ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE LAE202 MAY 4, 2020

PROF. BARRIE EDWARDS

GROUP ACTIVITY: DEVIL’S ADVOCATE

ANDRES, AILEEN MAY

ALZONA, JENNY MAE

DURAN, CARMELA

LIBRANDA, ARCHIE

TABOGOC, MARY ANN

The man in the black suit stared at five people in front of him as they tried to not look scared at him. He
cocked his eyebrow as they talked quietly to themselves and then the oldest among them finally
approached him. The woman of twenty-five looked at him and asked, “We don’t want any trouble and
we just want to ask some few questions. I know that you don’t care whether we live or die but before
that happen…” she paused and looked at him in the eye. He kind of like this woman already (he saw in
her heart all of her sins and she knows he would use them against her and knows she won’t mind) and
won’t judge him badly unlike the younger ones. He let out a dramatic sigh and said, “Ask away, Aileen.”
while staring deep into her eyes.

“During that time, what do you feel? How are you thinking? What are you planning and doing at the
time before and after Jesus’ crucifixion?” Ah, this question boggles humans so much that it looks so
laughable. Why ask him if they could get their answer from their “Sacred Text”? When he said this, the
woman tried not to laugh, saying she’s also asking the same way but her curiosity won her over.
“Curiosity killed the cat, you know?” he said but the woman just smiled. “Okay, where to begin? It all
started eons ago, when he was the brightest angel (he used to be called Lucifer) but he wanted to
become God (he knew his arrogance will lead him to this path but he does not want to be ruled under
that Guy named S*****) and so and his comrades who agreed to his ideals went with him when he was
banished and thrown down this place called Earth.” He paused a little a little and continued. “When
S*****’s Son was born, I knew my role is to kill him but before that I’ve tempted him for humans are
easy to be laid astray and I thought my plan would work.” He smiled maliciously and said,” I showed him
kingdoms, empires and the whole world. I showed him all pleasure and grandeur any human could ask
for. I’m the prince of this filthy earth and you know already what he said to me afterwards. Ha! I was
hurt and disappointed but what can I expect from His Son?” His manic red eyes stared at the woman
and smiled devilishly. “Do you still want to continue what you call ‘interview’? I won’t be surprised if you
and your friends decided to bail on this.” Aileen sighed, “It’s not that I can do anything against you after
this. I’m not like what those four are and I’m aware of my own darkness.” “Are you sure about that?
Young one, you don’t know what you’re bargaining for. Do you think this would benefit you?” the devil
dressed as a young man in a suit quirked his eyebrow at her. “I know what I’m entering to and I know
you won’t let me back outside. And we have a deal.” The demon laughed loudly and looked behind her
to see her classmates are gone. He must be distracted but oh well. He faced the woman once again and
said, “You know they’re still not safe and don’t try to lie. They asked His help, right? Why didn’t you do
the same?” “It’s too late for me for I have already spoken to you and made a deal with you. For that God
is unforgiving, in my own opinion. It doesn’t mean my other classmates’ opinions are not valid and I
won’t force my disbelief towards them.” Then the woman smiled sadly at the demon, “I don’t trust you
and neither God. Both of you just see us humans just a speck of dust, insignificant and small.” He stared
at her and said, “Even so, He created both of us.” Silence emanated the whole room and neither of them
wanted to break this gloomy atmosphere yet. Then the devil gets closer to the woman in front of her
and said, “Before I take you, I’ll answer your remaining question truthfully as a devil do.” He smirked at
her, his eyes glowing red as the woman fearlessly speak. “What was your reaction, when it looked as if
you’re was ‘winning’? And what was your reaction later, when that all changed? And I noticed you still
didn’t answer one my previous question.” She crossed her arms while waiting for the devil’s response.
The devil grinned and said, “Don’t worry about that, I’ll get to that later on. Well when His Son died at
the cross, I thought I won. I really did jump for joy and all of my fellow demons also whooping up and
down. We plan to have a party at that time but no. I realized my fucking mistake. I WAS A FOOL!” His
voice turned to scarier as he progressed while Aileen covered her ears as she heard the most inhuman
noises surrounding her. “I’m so angry at that time I thought that I got Him. Turned out He used me to
cleanse your filthy souls. You don’t deserve his mercy and I still wonder why would He do that?” The
demon insanely laughed as Aileen began to cry her bitter tears. Then the noises stop. She looked back at
the demon and stared widely at his true form. His form does not look like what she saw at the paintings
for no human can describe accurately what he looked like. She cannot comprehend what is in front of
her and then suddenly she cannot see anymore. She feels her soul left her body but she can still hear his
voice. She doesn’t feel any pain or suffering and her consciousness is not solid, it flickers like an
afterthought as she tried to gauge what devil’s trying to say. “Your soul is very strange. You don’t feel
any hatred towards me.” The devil paused and lost in his thoughts. Of course, why would she be angry
at him? He is tied like the rest of them and even he wanted to be free, he still cannot defeat to the one
who also created him. She felt pity and sorrow on their existence as they struggle free from His strings of
fate. Her musings are interrupted when he began to speak. “My plans are in motion and even though I
look like that I’m the warden on this godforsaken earth, I’m still the prince here. His “Holiness” is
unattainable and you humans think so highly of yourselves. It’s so easy to destroy you all for you lot are
easily swayed, body, mind and soul, so easily tempted and so fragile.” Then he stared deeply at the soul
and said, “I’ll use your soul and the rest of the humanity to get back at heaven and I will claim what is
rightfully mine. I will be free from Him and I’ll burn my cage if it’s the last thing I do.”

