The devil appeared to three monks and said to them:
“If I gave you the power to change something in the past,
what would you change?”
The first of them, with great apostolic fervor, replied: “I would like to prevent you from leading Adam and Eve to sin, so that humanity does not separate from God.”
The second, a man full of mercy, said to him: “I will prevent you from straying from God and condemning you forever.”
The third of them was the simplest and instead of answering the tempter, he knelt down, made the sign of the cross, and prayed: “Lord, deliver me from the temptation of what might have been and what was not.”
The demon, screaming and trembling with pain, fled.
The other two were surprised and said to him: “Brother, why did you react like this?”
And he answered them: “First, we should never talk to the enemy.”
“Secondly, no one 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 most holds men back and prevents them from being happy is “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 today loving God with all your heart.
(Modified from original text)
Ctto: Michael Acebedo Lopez
