CHARACTERISTICS OF THE DIABOLICAL SPIRIT – By Father Juan Bautista Sca

ON MANIFEST PRIDE AND FALSE HUMILITY

The second characteristic of the diabolical spirit is either manifest pride or false humility; but never the true humility that God gives. When the devil comes unmasked, being the father of pride, he can raise in our hearts no affections other than vainglory, puffery, and proud complacency; nor can he awaken in us any desires other than honors, glories, positions, preeminences, and dignities.  Thus says Saint Gregory: “Nor does the devil teach the minds subject to him anything but to aspire to the summit of heights, to surpass all others in pride of mind, to surpass the society of all others in a different arrogance, and to rise up against the power of the Creator, since they have spoken iniquity from on high.”

But if it ever happens that the enemy intrudes into spiritual things to deceive some unwary person and then makes himself known for what he is, instilling a spirit of vanity and puffery with which he is filled with vain complacency, he will hold others in nothing and himself in great esteem.  If with this he succeeds in instilling this perverse spirit in the heart, he then enters into its full possession and does with it what he pleases. This is what John Gerson teaches, and experience demonstrates every day: "Fictus Angelus," he says, "first seminat tumoris spiritum, i impelid ipsum, ut ambularem cupia in magnis, ut sit placens, i sapiens in semetipso in oculis suis: quo obtento, jam illudit i deludit, quemadmodum voluerit. The false angel," he says, "first sows the spirit of puffery, and drives it to pursue great things, to be pleasing and wise in his own eyes: when he obtains this, he now deceives and seduces as he pleases." It is true that the devil, appearing in this form, haughty and vain, is less dangerous; because it is easy to recognize him for what he is.

It is even more to be feared when it comes masked under the appearance of false humility; for if it is not recognized, then the traitor finds entrance. This happens when it brings to mind past sins and present imperfections, and makes us see the perdition in which we have lived, or the miserable state in which we still find ourselves; but it does all this with a malignant light that produces no other effect than to disturb the soul, to upset it, to fill it with afflictions, restlessness, bitterness, tribulations, pusillanimity and despondency, and sometimes with profound melancholy. Meanwhile, the unwary soul does not defend itself against these thoughts; because, finding its sins and faults before its eyes in a low opinion of itself, it believes it is full of humility, when in reality it is filled with an infernal poison.

Let us listen to Saint Teresa on this point: "True humility, although it makes the soul recognize itself as evil, and grieves to see what it is;  But it does not come with commotion, nor does it disturb the heart, nor does it cloud the mind, nor does it cause dryness; rather, it consoles. Then she grieves for how much she has offended God, and on the other hand, she enlarges her breast to hope for His mercy: she has light to confound herself, and to praise God, Who has suffered so much with her. But in the other humility that the devil introduces, there is no light for any good; it seems that God plunges everything into fire and blood; it is an invention of the devil, one of the most painful, subtle, and hidden that I have known of him. (Saint Teresa of Jesus “LIFE”).

The editor is therefore convinced that there are two humilities: a holy one given by God; the other perverse, moved by the devil. The first is full of supernatural light, with which the soul clearly understands its faults and miseries: it is interiorly confused and annihilated, but with tranquility; and it feels sorrow, but sweet, and never loses hope in God. This is a balm from paradise. The second humility is full of an infernal light, which makes one see sins, but with a certain painful torment, with disturbance, with restlessness, with faintness, and with distrust in the goodness of God. This is a poison from hell, which, if it does not kill the soul, at least makes it weak, sick, and incapable of any good. And here, for greater clarity of this important doctrine, let the reader carefully note that between divine and diabolical humility there is this difference: the former is linked to generosity, and the latter to pusillanimity.  The first, it is true, humiliates, and perhaps annihilates the soul at the sight of its nothingness and its sins; but at the same time, it uplifts it with confidence in God, comforts and strengthens it; moreover, it is peaceful, serene, quiet, and gentle. Thus, the soul not only awaits the forgiveness of its faults, but also gains courage to repair its past and present failures with penance and good works; and from its very nothingness, it gains greater confidence to do great things in the service of God. The second, on the contrary, with a turbid and restless confusion, with a fear full of anguish and distress, deprives the soul of all hope, makes it vile and lazy, fills it with distrust, collapse, pusillanimity, and faintness; in short, it takes away all spiritual strength so that it cannot move, or at most moves with weakness and languor, to holy and virtuous works.  If the director should happen to find this perverse humility in any of his penitents (as will certainly happen, and not infrequently, especially in women who are naturally timid and faint-hearted), he must open their eyes and make them understand the diabolical spirit that dominates them, and bring them back to the true path with the means I will propose later.

“DISCERNMENT OF SPIRITS”

Year 1853