From the desk of the pastor for March 9, 2025

The Lord be with you! As we celebrate the First Sunday of Lent, it is fitting to reflect on temptation. How does the Devil trick us? How do we fool ourselves? And how does the world lead us astray? In all temptations we must remember that God's grace is always sufficient.

The Devil may tempt us, but he never makes us do it. As the Catholic Encyclopedia defined it over a century ago, "Temptation is here taken to be an incitement to sin whether by persuasion or by the offer of some good or pleasure." Whether we give into the temptation or not is entirely within our power. The Evil One wishes for us to imitate his fall by rejecting God's will and choosing our own - to our detriment and the harm of others.

When we think about demonic temptation, two aspects should be highlighted: oddness and deception. First, just as Jesus experienced in the desert, these temptations are often strange. We can guess that the Devil is tempting us when we have a temptation that is novel or out of character. If we find ourselves wondering about robbing a bank, we might have been tempted by the Devil. Second, the Enemy is lying. The most deceptive lies are those which have a great deal of truth in them. The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil was in the Garden and looked good; it was not meant for human consumption.

The Devil, however, is not the main source of our temptations: we are. Due to Original Sin our human nature is wounded and prone to sin. We will have a whole article about the four wounds of ignorance, hatred, concupiscence, and weakness of the will later. For now it suffices to remember that each of us has dispositions that will get us into trouble if we are not careful. The phrase, "Better the devil you know than the devil you don't" can refer to the fact that it should become easier for us to deal with our own shortcomings. "Easier" is not "easy" though.

The world is another source of temptations, and these temptations can be completely unintentional. Consider the role of celebrity life in our culture for a moment. Their lives of luxury and riches seem quite desirable...on the surface. How many ordinary people make themselves miserable by comparing their lives with those who have so much? How many of us have fallen into unjustified wrath or rash judgement when we hear about the misuses of power and privilege? Tragically there are also some who want to corrupt us and damn our souls, such as Satanists.

In all temptations we are called to resist and remember. We resist the desire and the tempter. We also remember that God is with us. We may not feel His grace, but He is always with us. In fact, so are the saints and angels. In Lent we strengthen our resolve to please God and not ourselves.

In His Sacred Heart,
Fr. John