Satan at His Most Subtle: A Reflection on the Temptations and Traps of the Pious

What is temptation? Temptation is the work of Satan to drag you to Hell. And Satan can read you like a book and play you like piano. Do not exaggerate his power, but do not underestimate it either.

Some of his subtlest work is done in the area of religious observance. There, he can cloak himself quite easily in the lamb’s clothing of piety, but, wolf that he really is, distort it, either through excess or defect, thereby destroying you with what is good. Beware what some spiritual writers call the “traps of the pious.” Consider some examples:

He can discourage you with prayer by saying, “If only you would pray a little longer, God will give you what you seek.” But the deception is that if we can pray a little longer, then we can never have prayed enough. Thus though we pray, we only feel guilty and inadequate. And since we can never have prayed “enough,” prayer increasingly turns into a burdensome task; God becomes a cruel taskmaster demanding longer and more precise prayers. Or prayer becomes a superstitious endeavor whose outcome we somehow control by the length and type of our prayers. Jesus counsels us that the Father knows what we need and that we should not think that merely multiple words and pious actions are necessary. We may need to persevere in prayer over time, but God is not a cruel tyrant demanding endless incantations.
Satan can take the beautiful practice of praying the rosary, or attending daily Mass, or other devotions and slowly incite in us a feeling of smug superiority, elitism, or pride. Gradually, others are thought to be less devout, even in error, because they do not do or observe what is optional or encouraged but not required. What is beautiful and holy is thus employed to incite ever-growing pride and cynicism. A most extreme form of this comes from those who take the beautiful and powerful devotion to our Lady of Fatima and allow Satan to set them against even the Pope and all the world’s bishops by claiming that they failed, either ineptly or willfully, to properly consecrate Russia. And thus one of our most beautiful and informative apparitions can engender in some people distrust of the Church and disunity from her, from multiple popes, and even from Sister Lucia herself. It is an astonishingly crafty work of the evil one to take what is good and religious and corrupt it in the minds of some.
Satan can also take what IS required and turn it into a kind of religious minimalism, a way of keeping God at a distance. And thus he tempts some souls with the notion that Sunday Mass, a little something in the collection plate, and a few rushed prayers are the end of religion rather than the beginning of it. Such observances become a way of “checking off the God-box” and being done with God for the week, rather than a foundation on which to build a beautiful and ever-deepening relationship of love with God. Such minimal practices become a form of “God-control” for those tempted in this way; it is as if to say, “I’ve done what I am supposed to do, now God and the Church have to leave me alone. God also needs to take care me now since I’ve done what I’m required to do.” And thus the Church’s beautiful laws and the requirements describing the basic duties or foundation for a deepening relationship with God, become a kind of “separation agreement,” insisting on very strict visiting hours and specifying who gets what.
Satan can take religious zeal and corrupt it into harsh and uncharitable zealotry. He can take a love for the beauty of the Liturgy, ancient or new, and turn it into a persnickety insistence on exactly the right ingredients, at the expense of charity and at the cost of ridicule, false superiority, and disunity. And thus, charity thrust aside, we say, “Just make sure you celebrate the liturgy the way I like it. Anyone who doesn’t like what I like is antiquarian, a knave, or an uncouth troglodyte and must obviously hate the Church that I love so beautifully …”
Satan can take the beautiful love for the poor and corrupt it into an enslaving paternalism that locks them into dependency, or does not address their spiritual needs by speaking to them respectfully of their sins, or does not seek to deepen their spiritual and family lives. And thus the beautiful corporal works of mercy are either set at odds with the spiritual works of mercy or are considered adequate in themselves. Satan can send many to serve the poor, armed with half-truths and approaches that merely bandage deeper wounds without addressing them.

Well, you see, in a certain sense, any virtue will do. Satan can make use of any of them and will seek to corrupt all of them, even the religious ones. He will just as surely go to work in the life of someone in a church pew, as in a brothel or the gutter. No one is exempt from his work of temptation; his goal is to drag us to Hell.

