Sympathy for the Devil
“Please allow me to introduce myself
I’m a man of wealth and taste
I’ve been around for a long, long year
Stole many a man’s soul and faith.”
Strange days have found us when the Superior General of the Jesuits (the Black Pope) needs spiritual instruction from the Rolling Stones. Historically, the Jesuits have preached the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the Stones the anti-gospel of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. But the Stones could teach the black pope a thing or two about the Devil.
The Rolling Stones are a great rock band, and the Catholic Wise Guy occasionally listens to Mick and the boys in his Medicare years.
No one considers the Stones a Christian band – or a spiritual band of any sort. But they know about the devil. Their classic 60s song “Sympathy for the Devil” illustrates this. The song opens with the verses shown above. Old Satan is “…a man of wealth and taste” and he’s stolen “…many a man’s soul and faith.”
Satan played a role when our Lord “…had his moment of doubt and pain,” “…killed the Tsar and his ministers” during the Russian communist revolution, and “held a general’s rank/When the blitzkrieg raged/and the bodies stank” in World War II.
Many are puzzled by the Evil One and the “…nature of his game.” Mick reveals his name as “Lucifer,” and offers advice on how to behave if we meet him.
“So if you meet me
Have some courtesy
Have some sympathy, and some taste
Use all your well-learned politesse
Or I’ll lay your soul to waste.”
We must treat Old Satan with “courtesy” and “taste.” “Have some sympathy” for him. If we fail to use all our “well-learned politesse”, he will lay our “… soul to waste.” Now we Catholics would quibble with Mick on his advice for dealing with the Evil One but confess his understanding of the powerful personal reality of Lucifer is spot on.
Contrast the Stone’s understanding of Satan with that of the current Black Pope – Fr. Arturo Sosa. He was recently quoted as saying the devil “is not a person” and that he exists “as a symbolic reality, not a personal reality.” The Wise Guy finds it passing strange that one of the highest-ranking Catholic leaders would contradict a basic Catholic teaching. Unfortunately, the black pope is not the only black sheep in the Jesuit family. But that’s the subject of another essay.
The Church teaches that the devil and other demons are fallen angels. The Catechism states that angels are “spiritual, non-corporeal beings,” and adds “They are personal and immortal creatures who have intelligence and will.”
And it’s not a question of if we meet “the man of wealth and taste” but when. Old Satan greets us often, and the struggle against him constitutes a significant part of our Christian life. Ultimately, only the flak jacket of God’s grace and the night vision goggles of the Holy Spirit protect us from the “glamour of evil” presented so ably by the wily serpent. Lucifer could have been a great ad man on Madison Ave.
The Wise Guy closes by passing on the wisdom of men wiser than the Wise Guy – the first lie of the Father of Lies is to convince you he does not exist.