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When our sins let Satan into our hearts, says St. Gregory the Great, our hearts become so many graves for the doomed spirit, who is bound for eternal death— and ready to take us with him.
There is a great difference between the natures of human beings and angels. But those who are bound together by one and the same guilt in sin are caught in the same punishment.
The prophet conveys this in a few short words when he says, “Assyria is there, and all her company, their graves round about her” (Ezek. 32:22). Now, whom does he mean by “Assyria,” that proud king, except the old enemy who fell by pride? Because he draws so many into sin, he descends with all his multitude into the dungeons of hell. Graves are a shelter for the dead—and who suffered a more bitter death than he who, setting his Creator at naught, gave up life? And when human hearts let him remain in this state of death, surely they become his graves. So his graves are “round about” him, because all the people in whose souls he buries himself by their affections will be joined to him hereafter by torments. –St. Gregory the Great, Moralia in Job, 9.103
IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .
Is my heart letting Satan in to bury himself ? What secret sins are opening the door to him?
CLOSING PRAYER
Grant me your power, Lord, to avoid the attacks of the evil one, and give me an acceptable defense before the judgment seat.
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