In the beginning, Satan tried to destroy the image of God in man out of envy. He wanted to be like God and so he could not stand to see the image of God in man. This battle was won through the conflict at the Cross. Through the death of Jesus, the power of sin was destroyed and Satan’s plan backfired. St. Augustine called this the “devil’s mousetrap.”
The devil was conquered by his own trophy of victory. The devil jumped for joy, when he seduced the first man and cast him down to death. By seducing the first man, he slew him; by slaying the last man, he lost the first from his snare. The victory of our Lord Jesus Christ came when he rose, and ascended into heaven; then was fulfilled what you have heard when the Apocalypse was being read, “The Lion of the tribe of Judah has won the day” [Rev. 5:5]…. The devil jumped for joy when Christ died; and by the very death of Christ the devil was overcome: he took, as it were, the bait in the mousetrap. He rejoiced at the death, thinking himself death’s commander. But that which caused his joy dangled the bait before him. The Lord’s cross was the devil’s mousetrap: the bait which caught him was the death of the Lord.
We see a similar pattern in the abortion industry today. Man in his utter corruption attempts to be like God. We make our own laws in defiance to the law of God. But why does humankind violate good laws meant for our own protection? This too is out of envy and pride. It is due to our corrupt urge to be like God.
I am convinced that the war on babies is a reflection of the battle described between the seed of the woman and the dragon in Revelation 12, which is in turn the culmination of the enmity between the seed of the woman and the serpent described in Genesis 3:15. Satan moves through the corrupt hearts of abortionists because he hates the image of God in the unborn child. However, the abortionist is motivated by the same desire to be like God — to make his own laws. The rationale is that abortion supposedly gives women (and by extension men) freedom to behave hedonistically without regard to the consequences. The unrepentant abortionist and all who want their lust-filled day in the sun will one day be caught in the mousetrap they intended for those little ones made in the image of God.
