The blessed in Christ, the bitterest enemy of the ancient adversary

IntroductionJust as the provident design of the Trinity chose and predestined Mary of Nazareth in Christ, it also chose and predestined men and women to be, if they so desire, children of Forgiveness, that is, children of Light and children of the Day that will never know sunset: the blessed day of the resurrection of the dead. This election/gift of the Father will be, if we embrace it in faith and bear fruit in testimony, stronger than any seduction or experience of evil and sin, as magnificently demonstrated by the history of Mary of Nazareth, the first ally of God against Satan and evil.Invoking the Holy Mother, sharing in her acceptance of the gift of the Spirit from the Father and the Son with daily adherence to the demands and values of the Kingdom, the disciple and disciple know that such following of the Holy and Blessed One of God involves a hard battle that “is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of this world of darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil” (Ephesians 6:12). Like Mary, the blessed because she believed (cf. Luke 1:45), the disciple and disciple of Christ, against the seducing Adversary, must resist him, remaining firm in faith (cf. 1 Peter 5:8-9).

After Vatican II…

The presence and action of the Mother of the Redeemer in Christ’s struggle against Satan, especially after the Second Vatican Council, was not normally addressed by theologians and is not present in contemporary theology and mariology texts, except in some rare cases quite recent. On this point, Stefano De Fiores wrote in his book *Maria e o mistério do mal* (Maria and the Mystery of Evil), published posthumously in 2013: “Whoever considers the Bible sees that ‘for Israel, for a long time, there were only two causes of evil: man and God’. Then, it is understood that while man cannot escape his responsibility, having ‘the heart always inclined to evil’ (Genesis 6:5), God can in no way be an accomplice of evil. Thus, Satan, who means ‘to be hostile, enemy, adversary’, was seen as the author of all disease and evil. Despite his extensive malevolent action, the New Testament does not reserve Satan a prominent place; he does not appear at all in the central and constitutive announcement of the faith, which revolves around Christ dead, risen, ascended to the Father, and the giver of the Spirit of sanctity and truth. However, the struggle against Satan is inevitable and always current, as the inauguration of the Kingdom of God implies the destruction of the kingdom of evil, that is, of ‘dystopian structures, that is, perverse’ inspired and organized by the Evil One.”In the struggle against evil and the Evil One by Christ and his Church, the peculiar contribution of the Mother of the Redeemer is present, as witnessed by the patristic, liturgical, and magisterial tradition, also recent. Indeed, the Church, in its doctrine, in its liturgical life, and in its pastoral ministry, has always considered and invoked the Mother of Jesus as a sure refuge against evil! The Second Vatican Council itself, in its dogmatic constitution *Lumen Gentium*, drew attention to the relationship between the Holy Virgin and Satan in…Lumen Gentium 55 and 63, both times in reference to the serpent of Scripture and the divine promise (cf. Gn 3:15).

The Contribution of Saint John Paul II

Since the beginning of the encyclical Redemptoris Mater (RM) of March 25, 1987, in addressing the agonistic nature of the Mother of the Redeemer, that is, her role as a tenacious adversary and strong combatant against evil and all curse, Saint John Paul II (1978-2005) places the Virgin in the context of salvation history, highlighting her close bond with the Lord Jesus (for “only in the mystery of Christ does her mystery become fully clear”: RM 4) and with the Church, indissolubly united to her Lord, emphasizing her presence and blessed action within history. “Space” where the struggle between the Woman and the serpent continues, “a struggle that accompanies the history of humanity on earth and the history of salvation” (RM 11), as the central nucleus of salvation history is the freedom of man, who can choose or reject Christ, embracing or rejecting the influence of the Spirit and the Father’s generous mercy, remaining thus a prisoner and slave of the curse.From the Incarnation of the Son of God to his definitive coming at the Parousia, John Paul II teaches in the Marian encyclical, «the victory of the Son of Man will not occur without a hard struggle, which must permeate all human history. The “enmity,” announced at the beginning, is confirmed in the Book of Revelation, the ultimate reality of the Church and the world, where the “woman” sign appears once more, “clothed in the sun” (Rev 12:1)… Mary thus remains before God, and before all humanity, as an immutable and inviolable sign of God’s election, of which the Pauline letter speaks: “In Christ, he chose us before the creation of the world” (Eph 1:4). This election is stronger than any experience of evil and sin, of all that “enmity” that marks human history. In this history, Mary remains a sign of secure hope (RM 11)».

