A Lenten reflection on temptation...
First Sunday of Lent's Gospel: Matthew 4:1-11 - Jesus is tempted in the desert
“Thus, Pope Francis observed, ‘we who want to follow Jesus,
and who by our baptism have taken to the Lord’s path, must be well aware of
this truth: we too are tempted, we too are objects of the demon’s attacks,’ for
‘the spirit of evil does not want us to become holy, it does not want us to
bear witness to Christ, it does not want us to be disciples of Christ.’” –excerpt from Magnificat, March 2017; 'Day by Day' reflection for Sunday, March 5th
So often we lose sight of the devil’s main objective: to
keep us from holiness; to keep us from Jesus. We go through our lives, our
days, and when little things come up to divert our attention away from God or
that deter us from a time of prayer, we don’t see it as a big deal; we don’t
see it as a serious temptation. No matter how small it may be, even though it may not
even be outright sinful, it IS a big deal. Why? Because the
devil is accomplishing his one, his only, main goal – to keep us from growing
in holiness; to keep us from life with Jesus Christ! There are many sins,
temptations, neglects, and omissions that keep us from God, and many things
that the devil uses to accomplish his goal. But often, for those of us who already avoid obvious and/or serious sin and temptation, the
devil uses these subtle tactics to tempt us, to distract us, using even good
things and good intentions to prevent us from spending time with Jesus, from
keeping our focus on Him.
Above all, we need to cultivate this relationship with
Christ; to keep our prayer time, to keep our focus on Him. If we take this time
and keep this focus, sin will naturally uproot itself from our lives; because,
the more time we spend with God and keep our focus on Him, the more we will
grow in holiness – which means that sin will dissipate. In this, we defeat the
evil one in the way most needed: we don’t allow him to pull us away from Jesus.
We must be vigilant in fighting for our life with Christ so as to gain eternal
life and defeat Satan. We need to watch for the little, subtle, hidden, sudden
ways that the devil uses to try and make us fumble our time and our focus; for
these ‘little’ things accomplish the evil one’s big goal: to keep us from
growing in holiness. Let us not give in! Let us not let him win! We need to
recognize these ‘little’ distractions and diversions and make a BIG difference
in our lives by conquering them in order to grow with Christ, and become holy
as He is holy.
It can be difficult to recognize the ways that the devil
works sometimes… especially when we live in the world and are subject to all
kinds of interruptions and changes that we often can’t help or control. But,
there are things that we can control.
Sometimes, I think the main problem is that many of us have such an incredibly
hard time saying ‘no’. We have this intense desire to make everyone happy, to
keep the peace, to be attentive and self-giving… sometimes to a fault. So when
things come up, and we think ‘oh, I was planning on going to adoration’ or ‘I
was planning to sit home & pray’, etc., ‘but I’ll just fit it in later’… how many times – honestly – do we
not have time later, or don’t make the time later, or are too tired later and
just fall asleep. Whatever. It happens all.
the. time. And we proceed to think ‘oh well, it’s not a big deal, it’s just
one day’, but the same thing happens again tomorrow or later in the week, etc. And
because it is seemingly a little thing, we just keep plugging along, not
realizing the long term effects on our spiritual journey.
Now, this is definitely NOT to say we should beat ourselves
up, be all scrupulous and think we can’t let our plans be changed, or our
prayer time be exchanged at times to assist someone in need, etc. We need to be
discerning and sometimes the Lord needs us to move at a time when we don’t
expect it and this is good! And it also doesn’t mean that when we do fall into these traps that we should
spend all of our time lamenting over our weakness and fickleness and think we’ve
failed. We are human, we will fall, we will make mistakes; and though I, personally,
have this great resolve to keep attentive to the little things that the devil whispers
to put me in a place of laziness, procrastination, etc. in my spiritual life, I
will not always succeed. I honestly will probably falter and stumble and fumble
at least 3 or 4 times before this
first week of Lent is finished! The point is, that we just need to be aware of
the ways that the devil tries to keep us from time with God and growth in holiness
so that we can overcome them, little by little, and keep on the path of growing in holiness and defeat the demon's attacks. As Saint (Mother)
Teresa is famous for saying: God doesn’t call us to be successful, He calls us
to be faithful. We might not always be successful in recognizing and overcoming
these diversions, but if we stay faithful, and keep trying, and keep getting up
after we fall, we will fulfill the call of God in our lives to be faithful and
we will grow in holiness!
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