no scruple of using medicine no matter by whom prepared, no matter if accompanied by charms, spells, or other diabolical arts, provided he can promise himself some hope of recovery. Not so the Christian: when visited by sickness or other adversity, he flies to God as his sovereign refuge; in him does he centre all his hopes of returning health; him only does he acknowledge as the author of all good, adoring him as his deliverer, and ascribing to him whatever healing virtue resides in medicines, convinced that then only are they efficacious, when it is the divine will that they should be so. They are given by God to man to heal his corporal infirmities; and hence these words of Ecclesiasticus: " The Most High hath created medicines out of the earth, and a wise man will not abhor them." [11] He, therefore, who has pledged his fidelity to Jesus Christ, does not place his principal hope of recovery in such remedies: he places it in God the author of these medicines, and the Sacred Scriptures condemn the conduct of those who, confiding in the power of medicine, seek no assistance from God. [12] Nay more, those, who regulate their lives by the laws of God, abstain from the use of all medicines, which are not evidently intended by Al mighty God to be medicinal; and, were there even a certain hope of recovery by using any other, they abstain from them as so many charms and diabolical artifices.
The faithful, then, are to be exhorted to place their confidence in God: our most bountiful Father has commanded us to beg of him our deliverance from evil; and commanded as we are, by him to implore his goodness, we must cherish a hope of obtaining the object of our prayers. Of this truth the Sacred Scriptures afford many illustrations, that they whom reasoning may not inspire with confidence, may be compelled to yield to a strong array of examples. Abraham, Jacob, Lot, Joseph, and David are unexceptionable attestations of the divine goodness; and the numerous instances recorded in the New Testament of persons rescued from the greatest dangers, by the efficacy of devout prayer, are so familiar as to supersede the necessity of crowding the page with citations. On this subject therefore, we shall content ourselves with one sentence from the prophet, which is sufficient to confirm even the weakest mind: " The just cried, and the Lord heard them; and delivered them out of all their troubles." [13]
We now come to explain the force and nature of the petition, in order that the faithful may understand that in it we by no means solicit deliverance from every species of evil. There are some things which are commonly considered evils, and which, notwithstanding, are fraught with advantage to those who endure them: such was the sting of the flesh experienced by the Apostle, that, by the aid of divine grace, power might be perfected in infirmity. [14] When the pious Christian learns the salutary influence of such things, far from praying for their removal, he rejoices in them exceedingly. It is, therefore, against those evils only, which conduce not to our spiritual interests, that we pray; not against such as are auxiliary to our salvation. The full force of the petition, therefore, is, that freed from sin, we may also be freed from the danger of temptation, and from internal and external evils; that we may be protected from water, fire, and lightning; that the fruits of the earth may be preserved; that we be not visited by dearth, sedition, or the horrors of war; that God may banish disease, pestilence, desolation from us; that he may keep us from slavery, imprisonment, exile, treason, treachery, and from all those evils which fill man kind with terror and misery. Finally, we pray that God would remove all occasions of sin and iniquity.
We do not however pray to be delivered solely from those things, which all look upon as evils; with them we also deprecate those things which almost all consider to be good, such as riches, honours, health, strength, and even life itself, rather than that they should prove destructive or detrimental to our immortal souls. We also beg of God that we be not cut off by a a sudden death; that we provoke not his anger against us; that we be not condemned to suffer the punishments reserved for the wicked; that we be not sentenced to endure the fire of purgatory, from which we piously and devoutly implore the liberation of others. This is the explanation of this petition given by the Church in the Mass and Litanies: in it we beseech God to avert from us all evil past, present, and to come. God deli- The goodness of God delivers us from evil in a variety of versus ways. He prevents impending evils, as we read with regard a variety of to the Patriarch Jacob: the slaughter of the Sichimites had ways. exasperated the fury of his enemies; but God delivered him from their hands: " The terror of God fell upon all the cities round about, and they durst not pursue after them as they went away." [15] The blessed, who reign with Christ the Lord in heaven, have been delivered by the divine assistance from all evil; but, although the Almighty delivers us from some evils, it is not his will that, whilst journeying in this our mortal Note. pilgrimage, we should be entirely exempt from all. The consolations with which God sometimes refreshes those who labour under adversity are, however, equivalent to an exemption from all evil; and with these the prophet consoled himself when he said: " According to the multitude of my sorrows in my heart, thy consolations have rejoiced my soul." [16] God, moreover, delivers men from evil when he preserves them unhurt in the midst of extreme danger: thus did his protecting arm save the three children who were thrown into the fiery furnace, [17] and Daniel, who was cast into the lion's den, and who also escaped unhurt. [18]
