- 38 - Then, appealing to the Divine justice that had given him absolute sovereignty over the fallen spirits, he demanded that God observe strict neutrality in this decisive battle. What Satan asked was that God withdraw his hand entirely from Jesus, and also leave him no human support, while nevertheless allowing hell to have a free hand. If God acceded to these demands, Lucifer hoped he could by doing his utmost succeed in breaking the spirit of this Jesus of Nazareth at the last moment, and drive him to despair. God granted the terms asked by Satan with the sole exception of reserving to Himself the right to strengthen Christ’s purely physical vitality. Had he not done so, Christ would have died in the garden of Gethsemane, and his martyrdom would never have been completed. At Lucifer’s wish, all the spiritual and physical anguish of earth, crowded into a few short hours, was to be concentrated upon his antagonist, while at the same time the infernal hosts would be allowed to launch an attack in full strength on him and his followers. For Jesus, alone, betrayed by one of his own disciples, deserted by the others, denied any Divine aid against the forces of hell, Lucifer hoped to prepare an end worthy of a Judas. Even as Jesus, after Judas' departure, gave his Apostles the bread and the wine symbolic of his approaching death and spoke his parting words to them, his heart was bleeding from a thousand wounds. He was human, as you are, and had no advantage over other mortals during this hour and those that were to follow. On the contrary, he lacked even those things that generally serve to console and fortify human beings in their hours of suffering. Picture him now, going out into the dark of the night to the Garden of Gethsemane. The night is no man’s friend, least of all that of someone who is tormented by suffering. His disciples, on whom the evil spirit forces are already at work, walk silently beside him, in dread of what is to come. Under the burden of his soul's torment, he too is silent. At the remote spot in the garden where Christ chooses to offer his prayer for strength, Lucifer is in wait with his ablest assistants, ready to break down their intended victim’s spiritual resistance by their united efforts. This is the hour that God has conceded to the Prince of Darkness. Human words are inadequate to portray the terrors of the visions conjured up by hell to its victim in this brief hour. As once the same Lucifer, when he tempted the Son of Man in the wilderness, had shown him the kingdoms of the world in all their splendour in order to cause his fall, so now and to the same end he shows Christ mankind's most dreadful and detestable traits, causing a steady succession of hideous pictures to pass before his eyes: pictures of blaspheming, sinful humanity in its full viciousness and corruption. Then he shows Jesus the supposed ‘fruits’ of his years of endeavour among the Jews as God’s people, pointing mockingly to his disciples, one of them actually approaching at the head of a horde, the others fast asleep nearby, with never a word of comfort for their Master and unable to stay awake a single hour for his sake. ‘And would you die to confirm your gospel for such people as these?’ Lucifer’s mocking voice sounds in his ears, ‘For these humans, who blaspheme your Father and will condemn you as a fool if you give your life for such criminals? And have you thought about how you will end?’
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