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II. THE FALL OF THE ANGELS
391 Behind the disobedient choice of our first
parents lurks a seductive voice, opposed to God, which makes them fall into
death out of envy. Scripture and the Church's Tradition see in this being a
fallen angel, called "Satan" or the "devil". The Church teaches that Satan was
at first a good angel, made by God: "The devil and the other demons were indeed
created naturally good by God, but they became evil by their own doing."
392 Scripture speaks of a sin of these angels.
This "fall" consists in the free choice of these created spirits, who radically
and irrevocably rejected God and his reign. We find a reflection of
that rebellion in the tempter's words to our first parents: "You will be like
God." The devil "has sinned from the beginning"; he is "a liar and the father of
lies".
393 It is the irrevocable character of
their choice, and not a defect in the infinite divine mercy, that makes the
angels' sin unforgivable. "There is no repentance for the angels after their
fall, just as there is no repentance for men after death."
394 Scripture witnesses to the disastrous
influence of the one Jesus calls "a murderer from the beginning", who would even
try to divert Jesus from the mission received from his Father. "The reason the
Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil." In its consequences
the gravest of these works was the mendacious seduction that led man to disobey
God.
395 The power
of Satan is, nonetheless, not infinite. He is only a creature, powerful from the
fact that he is pure spirit, but still a creature. He cannot prevent the
building up of God's reign. Although Satan may act in the world out of hatred
for God and his kingdom in Christ Jesus, and although his action may cause grave
injuries — of a spiritual nature and, indirectly, even of a physical nature — to
each man and to society, the action is permitted by divine providence which with
strength and gentleness guides human and cosmic history. It is a great mystery
that providence should permit diabolical activity, but "we know that in
everything God works for good with those who love him."
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