The Mariological Reading of the Servants of Mary

Such is the dramatic yet necessary struggle described by the third Marian document of the Servants, connecting the texts of Genesis 3 and Revelation 12:«In the apocalyptic narrative, the dragon opposes fragility, birth, and the earth. These are intentionally linked to the woman clothed in the sun, her experience, and her history. Fragility is plastically and dramatically represented by the woman who, though clothed in the sun, is amidst the pains of childbirth. Human life is threatened and shrouded in the enigma of suffering and pain from its inception (cf. Rev 12:2, 4). Yet, according to the author, this fragility is in heaven (cf. Rev 12:1). We, on the other hand, would place it on earth, because by definition, heaven is the opposite of fragility. Heaven is the place of omnipotence and transcendence, the place of security, the place immune to suffering and pain. We strive for this heaven. Perhaps we do so because it is the heaven imagined by the serpent (cf. Gen 3:4-5). We are drawn to it by its words (cf. Gen 3:6). In such a heaven, there is no room for the fragile. In such a heaven, there is no place for human partnership and its fruits. In such a heaven, there is no space for parenthood, motherhood, and filiation. The serpent, in fact, seeks to devour and eliminate all of these. Yet, it is not the dragon who dwells in heaven. He is not the Lord. He cannot lead anyone there. Heaven belongs to God. He is the Lord. In God’s heaven, in the kingdom of heaven proclaimed and realized by the Son, Word made flesh, fragility is familiar: it is even the origin and destiny. The Church proclaims this evangelical testimony by pointing to the person of the Assumed in glory as a word of consolation and secure hope. Mary enters heaven because she lived without the serpent’s venomous word entangling her created fragility. Moreover, the event of birth opposes the dragon. True, birth announces a mystery of death: we are born precisely because those who generated us were not and are not immortal. If someone is born, it is because they will die. The serpent, trying to devour the boy at his birth (cf. Rev 12:4), thus seeks to prove that we are essentially “beings for death.” For him, death is the key and truth of all human existence. Thus, human speech can only admit that parenthood, motherhood, and filiation are merely structures of curse through which it is not life that is transmitted, but death. The wise one must say: “May the day I was born and the night I was said to be conceived perish” (Job 3:2. Cf. Jer 20:15-18). But in God’s heaven, things are different. Whoever is born, frail and defenseless, is immediately taken to God and His throne (cf. Rev 12:5). God guarantees that birth, parenthood, motherhood, and filiation are stronger than death. Thanks to this revelation (cf. Rev 11:19),»”Then the wise man will say, ‘I know that you can do all things, and no plan of yours can be thwarted’ (Job 42:2-5; cf. Luke 1:37-38). Only if this is life, the other is brother and sister, not hell. Only if this is life, conflict and diversity can find paths of reconciliation, respect, and welcome. Only if this is life, birth becomes a promise, and the mystery of pain, suffering, and even death do not prevent us from becoming men and women of hope who struggle against every form of social, cultural, and religious fear. Finally, it is necessary to realize that the very earth opposes the dragon (cf. Revelation 12:15-16). The earth is a refuge for the woman clothed in the sun (cf. Revelation 12:13-14). The earth swallows the river that the dragon spits out against it. The serpent is not the mistress of the earth. The earth belongs to God (cf. Revelation 4:11; 5:13; 11:17-18; 14:7; Genesis 1:1; 2:4-14). We are not apostles of a dualistic vision that opposes body and soul, material and spiritual, immanent and transcendent, finite and infinite, earth and heaven, good and evil. We are not carriers of syncretistic wisdom, shaped by the dictates of the New Age. We are not prophets of a universal religion, capable of transcending the faithful identities of each spiritual tradition. We are not guardians of a civil religion, horizontal, where love for the neighbor becomes an ideology. Nor are we heralds of experiences that fall within that vast field that scholars call “mother religions.” On the contrary, we are those who put ourselves at the service of the vital potentials given by God to the earth (cf. Luke 12:54-57 and parallels). However, we must not fall into the “farmer’s complex” and think that the earth bears fruit only if cultivated. It is no coincidence that Jesus tells the parable of the earth that bears fruit spontaneously (cf. Mark 4:26-29; John 4:31-38). Parables are not simple stories for ignorant listeners. Rather, they are sharp stones: they are the Word that becomes a sword to “uproot, knock down, destroy, and build up” (Jeremiah 1:10) the good news of the Gospel that the earth does not and does not necessarily take on the face of the farmer cultivating it. The face that the earth must have is the one that God gives it, because He wishes to grant it in His loving freedom. Simply because it is His.”

