Human Love and the Devil (part one)

What even the Catholic Church won’t tell you about sex is the role of the Devil, Original Sin and the Fall of Man.

One sometimes gets the impression that if we could quietly discard all that stuff about the Devil, Original Sin and the Fall we would do: and in practices one never hears them mentioned in classroom or pulpit. It all seems so harsh and rather out of date.

There are (at least) a couple of problems with that approach: one is that Our Lord clearly believed in the Devil - and indeed met him on ore than one occasion. The other is that Original Sin is a compassionate doctrine that makes so much sense of our actual experience.

I will go on about this over the next few posts, but for now, I will simply remark that the Devil hates human love: it is where in our nature we are closest to God. So it is unsurprising that he attacks it with a particular vehemence. I think that marriage preparation should include this simple fact: that by getting married a couple are placing themselves in the front line, they will be attacked, and they need the strength of the sacraments, not just of matrimony which of course gives them the grace of state, but also of frequent confession and holy communion, if they are to have the best chance of repelling these attacks.