What makes his work of corrupting virtue so insidious is the subtlety of his work, for he takes something that is intrinsically good and seeks to corrupt it, either by excess or defect, or to turn it into some sort of caricature of itself.

Virtues, of course, are meant to work in combination with other virtues that balance them. For example, charity should be balanced by truth and truth by charity. Without charity, the truth can bludgeon; without truth, charity can become harmful, patronizing, and wickedly affirming. Charity and truth are meant to balance each other and to work alongside other virtues in a delicate interplay.

One of Satan’s tactics is to take one virtue and isolate it from others. Beware of these subtle tactics of Satan, who disguises himself well in the robes of virtue. But they are detached virtues, virtues out of balance and proportion.

Beware the traps of the pious.

"I don’t have to refute anything."

You don't have to refute anything? I beg to differ. Your cult-like organization makes the claim that the true body of believers, their "Church", teaches the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it includes each of those things I mentioned (and several others). I absolutely, unequivocally deny this claim and further say, these are man-made, fabrications of homemade religion. Your job of refutation is to show that I am wrong and these are, in fact, taught clearly in the Scriptures.

The topics themselves are descriptors of the content and I was challenging you, or any RC, to provide solid biblical evidence of their truthfulness. All you need to do is provide the passages wherein the ideas are taught. Where is "popery" taught? Where is an "indulgence" taught? Where is the "absolution of sin by a man" taught? Where is "purgatory" taught? Where is "veneration (and worship) of Mary as the co-redemptrix" taught? Must I go on or can you get the idea?

We biblicists can point to precisely where salvation by grace, through faith, alone is taught (Eph. 2). We can point to where it is taught that God chooses those He will rescue (Rom. 9). We can point to the sufficiency and perspicuity of the Bible (II Tim. 3:16,17). We can point to the depravity and helplessness of man (Rom. 3). All I am asking is for you, too, to point to where your organization's doctrines are taught in the Scripture. Or admit that they are made up by your organization, not supported in the Scriptures.

>>>Your cult-like organization makes the claim that the true body of believers, their "Church", teaches the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it includes each of those things I mentioned (and several others). I absolutely, unequivocally deny this claim and further say, these are man-made, fabrications of homemade religion.<<<<

Methinks you protest too much. I know YOU are a member of a cult, and among the thousands of splintered offshoots from the one true Church of Christ, which has remained the same Catholic, and Apostolic, and not fabrications. I don't have to prove anything to you. You obviously don't care enough about the claims of the Catholic Church to give me a serious representation and refutation.

You probably don't even want to investigate Catholic claims. At a bare minimum, you post against other Catholics without truly going through the effort to show your homework. Its a waste of time, because you won't convince anyone.

>>>We biblicists can point to precisely where salvation by grace, through faith, alone is taught<<<

No where in scripture does it expressly say "faith alone." That sounds like the invention of Martin Luther, whose errors were condemned by the council of Trent in 1563. The Catholic Church does not hold an unassuming doctrine on justification and grace. The Church does in fact teach that Faith is the essential and necessary and sufficient requirement for justification. That justification cannot be earned. The Church disagrees practically, that a person can say they believe in Jesus on Sunday and then burn crucifixes on Saturday night. Wouldn't you agree, a Christian does not believe in Jesus the Son of God, if they teach that Jesus was only a man and just wanted to pretend he was God? There are such things as practical consequences for belief. Why else would so many street side preachers attempt to get someone to proclaim Jesus?

The teachings of the Catholic Church are not hidden in some secret room. They are open and easily accessed online or in bookstores and libraries. They can be obtained from the sources of documents distributed.

Until you want to present to me something that is not a convenient straw-man for you to denigrate, I don't have to respond any further here.

>>No where in scripture does it expressly say "faith alone."<<

Romans 5:1 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

Romans 4:5 But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.

Romans 3:28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.

Galatians 5:6 For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.

Galatians 2:16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

Philippians 3:9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:

Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

Romans 3:27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.

Now you might think to come back with James 2:24 but let's let Christ answer that one for you.

John 6:28 Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? 29 Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.

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