We are torn between good and evil, we are torn apart in the struggle that we cannot escape by ignoring it, by denying it, by burying ourselves in the sand or by pursuing a life given over to pleasure and power, fame and fortune, or by trying to diffuse it by turning it into a joke or a television program. There is only one answer. And if one refuses to accept that answer, then there is none at all. You see, Satan would like to enter this scene that Mark paints for us and alter it. He d like to eliminate the angel from the equation.
Life is so much easier that way.
There is simply man, the tempter as guide, and consent to temptation. It s so easy, and so much less of a struggle. And in fact, once the picture looks that way, then it is very easy to eliminate the idea of temptation itself. There is nothing except me, led by a chain by the guide who promises to lead me to delights and pleasures and all sorts of things which seem good and right and desirable, just like the fruit of Eden, but which, once I have fallen prey to their seduction, suddenly throw of their masks and become the vicious evil that they really are. And now it is too late.