“By Beelzebub, the prince of devils, he casts out devils.”
In his book, An Exorcist, More Stories, Fr. Gabriel Amorth, chief exorcist of Rome, presents a statistic from West Germany obtained in 1974: “One out of three theologians does not believe in the existence of Satan; almost two out of three believe in his existence but not in his practical actions and REFUSE to take it into account in pastoral activity.” 

Fr. Amorth believes a poll of priests would reveal similar results.

The Catechism Explained, by Spirago and Clark, says it is a serious sin against faith to deny the existence of evil angels... so as it may prove beneficial, we will speak today on the devil, his deeds, and how we avoid his snares.

Who is the prince of devils? 
The Bible has many names for him: Satan, Lucifer, Beelzebub, ancient serpent, red dragon,... but Fr. Amorth says the best name is blasphemy for if evil could ever be personified it would bear the name of all that is opposed to God.

Rabbinical tradition says the prince of devils was, at one time, the most important spirit at God’s throne.  He had twelve wings, twice the number as the Seraphim.  As the highest angel, he was the prince of all creation, but by one act of disobedience, he became the creature furthest from God.  (The fall of the best is the worst.)

How did the prince of angels become the prince of devils? 
Sometime after their creation, all the angels were tested by God for their fidelity.  The prince of the angels, desirous to have equality with God, strove for it as something to be grasped.  Many other angels, as numerous as the stars in our night sky, followed him in this venture.  Indeed, when asked how many angels there are, Fr. Amorth cites the Book of Apocalypse’s  “myriads and myriads”; when asked how many demons there are, he repeats the words a demon spoke through a demoniac, “We are so many that, if it we were visible, we would darken the sky.”

The angels who followed the prince made a free and irrevocable choice.  Thus when they failed to establish their authority, they were all punished and are now irrevocably damned for all eternity. They have not yet, however, to be separated from the life of men.

From Adam to the last man to be born, the fallen angels (devils) are allowed to roam the earth "seeking the ruin of souls.”  These angels have lost heaven forever.  They are in hell in the sense that they carry about them even now the eternal misery of having lost God; they have yet, however, to be isolated altogether from just men. 

The devils know that every man coming into this world has a chance to occupy the heaven which was first destined for them.  This brings them great misery.  St. Thomas teaches, “the knowledge that a creature of earth will occupy his place in heaven, causes the devil more pain then the flames of hell itself.”  In this way, the envy of the devil is the reason he tempts man away from his God.  As he can not have a good thing, the devil does not want any one else to have it either and that is why the sin of envy is particular to the bad angels.
 
 What do the devils do?
In his warfare against man, no devil is permitted to do as he pleases... and this is a good thing! for one angel, and the weakest of them, could destroy all material creation.  In virtue of this fact, God limits the power of evil spirits and allows them only to try mankind - some more than others - in order to advance God’s glory and man’s perfection.  The ordinary activity of devils is to tempt man away from God by encouraging man to indulge his passions. 

But, as scripture records, demons may do extraordinary things.  Fr. Amorth lists six kinds: 
1) External pain: the devil causes physical suffering and injuries i.e., Job’s grievous ulcer, the Cure of Ars’ nightly beatings. 
2) Diabolic possession: the devil is allowed to continually occupy a human body i.e., our Blessed Lord expels the Legion of demons and into the swine, and the stuff of Hollywood movies.
3) Diabolic oppression: the devil causes a random discomfort which adversely affects health, job, family life, relationships.  Diabolic oppression may reveal itself in unexplainable rages, tendency toward isolation, lack of desire for spiritual advancement.  It can be present in individuals and groups i.e., the parish which didn’t want adoration until the priest had the members repeat their baptismal promises.
4) Diabolic obsession: the evil spirit causes an almost split personality.  The human will remains free but is weighed down with oppressive thoughts i.e., persistent temptation to suicide.  Could this explain our country’s over-use of antidepressants and booming psychiatry profession?
5) Diabolic infestation: the evil spirit activity is directed toward things: places - houses, offices, stores, fields; objects -  cars, pillows, dolls; and animals.  In Nepal, a chicken was hexed and given to another who, after eating the chicken, so burned with itching he wanted to die.  
6) Diabolic subjugation: the devil uses some men to manipulate others so that they influence them to form a voluntary pact, implicit or explicit, with Satan i.e., the international witches group, WICCA, owns three record companies and, before commercial distribution, every record  is consecrated to Satan in order to lead youth into Satanism.

What is the primary defense against the devil?
Man’s first defense against the devil is baptism... that is why the rite of baptism contains an exorcism. 

To the shock of the modern world, Pope Paul VI gave a general audience on the reality of the devil on November 15, 1972 wherein he stated, “To be born means to be in the arms of the demon rather than the arms of God.  Baptism ransoms us from this slavery and makes us free children of God.  Therefore (the demon) is our number one enemy.”

Long ago, St. Paul identified our number one enemy this way, “our wrestling is not against flesh and blood but against the principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this present darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in high places.” (Ep. 6:12)

How might the baptized be kept safe from the devil? 
The baptized will be safe from the devil if they live holy lives.  If we avoid near occasions of sin, regularly converse with God and the saints in prayer, frequent the Sacraments, devotedly recite our Rosary, use holy water and other sacramentals of the Church, read spiritual books,... if such wholesome spiritual exercises occupy our soul, we will have a sure defense against any invasion of the devil.  The devil of today’s gospel left the man because he had been exorcised, but  he came back, bringing seven even more deadly demons with him, as the man had no interior life!

 Beyond this, we need fortitude, “Resist the devil and he will fly from you.” (Jm 4:7)  Say often the words of the wearied Savior,  “Begone Satan!  For it is written, ‘The Lord thy God shalt thou worship and him alone thou shalt serve!’”  And for those more stubborn attachments to sin or  oppressive spirits which may be the root cause of our paralyzed spiritual life,  I recommend this short exorcism to be said daily: “I renounce Satan; I renounce all his pomps and works; and I break the bonds with which he has established me and for far too long held me bound.  And renew my love and fidelity to Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior, and Him alone I shall serve, now and into eternity.”

Finally, let us be at ease...   The devil exists, demons exist, but so does our gracious God.

If we receive the blessed Sacrament without fear, should we fear the devil?  No.

We read in scripture, and reason affirms, that we should not fear him who can kill the body and do not more.  No, we should rather fear Him who can kill and cast both body and soul into hell.  

A reverential fear of and tender love for our God in the Blessed Sacrament will be a good remedy against fearing the devil.  Indeed, the more we develop our reverence for this Holy Sacrament, the  less frightful we will be regarding the devil and the more frightful we shall become to him... and EVERY Christian should want to be the devil’s worse nightmare!