If "he has been kicked out" he has "patience, and waits to return", “he arrives with his polite friends, knocks on the door, asks permission to come in and come and live with a person and become part of his or her daily life and, drop by drop, gives instructions. " With "this mannerly way" the devil convinces him to "do things with relativism", reassuring consciousness.

Vatican City (AsiaNews) - It takes "caution and discernment", because “the evil one is hidden, he arrives with his polite friends, knocks on the door, asks permission to come in and come and live with a person and become part of his or her daily life and, drop by drop, gives instructions", said Pope Francis homily at the Mass celebrated this morning at Casa Santa Marta, commenting on the passage of today's Gospel, in which Jesus drives out a demon, does good, is among the people who listen to him and recognize his authority, but there are those who accuse him.

"There was another group of people who did not like him and always tried to misconstrue Jesus’ words and attitudes, in a different way, using them against Jesus. Some out of envy, others out of doctrinal rigidity, others because they were afraid the Romans would come and carry out a massacre; for many reasons they tried to undermine Jesus authority from the people and even with slander, as in this case. 'He casts out demons by Beelzebub. He is a man possessed. He practices magic, he is a sorcerer '. They continually put him to the test, they tried to trap him, to see if  he would fall".

Pope Francis urges discernment and caution. "Being able to discern situations": what comes from God and what comes from the evil one who "always tries to deceive", "to make us choose the wrong path." "The Christian cannot be assured that all is well, he or she must discern things look carefully at their origin, their roots”.

Caution is also needed, because in a journey of faith "temptations always return, the evil spirit never tires".  If "he has been kicked out" he is "patient, he waits for a chance to return" and if we let him in we risk falling into a worse situation. Indeed, before we knew it was "the devil who tormented". But later, "the Evil-one hides, he arrives with his polite friends, knocks on the door, asks permission to come in and come and live with a person and become part of his or her daily life and, drop by drop, gives instructions". In a most mannerly way, " the devil convinces him to "do things with relativism", reassuring the person’s conscience:

"He reassures consciousness. He anesthetizes conscience. And this is a great evil. When the evil spirit is able to anesthetize the conscience, then we can say he has really won, he has become the master of the person’s conscience: 'But this happens everywhere! Yes, but all, we all have problems, we are all sinners, all of us... '. And in the 'all of us' there is 'no one'. 'Everyone else, but not me'. And so we live this worldliness that is the child of the evil spirit”.

Pope Francis reiterated the two words, caution and discernment: "Caution. The Church encourages us always to exercise self-examination: What happened today in my heart, why? Did this demon come with his friends to reside in me? Discernment. Where do these comments, words, teachings, that say this? Discernment and caution,  we must not give in to what deceives, seduces, fascinates. Let us ask the Lord for this grace, the grace of discernment and the grace of caution".

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