Copyright © 2006 By Doug Lawrence. All Rights Reserved.
Catechism Of The Catholic Church Reprinted With Permission.
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God’s Truth From The Catechism Of The Catholic Church – cont.
2849 Such a battle and such a victory become possible only through prayer. It is by his prayer that
Jesus vanquishes the tempter, both at the outset of his public mission and in the ultimate struggle
of his agony.
159
In this petition to our heavenly Father, Christ unites us to his battle and his agony.
He urges us to vigilance of the heart in communion with his own. Vigilance is "custody of the heart,"
and Jesus prayed for us to the Father: "Keep them in your name."
160
The Holy Spirit constantly
seeks to awaken us to keep watch.
161
Finally, this petition takes on all its dramatic meaning in
relation to the last temptation of our earthly battle; it asks for final perseverance. "Lo, I am coming
like a thief! Blessed is he who is awake."
162
VII "BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL"
2850 The last petition to our Father is also included in Jesus' prayer: "I am not asking you to take
them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one."
163
It touches each of us
personally, but it is always "we" who pray, in communion with the whole Church, for the deliverance
of the whole human family. The Lord's Prayer continually opens us to the range of God's economy
of salvation. Our interdependence in the drama of sin and death is turned into solidarity in the Body
of Christ, the "communion of saints."
164
2851 In this petition, evil is not an abstraction, but refers to a person, Satan, the Evil One, the
angel who opposes God. The devil (dia-bolos) is the one who "throws himself across" God's plan
and his work of salvation accomplished in Christ.
2852 "A murderer from the beginning, . . . a liar and the father of lies," Satan is "the deceiver of the
whole world."
165
Through him sin and death entered the world and by his definitive defeat all
creation will be "freed from the corruption of sin and death."
166
Now "we know that anyone born of
God does not sin, but He who was born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him.
We know that we are of God, and the whole world is in the power of the evil one."
167
The Lord who has taken away your sin and pardoned your faults also protects you and
keeps you from the wiles of your adversary the devil, so that the enemy, who is
accustomed to leading into sin, may not surprise you. One who entrusts himself to God
does not dread the devil. "If God is for us, who is against us?"
168
2853 Victory over the "prince of this world"
169
was won once for all at the Hour when Jesus freely
gave himself up to death to give us his life. This is the judgment of this world, and the prince of this
world is "cast out."
170
"He pursued the woman"
171
but had no hold on her: the new Eve, "full of
grace" of the Holy Spirit, is preserved from sin and the corruption of death (the Immaculate
Conception and the Assumption of the Most Holy Mother of God, Mary, ever virgin). "Then the
dragon was angry with the woman, and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring."
172
Therefore the Spirit and the Church pray: "Come, Lord Jesus,"
173
since his coming will deliver us
from the Evil One.
2854 When we ask to be delivered from the Evil One, we pray as well to be freed from all evils,
present, past, and future, of which he is the author or instigator. In this final petition, the Church
brings before the Father all the distress of the world. Along with deliverance from the evils that
overwhelm humanity, she implores the precious gift of peace and the grace of perseverance in
expectation of Christ's return By praying in this way, she anticipates in humility of faith the
gathering together of everyone and everything in him who has "the keys of Death and Hades," who
"is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty."
174
Deliver us, Lord, we beseech you, from every evil and grant us peace in our day, so that
aided by your mercy we might be ever free from sin and protected from all anxiety, as we
await the blessed hope and the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
175
Consult the Catechism for a list of all the source documents and citations used to prepare this section
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