Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days, to be tempted by the devil. (Luke 4:1-2). Jesus experiences the temptations of Satan, the one who tempted Adam and Eve, the father of lies, the accuser, the slanderer. Satan is one who seeks division, disunity, and we dismiss the reality of his presence at great risk. On the other hand we often give him more power than he deserves. Jesus is tempted, but unlike Adam and Eve, he does not give in. Jesus remains grounded in the will of his Father and so Satan has no power over him.
Jesus could have dismissed Satan, yet he endured his temptation to teach us “how to triumph over temptation” (St Augustine 1976, 87). Jesus not only teaches us how, but empowers us to overcome Satan. The weakest Christian is more powerful than Satan himself, because we can call on the name of Jesus. This is not some magical incantation, but when we call on the name of Jesus, he, in the fullness of his humanity and his divinity, is present with us. God has given Jesus the name above every other name, so that as his word is spoken, every knee shall bow in heaven and on earth (cf. Philippians 2:9-10). Just as a floodlight shines in the darkness, the darkness gives way to the light. This is even more true with Jesus. Where Jesus is present there is love, such that no fear or evil can remain.
Jesus came to deify us. As St. Irenaeus wrote, and I am paraphrasing, Jesus became one with us in our humanity so that we can become one with him in his divinity. When we give our life to Jesus, we become more like God and our image and likeness is restored as God created his in his image and likeness. We do so by committing daily to reading and meditating upon, praying with, and contemplating the Word of God shared in Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition, practicing acts of love through the corporal and spiritual works of mercy, participating in the Mass and the sacraments as often as possible, and reading the lives of the saints and other enriching and empowering writings.
The more we are engaged in these practices, the more we are healed, transformed, and conformed from within to the love of God. As we continue to turn to God through the love of the Holy Spirit and the presence of his Son, there is no room for the devil in our lives, we will be better able to recognize and resist his temptations, and come to trust in Jesus all the more. Jesus was willing to suffer and die for us so that we may find a pathway that leads us away from sin, so that we don’t need to merely survive, and to be free to live life and live it to the full, now and into the fullness of the glory to God for eternity to come.
I had a dream some time ago, I am not sure how long now, but it is still just as vivid. I was sitting on a couch in the first floor of a house. The scene shifted so that I was seeing myself sitting on the couch from above and then my view was redirected to the attic. I witnessed a misshapen, dark figure rummaging through old boxes and newspapers. He embodied pure evil. I was then back in my body, and knew this creature was moving out of the attic and coming down the stairs to the room I was sitting in. My heart was pounding and I felt petrified as I heard his steps drawing closer. I was frozen in fear. In a few more moments, he came into view. What I saw was not the figure in the attic, but a handsome man, but I knew it was him. As he continued closer my fear increased, fearing that he would touch me. I felt frozen in place as I sat on the couch and he continued to walk closer. Then a hymn came to mind. He stopped the moment I began to sing, my fear began to dissipate and I woke up.
Evil tends to present itself at first as an apparent good, as attractive, as normal, otherwise we would reject it outright. Satan and his demons are active through whispers and nudges, they look for our weaknesses and through the same tactics as peer pressure, seek to inject their poison and manipulate our actions. I am not talking about possession here, I am just talking about their divisive influence. The most dangerous evil is the one masked in faith. Someone who can speak the verses of a Bible and quote chapter and verse does not a Christian make. The devil can do the same thing as we saw in today’s Gospel from Luke.
Each day we need to examine our conscience and assess honestly who we are serving. As with the Parable of the Talents, we cannot sit on our hands and do nothing like the wicked servant. That is the most effective tool Satan has, that he can influence us to do nothing, to be indifferent in the face of the dehumanization of the person in all of its forms. Another horror is when we rationalize what we know is unacceptable in ourselves as well as others, such as giving into the temptations of gossip, prejudicial, racist, and/or divisive talk, that lead to actions, such as the centurions who placed a robe and crown of thorns on the bloody, scourged body of Jesus and mocked him.
May we see in this icon of Jesus, scourged, bloody, wearing a crown of thorns, and mocked in our minds eye whenever we are tempted to or justify anyone who would, even in the smallest of ways, belittle, demean or degrade the dignity of another person, through thoughts, words, and/or actions, because what we do to the least among us, we do it to Jesus (cf. Mt 25:35-45). We also need to also resist the temptation of beating ourselves up when we have sinned, that is another trap, another lie, because we are still focused on ourselves, still caved in within ourselves, instead of opening up ourselves to the love of God and one another. When we are tempted, we can also remember and visualize whenJesus was tempted by Satan and resisted. We can experience the presence of Jesus, experience his love and his courage so to also recognize, resist, and triumph over the wiles of the devil.
It is helpful to assess our day, our thoughts, actions, and words with honesty and humility, thank God where we have said yes to his will and followed through on acting where he has led us, where we have loved, and ask for forgiveness for the part we have played in spreading the darkness of the father of lies. We leave less room for the allurements of Satan when we keep ourselves grounded not in ourselves, but in the will and love of God, just as Jesus did in the desert. When tempted, we can call on his name, “Jesus, I trust in you”, or sing his name! As St Augustine wrote, the one who sings prays twice.
“Trust in Jesus, my great Deliverer, my strong Defender, the Son of God. I trust in Jesus
Blessed Redeemer, my Lord forever, the Holy One, the Holy One” (Chorus from Third Day’s song, “I Trust in Jesus”).
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Photo:”Temptation of Christ” (1872) by Vasily Surikov
Quote from St. Augustine in The Liturgy of the Hours. New York: The Catholic Publishing Co., 1976.
Spiritual Stepping Stones