According to the interpretation of St. Basil, St. Chrysostome, and Augustine, the devil is specially called " the evil one;" because he was the author of man's transgression, that is, of his sin and iniquity; and because God makes use of him as an instrument to chastise the impiety of sinners. The evils which mankind endure in punishment of sin are appointed by God; and this is the meaning of these words of the prophet Amos: " Shall there be evil in a city which the Lord hath not done?" [19] and also of Isaias: " I am the Lord and there is none else: I form the light and create darkness: I make peace and create evil." [20] The devil is also called evil, because, although we have never done any thing to provoke his hostility, he wages perpetual war against us, and pursues us with mortal hatred; but, if we put on the armour of faith and the shield of innocence, he can have no power to hurt us. He, however, unceasingly tempts us by external evils and every other means of annoyance within his reach; and therefore do we beseech God to deliver us from evil. [21]
We say " from evil," not " from evils," because the evils which we experience from others we ascribe to the arch enemy as their author and instigator. This is also a reason why we should be less disposed to cherish sentiments of resentment towards our neighbour, turning our hatred and anger against Satan himself, by whom men are impelled to inflict injuries. If, therefore, your neighbour has injured you in any respect, when you bend in prayer to God your Father, beg of him not only to deliver you from evil, that is, from the injuries, which your neighbour inflicts; but also to rescue your neighbour from the power of the devil, whose wicked suggestions impel man to deeds of injustice. [22]
Finally, we should know, that if by prayers and vows we are not delivered from evil, we should endure our afflictions with patience, convinced that it is the will of God that we should so endure them. If, therefore, God hear not our prayers, we are not to yield to feelings of peevishness or discontent: it is ours to submit in all things, to the divine will and pleasure, convinced that what happens in accordance with the will of God, not that which, on the contrary, is agreeable to our own wishes, is really useful and salutary to us. In fine, that during our mortal career we should be prepared to meet every species of affliction and calamity, not only with patience, but even with joy, is a truth which the zealous Pastor should press upon the attention of his pious hearers. " All that will live godly in Christ Jesus," says St. Paul, " shall suffer persecution:" [23] " Through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of heaven;" [24] and again, our Lord himself says: " Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and so enter into his glory." [25] A servant, then, should not be greater than his master; and as St. Bernard says, " Delicate members do not become a head crowned with thorns." [26] The example of Uriah challenges our admiration and imitation: when urged by David to remain at home, he replied: " The ark of God, and Israel, and Judah, dwell in tents; and shall I go into my house?" [27]
If to prayer we bring with us these reflections and these dispositions, although encompassed by evils on every side, like the three children who passed unhurt amidst the flames, we shall be preserved through the perilous ordeal; or at least, like the Macchabees, we shall bear up against adverse fortune with firmness and fortitude. In the midst of contumelies and tortures we shall imitate the blessed examples of the Apostles, who, after they had been scourged, "rejoiced exceedingly that they were accounted worthy to suffer reproach for the name of Jesus." [28] Like them, we too shall sing in transports of joy: "Princes have persecuted me without cause; and my heart hath been in awe of thy words; I will rejoice at thy words, as one that hath found great spoil." [29]
- ↑ John xvii. 15.
- ↑ Lab. de oral, citat.
- ↑ Job xiv. 1.
- ↑ Matt. vi. 34.
- ↑ Luke ix. 23.
- ↑ Ps. lxxxii. 17.
- ↑ Ps. xlix. 15
- ↑ Matt. vi. 33.
- ↑ Ps. vi. 6.
- ↑ Ps. 1. 15.
- ↑ Eccl. xxxviii 1.
- ↑ Paral. xvi. 12
- ↑ Ps. xxxiii 18.
- ↑ 2 Cor. xii. 17
- ↑ Gen. xxxv. 5.
- ↑ Ps. lxiii. 19.
- ↑ Dan. vi. 22.
- ↑ Dan. iii. 50.
- ↑ Amos iii.
- ↑ Isa. xlv. 7.
- ↑ Isa. ilv. 7.
- ↑ Chrysost. hom. 20. in Matt, et hom. 5 in Job. Aug. in Ecclesiast. dogm. cap. 57. , Basil, in hom. quod Deus non sit auctormalorum, non procul a fine.
- ↑ 2 Tim. iii. 12.
- ↑ Acts xiv. 21.
- ↑ Luke xxiv. 26.
- ↑ Serm. 5, de omnibus Sanctis.
- ↑ 2 Kings xi. 1
- ↑ Acts v. 4.
- ↑ Ps. cxviii. 161.