Benedict XVI and the Ritual of Exorcism

In this regard, it is no coincidence that in his teaching, Benedict XVI subtly and critically embraces the biblical apocalyptic perspective to frame the current conflict between Christian humanism and atheist humanism (in the sense of Henri de Lubac’s theological thought). By discerning the terms of the conflict, he recovers the apocalyptic theme of God’s People, showing how they are engaged in a struggle against antagonistic forces. Within this apocalyptic scenario, atheist humanism appears as an example of the false escatological prophet: the lie that presents itself under the guise of truth and, precisely for this reason, diverts God’s People, destroying them. Following the line of the Book of Revelation, Pope Ratzinger sees in the prophetic testimony, which takes the form of Christ’s charity in truth, the appropriate response to this conflict.In the renewed liturgical rite of exorcism, which contributes to manifest the Church as a community of blessing, in the invocative formula pronounced by the priest, one asks the Almighty and Merciful God to hear “the prayer of the blessed Virgin Mary: the Son of God, dying on the cross, crushed the head of the ancient serpent and entrusted all mankind to the Mother as sons.” Thus, the rite also makes its own the biblical testimony about this struggle between the Blessed and the Cursed, to which the “full of grace” and “blessed among women” is associated as the “Mother of Life.” This universal motherhood, the Mother of Heaven does not renounce to exercise, out of love for the disciples and disciples of the Son, who are under the terrible dominion of Satan, whom exorcists themselves admit is her most fierce and relentless enemy simply because he exists as a creature, as a woman, as a person, as a perfectly redeemed by grace and faith, in a structural, stable, and dynamic relationship, blessed and blessing, with all those called to be part of the “communion of saints.”

