Lucifer's Folly (A Parable)

Before the world began, Lucifer wanted to see his Father face-to-face, so he sought to enter the holy of holies in Heaven. St. Michael was charged with the door to the holy of holies. Upon seeing Lucifer coming up the steps, St. Michael barred the way with his flaming sword. "You cannot enter brother," St. Michael proclaimed, "Even I, the watcher of the door, cannot enter that which I guard all my days." Indignant, Lucifer departed, the festering desire burning within his soul.

Eventually, the inability to enter the sacred space became too much for him. He cursed God crying out, "If you do not want to see me, your son, then I shall have nothing to do with you." Lucifer fled from Heaven and began the fall, drawing a third of the angels to his cause, with his seductive words.  Making his abode in the nether regions of the world, he made a pact with Thanatos. He rebelled against all that God stood for, corrupting man and all manner of life upon the earth, so that Death, that ancient god of darkness, might have his dominion there.

Biding his time until the End of Days, Lucifer build up a mighty army of the damned, the strength of which no hand could stay. With all the power of Death, Lucifer forced his way through the Gates of Heaven. With nearly all of the heavenly host slain, Lucifer alone made it up the stairs to the pinnacle of the Temple. St. Michael bloody and broken tried to stop him, but Lucifer effortlessly overpowered him and dragged him by the head into the holy of holies.

Lucifer pounded his black sword against his chest and screamed, "Now you have to answer me, Father. Now you have to show yourself to me. I have done all of this madness just to find you." Silence hung in the large, empty Cathedral. "Father!," Lucifer continued to scream, but all he heard was Nothing.

St. Michael began to chuckle in a sad sort of way. Turning to his brother, he said in a gravely voice, "Oh, Lucifer, even at the end you do not understand." Lucifer bent down to look him in the face and asked, "Where is God?"

"You have seen God all your life," St. Michael replied meekly, "You should have recognized Him in the faces of the two you corrupted in Eden, in all those young couples in love, in the small smile of a child. Brother, you have killed God with every life you took needlessly trying to find God."

Lucifer fell to his knees and wept.