When Lucifer rebelled against God, a third of the angels joined him, and there was war in Heaven between Satan and his angels, and the Archangel Michael and his angels. God prevailed in this conflict, and Satan was cast out of Heaven along with those angels that had sided with him. This was the prelude to the events that we read at the beginning of the book of Genesis. Jesus says of Satan, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from Heaven” (Luke 10:18). And of his character He says: “He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it” (John 8:44b). This is the being who assumes the form of a serpent and appears in the Garden of Eden. This is he who succeeds in tricking the first humans into sin, thus robbing them of their idyllic home, their perfect health, and their boundless happiness. Let us be watchful, staying close to Jesus, for Satan still does his infernal work today, seeking to lie and deceive.