Then he whispered at her soul, “And now you’re mine to keep.” And her consciousness began to
disappear.
Easter tells us the death and resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and how by offering
himself save our souls against the snares of the devil. It also shows us that Satan and his demonic army
will try to lead humanity astray. In this battle between good and evil, it is obvious that the devil will do
anything to destroy humanity and God’s plan. Satan does not care about us and he only cared about
himself and this selfishness had led him to become God’s adversary when he used to be Lucifer, in which
he thinks that he can fight against God to take his place and that resulted to his banishment on earth.
But even Jesus sacrificed himself like lamb for the forgiveness of our sins, humans still has a choice to
become better or worse. And because to human is to err, the devil took advantage of our weakness and
naivety just like what happened to our first parents Adam and Eve. The devil won’t stop collecting fallen
souls so he could wage war and drag those unfortunate and misguided souls with him to the fires of
Hell.

But the truth is, the devil and angel is also us humans. We can be good to others and protect those who
are weak and comfort the lonely and hurt but we also can inflict immense pain to others not only
through actions but also from our words. We are the walking contradiction, imperfect but not hopeless.
The Bible and its teachings can show for those who believe or not that it’s not too late to right our
wrongs, that there’s redemption to our actions. And we think that its main message was corrupted
through time and revisions of those who are in power. False prophets ran rampant and using the name
of God to push their vile propaganda to gain power, glory and money. If we look back at the history after
Jesus died, many wars and suffering happened and it’s still happening across the globe. Yes, humans
continue to fight amongst ourselves, from resources to our different ideologies. Heck, we even fight
what is the true religion we have to follow so we can be saved. It doesn’t matter who is right or wrong as
long as we do what is right and good. We must also not dismiss of what non-believers scoffed as a “fairy
tale” as the Bible. Yes, the “Sacred Text” was written by men but why is it written? We must not forget
what’s really the core message of the Old Testament (God has human traits, easy to anger and easy to
appease) and the New Testament (Jesus saving our souls from the fiery damnation of hell) that is love.
Love is the core, no matter what religion of god you believe in. For many years of our existence, we saw
how love can shape us, strengthen us and protect us but it also shows us that love can be cruel, painful
and unforgiving. God loves us in a way we cannot fathom. Satan loves himself. Love makes us humans to
forward whatever road we may choose.

I remembered someone told me that earth can be heaven and I replied that it can also be the hell, that
we can be angels if we want to as well as demons to torment others. God gave us free will to choose
what is right or wrong and really we can only blame ourselves if we find out we are being fooled by the
devil to follow him. Frankly, with today’s situation that our faith for humanity is being tested and how
we respond to this pandemic. We can see how many people put their lives to help, how my classmates
and I cried that many are dying so soon and thinking about our own families while seeing the response
of the people who really care and try as they can to help really made us realize that we take things for
granted. Believers and non-believers alike are helping one another as we try to combat this deadly
pandemic by staying at home and supporting each other. But there are also people who took advantage
of this global pandemic from people hoarding to Chinese government naming one of our islands
claiming that it’s theirs to take. We saw how greed and selfishness became visible to the people you
thought that will help you but this is Philippines so we’re not surprised.

But even the world looks like it’s ending, it’s still best to live rightfully and to be content of what we
have, to love and be loved by one another. To treat others as they would treat you, just like what Jesus
said. And if we failed as humans to care, then we have wasted our hope to live fully and righteous. Not
only that this world would crumble in chaos but our next world will be governed by Satan and will be
thrown with him in the fires of Hell and there will be no redemption left and that will be our final death.