By Father Rich Tomkosky
“If men knew the meaning of eternity, they would do anything to amend their lives.” –St. Jacinta Marto – the seer at Fatima who was 9-year-old when she died.
“The whole of man’s history has been the story of dour combat with the powers of evil, stretching, so our Lord tells us, from the very dawn of history until the last day. Finding himself in the midst of the battlefield man has to struggle to do what is right, and it is at great cost to himself, and aided by God’s grace, that he succeeds in achieving his own inner integrity.” (From the Vatican II document: Gaudium et Spes: the Pastoral Constitution of the Church in the Modern World – par 37, 2 – (cited in the Catechism of the Catholic Church par 409).
As a side note, there are some great reflections on how to best deal with, and the Divine purpose of, temptations in the spiritual classic book The Imitation of Christ.
How we deal with temptation (the enticement to sin) determines whether we grow in holiness daily, or spin our spiritual wheels, or fall farther away from the Lord. As long as we live in this world, we cannot be without temptations. As it says in the book of Job in the Old Testament, “man’s life on earth is a temptation.” Or as St. Peter cautions us in his first letter in the New Testament, “Bow humbly under God’s mighty hand, so in due time He may lift you up on high. Cast all your cares on Him because He cares for you. Stay sober and alert. Your opponent the devil is prowling like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, solid in your faith, realizing the brotherhood of believers is undergoing the same sufferings throughout the world” (1 Peter 5: 6-10).
We need to be realistic in knowing that we will encounter the same three main categories of temptation as Jesus Himself faced in the desert. The first one is: material and physical enticements, the temptation to settle for the sensual and material things of this world, be it money, comfort, sensual pleasures, overemphasis on food, drink, sex, our physical health and beauty, material gadgets, etc. Jesus shows us how to counter this temptation: to recall the reality that, “One does not live on bread alone.” The human person is made for more: spiritual union with the Trinity now and in eternity – but we can reject it in our shortsightedness, and the devil knows this all too well, so he tries to tempt us with this: settling for less.
Well, if the devil doesn’t succeed at one type of temptation, he will try another one to bring us down. So, onto the second category of temptation: the devil says to Jesus after showing Him in a vision all the kingdoms of the world: “I will give to you all this power and glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I may give it to whomever I wish. All this will be yours, if you worship me.” (What delusions of grandeur satan has! – he thinks he is superior to God Himself, which was his downfall: his immense pride!) How is this temptation manifested in real human life? Satan knows most of us are not going to worship him directly, so how does he try to get us? To strive for power over others, or to think we can be the master of our own universe to the neglect of God’s loving rule over us.
We see this temptation when we are enticed to control/manipulate others, or to step on people to get ahead in life. Or to exert our own self-will and ignore God’s commandments and the teachings of the Catholic Church on faith and morals; after all, to use satan’s logic, don’t we know our lives better than anyone, why do we need God and the Church telling us what to do?! Scary logic and yet it is a temptation you and I face on a daily basis like the first humans!
Jesus gives us the counter to this temptation, “It is written, you shall worship the Lord, your God, and Him alone shall you serve.” The focus of our mind and heart needs to be: “Not my will but your will O’ Lord be done,” – like Our Lady and as Jesus prays in the Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, in a spirit of humility and abandonment to the Father instead of full of pride, like the devils. Jesus will give us the grace to imitate His filial love for the Father in the Holy Spirit, but only if we are humble enough to ask for it like our Lady! Self-will: the second temptation.
Well, if the first two temptations don’t work, the devil will try a third way to entice us. This is the temptation to presumption. He took Jesus up to the parapet of the Temple and said to Him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written: He will command His angels concerning you, to guard you, and with their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone.” As you can see by now the devil knows the Bible very well, so be careful not to get into a debate with him in your mind when you are tempted, but instead do as Saint John of the Cross always recommends when faced with temptation from the world, our own fallen nature, or particularly the devil: Turn to Jesus in prayer and ask for His strength to resist!
How do we see this third type of temptation to presumption manifested in our daily life? Well we see this when we are tempted to convince ourselves that we don’t have to take the difficult but necessary steps to be a good follower of Jesus, by His standards and not our own; to continue fighting against temptation instead of giving up, e.g., if one stops going to Confession regularly (discouragement is the greatest trap to the pious soul); to live a pure life instead of living a sexually immoral life and treating others as objects for our gratification; to be sober instead of a drunkard/glutton; to be generous with others instead of selfish; to go to Mass every week and on the Holy Days instead of just when we feel like it; to refrain from Holy Communion when we need to go to Confession first; to give God quality time in prayer each day instead a few scraps of our time, etc.
Basically, the temptation to put off our conversion in Christ in all areas of our life until LATER, MAYBE MUCH LATER – when it will be too late! After all, to use the devil’s logic, doesn’t the Lord love you anyway? – you don’t have to OBEY Him, that is so passé and old-fashioned, get with the times! Jesus gives us the counter to this tricky appeal to our pride and desire to take the easy road of sin instead of the narrow road of holiness that is often hard, but leads to eternal life after the battle on earth by saying to satan in reply, “It is also said, “You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.” After that, the Gospel says “When the devil had finished every temptation, he departed from him for a time.”
Satan will be back! But if we remember to turn to Jesus, we will never be tried beyond our strength (see:1 Corth 10:13); and through the test of temptation(s), if passed, will grow in holiness and spiritual strength for the glory of God, and the salvation of our soul and others but only if we persevere in God’s ways over the long haul of earthly life and daily asking for Our Lady’s intercession. May our Lenten practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving help us to do that. God bless you.
Father Rich Tomkosky is the Pastor of Saint Thomas the Apostle Parish in Bedford and the Pastor of Seven Dolors of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish in Beans Cove.
