[15] Some of them said, "By the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons, he drives out demons." [16] Others, to test him, asked him for a sign from heaven. [17] But he knew their thoughts and said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste and house will fall against house. [18] And if Satan is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that it is by Beelzebul that I drive out demons. [19] If I, then, drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your own people drive them out? Therefore they will be your judges. [20] But if it is by the finger of God that (I) drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. [21] When a strong man fully armed guards his palace, his possessions are safe. [22] But when one stronger than he attacks and overcomes him, he takes away the armor on which he relied and distributes the spoils.
(CCC 700) The finger. "It is by the finger of God that [Jesus] cast out demons" (Lk 11:20). If God's law was written on tablets of stone "by the finger of God," then the "letter from Christ" entrusted to the care of the apostles, is written "with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts" (Ex 31:18; 2 Cor 3:3). (The hymn Veni Creator Spiritus invokes the Holy Spirit as the "finger of the Father's right hand" (LH, Easter Season after Ascension, Hymn at Vespers: Digitus paternae dexterae). (CCC 385) God is infinitely good and all his works are good. Yet no one can escape the experience of suffering or the evils in nature which seem to be linked to the limitations proper to creatures: and above all to the question of moral evil. Where does evil come from? "I sought whence evil comes and there was no solution", said St. Augustine (St. Augustine, Conf. 7, 7, 11: PL 32, 739), and his own painful quest would only be resolved by his conversion to the living God. For "the mystery of lawlessness" is clarified only in the light of the "mystery of our religion" (2 Thess 2:7; 1 Tim 3:16). The revelation of divine love in Christ manifested at the same time the extent of evil and the superabundance of grace (Cf. Rom 5:20). We must therefore approach the question of the origin of evil by fixing the eyes of our faith on him who alone is its conqueror (Cf. Lk 11:21-22; Jn 16:11; 1 Jn 3:8).
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