Dialogue with the Devil

The devil appeared to three monks and said to them: if I gave you the power to changes something from the past, what would you change?

The first of them, with great apostolic fervor, replied:

“I would prevent you from making Adam and Eve fall into sin so that humanity could not turn away from God.”

The second, a man full of mercy, said to him:

“I would prevent you from God and you will condemn yourself eternally”.

The third of them was the simplest and, instead of responding to the tempter, he got on his knees, made the sign of the cross and prayed saying:

“Lord, free me from the temptation of what could be and was not”.

The devil, giving a raucous cry and shuddering with pain, vanished.

The other two, surprised, said to him:

“Brother, why have you responded like this?”

He replied:

“First: we must never dialogue with the devil. Second: Nobody in the world has the power to change the past. Third: Satan’s interest was not to prove our virtue, but to trap us in the past, so that we neglect the present, the only time God gives us His grace and we can cooperate with Him to fulfill His will.”

Of all the demons, the one that catches the most men and prevents them from being happy is that of “What could have been and was not.”

The past is left to the Mercy of God and the future to his Providence. Only the present is in our hands. “Live in the moment with Charity.”