Conclusion

In the face of Satan’s enmity, Mary responds with enmity towards him and his works. However, the meaning and terms of this “enmity” must be carefully explained, as the word, in its everyday and non-everyday usage, can suggest hatred and violence. Yet, these accursed aspects of life were never adopted by the Blessed among women. We can be aided by the aforementioned Marian document of the Servants when it writes: «Only Christ, in fact, saves us from becoming like the wicked and idolaters depicted in the psalmistic prayer: fierce beasts that feed on human flesh, devouring to the right and left those who cannot, do not know, or will not become like them (cf. Ps 9[8],8-10. 17[16],12. 22[21],14. 35[34],17. 57[56],5). They spread terror around them (cf. Jer 20,10) and destroy creation (cf. Jer 12,10-14. 14,2-6). Mary is the mother of those who combat such cruel ferocity. She is the mother of her Servants and Servants who have chosen to live this struggle as a rule of their cristiform and christifying life (cf. 2 Mac 7,1-41). She is the mother of all those who, even suffering violence in their flesh at the hands of the prince of this world, do not submit to his rules and logic. She is the mother of those the world considers “dead” and treats them as such, but who, in reality, in Christ, with Him, and by Him, are the true living, because “they have been raised from the dead” (Rom 6,13. Cf. Rev 6,9-11)».Understood in this way, the Mother of the Lord’s enmity towards Satan must be integrated into her *peregrinatio fidei* as a woman and faithful, justified in a sublime and perfect way, precisely through her faith. It must be included in the spiritual motherhood conferred upon her by Providence. On this point, a renowned theologian and exorcist writes: «In the struggle against Satan, we reserve a special place for Marian prayer. The mystery of the Annunciation reveals how the Mother of the Redeemer knew how to repair Eve’s sin, becoming a tool of salvation for all humanity. Obedient to God’s will, Mary restores paradise. In the struggle against the old dragon, the Mother of God is more powerful than an army in battle. “Who is this that appears like the dawn, beautiful as the moon, radiant as the sun, majestic as an army with banners unfurled?” (Ct 6,10). Many saints teach us that the Rosary prayer is a powerful weapon against the demon».How should the affirmation about the power of Marian prayer be understood? The Servants’ document states: «The Genesis narrative, beyond any reduccionist or indebted reading to an inappropriate patriarchal tradition, introduces the woman as one who “preserves” Adam in his human specificity, preventing this from being confused with animality (cf. Gen 2,18-25). Mary, a woman from among the poor of the Lord and the holy women of Israel, is the *Mater viventium* (cf.In Genesis 3:20, because it is the intact odigítria (original plan) that leads to Him in whom resplends the fullness of humanity created in the image and likeness of God, the true spouse of the Church (cf. Ephesians 5:29-32)… Indeed, in her intercession with the Son of God, Saint Mary asks for the grace and gift of unity, peace, and joy for humanity, aiming at the construction of the Civilization of Love, overcoming tendencies to division, vengeance, and hatred, and the perverse fascination of destructive violence. Pointing us to Christ, the *Mater viventium* (Mother of the Living) testifies in Him that God is the source of life, because He does not identify with what Adam and Eve thought He was when they heard the serpent. According to the serpent, God is the one who feigns to generate life, but in truth abandons it, hindering the knowledge of good and evil. Without this, there is no development of vital and, therefore, just relations, and the human couple does not know how to position themselves in the world in the light of truth. The God revealed by the serpent resembles the fate told and transmitted by Greek tragedy, where characters are forced to confess that abandonment is their origin and the final destination awaiting all and everything. The Risen One reverses this paradigm of thought and life. At the hour of the Cross, His hour, He maintains unchanged His consciousness of His origin, as the Son of the Father: God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son (cf. John 3:16). He is fully conscious of His birth: He is the one born of the Father (cf. John 3:6), who descended from heaven (cf. John 3:13-15). He knows well His destiny: the Father (cf. John 13:1-3). Jesus’ hour is not abandonment, but filiation (cf. John 19:28-30). At this hour, the Son embraces the Mother. The Woman in Pain becomes the *Mater vivantium*, witness of the origin and destiny awaiting all humanity: the God who loves and gives.*The mystery of the incarnation of the Son of God, the true *mysterium pietatis et benedictionis* (mystery of piety and blessing), carried out by the Spirit of the Father to defeat the *mysterium iniquitatis et maledictionis* (mystery of iniquity and curse) (cf. 2 Thessalonians 2:7, Ephesians 6:12), places the “Woman” of Genesis and Apocalypse, mother of the Messiah Jesus Christ, in a state of permanent struggle and service, in continuous agonistic tension with the Church and its members. In this context of struggle and victory, where Christ, despite the nefarious virulence of the Evil One, is “the stronger” who defeated “the strong” (cf. Luke 11:22), the Mother of the Redeemer, “who belongs to the humble and poor of the Lord,” the “*Filia Sionis*,” carries within her, as no other human being, “that ‘glory of grace’ which the Father ‘gave us in His beloved Son,’ and this grace determines the extraordinary greatness and beauty of her whole being” (Romans 11).Mary’s faith, her sanctity, her acceptance, with splendid and true humility and docility, of the divine will in all circumstances of life and in the following of Jesus, her exemplary and theological fear of God, her cooperation with Christ and the Spirit for the salvation of men (as witnessed by the Gospels), the enmity and struggle she undertook in her earthly life and continues now in the communion of saints in heaven against evil and the Evil One, are clearly shared, through the sacraments and the multiple gifts of the Spirit, by the Church, as Pope Wojtyla teaches in *RM* 25-28. All this is “*transmitted at the same time through knowledge and the heart, acquired or regained continuously through prayer*,” (RM 28). Cardinal and theologian Angelo Amato writes: “*The weapons of the Christian against Satan, says St. Paul, are ‘the shield of faith, the armor of justice, and the sword of the Spirit’ (Ephesians 6:13-17). Even more simply, Jesus says that the two weapons to overcome the adversary of God are prayer and fasting. But even more effective are the weapons that the Church provides us, especially in the sacraments of reconciliation and the Eucharist. These sacraments strengthen us in grace, assimilate us to Jesus, and make us strong against every temptation, immediately raising us when we fall*.”However, the exhortation to sincere and incessant prayer as the path to “*salvation of souls*” remains essential, and in the same sense goes the call to penance and conversion to the good and merciful God, presented and manifested hypostatically in the person of Jesus, Son of God and the Virgin of Nazareth, woman and mother of an immaculate and merciful heart.Deepen your studies: explore Mariology, Marian theology, Marian apparitions and the Graduate Program in Mariology.To deepen the theology of Mary in Christ, consult the Encyclical Redemptoris Mater by Pope John Paul II.