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“And, once I also asked Satan, ‘but why are you more scared when I invoke Our Lady than when I invoke Jesus Christ?’ He answered me, ‘Because I am more humiliated to be defeated by a human creature than being defeated by him.”

This fits with a lot of what I've read about "old scratch".

He's incredibly proud, to the point of caricature. Small-t tradition says that Satan's "original sin" was refusing to humble himself to adore the Incarnate Christ -- imagine, he, a member of the Seraphic Order, commanded to adore a wailing, puking, pooping baby -- unthinkable [sniff]!

He's completely contemptuous of us humans; he respects us less than we "respect" a cow or a pig. To him, the idea that God saves us and sets us above the angels ... well, imagine if your father threw you out of the house for disobedience, and then brought the pigs and chickens in the house to live with him, adopted them as his children, put them in his will (where *you* certainly *weren't* anymore!), made them rulers over your real brothers and sisters (and turned them against you), and even acted like them for a while, until they pecked and savaged him to death -- yuck! If you had no love or trust for your father, but loads of pride, imagine what hatred and resentment that would engender.

By contrast, God is profoundly humble and meek, yet -- as his friends know -- with a droll sense of humor. The servants of each are like their master. When you see someone who is humble, meek, longsuffering, yet perhaps even cheerful, you are seeing an image of God in his servant. When you see someone who is "touchy," proud (in a personal sense), and seeking revenge for every slight or hint of opposition ... you're seeing an image of someone else in someone who is, at least for the moment, *his* servant.

When you see someone who is humble, meek, longsuffering, yet perhaps even cheerful, you are seeing an image of God in his servant. When you see someone who is "touchy," proud (in a personal sense), and seeking revenge for every slight or hint of opposition ... you're seeing an image of someone else in someone who is, at least for the moment, *his* servant.

Brilliant comments, Campion.

"Small-t tradition says that Satan's "original sin" was refusing to humble himself to adore the Incarnate Christ..."

IMHO, All sin is rooted in pride. God has given us some explicitly clear rules for living and imprinted on our conscience a sense of right and wrong. Any sin we commit arises from an egotistical conviction that we know a better way.