Friday, October 13 : Saint John Cassian

We want to know what is the origin of the great variety of hostile powers opposed to men, and the difference between them, which the blessed Apostle sums up as follows: “We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the world rulers of this darkness, against spiritual wickedness in heavenly places:” (Ephesians 6:12) and again: “Neither angels nor principalities nor powers nor any other creature, can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord”. (Romans 8:38-39) Whence then arises the enmity of all this malice jealous of us? Are we to believe that those powers were created by the Lord for this; viz., to fight against men in these grades and orders? God forbid that we should admit that God has created anything which is substantially evil, as Scripture says everything that God had made was very good. (Genesis 1:31) …Before the formation of this visible creation God made spiritual and celestial powers, in order that owing to the very fact that they knew that they had been formed out of nothing by the goodness of the Creator for such glory and bliss, they might render to Him continual thanks and ceaselessly continue to praise Him. We are clearly shown that out of that number of them some of the leaders fell…Finally the occasion of the envy and seduction, which led him to deceive man, arose from the ground of his previous fall, in that he saw that man, who had but recently been formed out of the dust of the ground, was to be called to that glory, from which he remembered that he himself, while still one of the princes, had fallen. And so that first fall of his, which was due to pride, and which obtained for him the name of the serpent.

Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team