In the General Audience this Wednesday, December 27, Pope Francis began a new cycle of catechesis on “vices and virtues.”
From the Paul VI Hall of the Vatican he has focused his reflection on the theme “guarding the heart.”
Below is the complete catechesis of Pope Francis:
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!
Today I would like to introduce a cycle of catechism on the topic of vices and virtues. And we can begin at the very beginning of the Bible, where the book of Genesis, through the story of the progenitors, presents the dynamics of evil and temptation. Let’s think about paradise on earth. In the idyllic painting that represents the Garden of Eden, a character appears who becomes the symbol of temptation: the snake, this character that seduces. The snake is an insidious animal: it moves slowly, sliding along the ground, and sometimes its presence is not even noticed, it is silent, because it manages to blend in well with its environment. Above all, that’s why it’s dangerous. And above all this is dangerous.
When he begins his dialogue with Adam and Eve, he shows that he is also a refined dialectician. He begins as he does in bad gossip, with a malicious question: “Is it true that God said, Thou shalt not eat of any tree of the garden?” (Gen 3,1). The phrase is false: God really offered man and woman all the fruits of the garden, except those of a specific tree: the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
This prohibition is not intended to prohibit man from using reason, as is sometimes misinterpreted, but rather it is a measure of wisdom. As if to say: recognize the limit, do not feel like you are the owner of everything, because pride is the beginning of all evil. Thus, history says that God places the progenitors as lords and guardians of creation, but he wants to preserve them from the presumption of omnipotence, from becoming masters of good and evil. Which is a temptation, an ugly temptation now too. This is the most dangerous obstacle for the human heart.
As we know, Adam and Eve were unable to resist the temptation of the serpent. The idea of a not-so-good God, who wanted to keep them subdued, crept into their minds: hence the collapse of everything.
With these stories, the Bible explains to us that evil does not begin in man in a resounding way, when an act has already manifested itself, but that evil begins much earlier, when one begins to entertain himself with it, to lull him to sleep with the imagination and thoughts, and ends up being trapped by its temptations. Abel’s murder did not begin with a thrown stone, but with the grudge that Cain perversely held, turning him into a monster inside. Also in this case, God’s advice is of no use: “Sin is crouching at your door; His instinct is directed towards you, but you will dominate him” (Gen 4:7).
There is never any dialogue with the devil, dear brothers and sisters. It should never be argued. Jesus has never dialogued with the devil, he has expelled him, and when he tempts him in the desert, he has not responded to the dialogue. He has simply responded with the words of Holy Scripture, with the Word of God. Be careful, the devil is a seducer, never talk to him, because he is smarter than us and he will make us pay.
When a temptation comes, never dialogue. She closes the door, closes the window, closes the heart. And so we defend ourselves from this seduction. Because the dialogue is clever, it is intelligent. He has tried to quote Jesus with biblical quotations, he posed as a great theologian there. There is no dialogue with the devil. Have you understood this correctly? Be attentive, there is no dialogue with the devil and we should not entertain temptations, there is no dialogue. Does temptation come? We close the door, we guard the heart. One must be the guardian of one’s own heart, and that is why we do not dialogue with the devil.
This is the recommendation that we find in several fathers and saints. Guard the heart, guard the heart. And we must ask for this grace, learn to guard the heart. It is wisdom to know how to guard the heart.