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Lent, Sunday 1 (A): The Temptations of
Christ
No-one likes being lied to, especially if the liar is trying to use attractive
appearances to hurt you. I remember the wicked witch in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs who tried to get Snow White to eat
a juicy red apple … which had been poisoned. The delightful appearance was in truth a death-trap.
More than in previous generations, much of modern living takes place in
the realm of appearances, not just in consumerism, or in the cult of taste, touch, smell, sound and sight, but in every dimension
of life, from false understandings of prosperity to fake expressions of solidarity. What looks, good, seems good, sounds good,
feels good –i.e. anything but what is good- is sold to us as the basis for
our choices. What is worse, we are told not to worry about the bad effects, the hangovers, because they are worth enduring
for the sake of the experience you have had. Never mind what harm you do, we are told, to others or to yourself: people will
just have to “get over it”. You have a right to do your own thing, and to hell with what anyone else thinks!
If you make choices only on the basis of appearances or good feelings, your
life itself will become an appearance and little more than a feeling. That’s almost the same thing as saying that you
will yourself become an illusion who has lived the life of an animal. The fundamental error is, of course, that what feels
and looks good has taken the place of what is good. Animals do not ask themselves
what is good or bad, for they have no reason; they cannot choose what is good or bad, because they have no free will. A human
person, then, who lives his life, solely on the basis of appearances and feelings, is living without reason and without real
freedom: he has become irrational and irresponsible. Such people have sacrificed their reason and their freedom or responsibility
to the idol of self-indulgence; they have sacrificed their reason by believing the lie and so they have lied to themselves;
they have become a living lie; and they may even try to propagate their lie as the truth and so, in a tragic perversion, declare
the truth to be a lie. They have sacrificed their freedom by obeying appearances, and by calling the ensuing slavery a life
of liberation.
This is, of course, the work of Satan, the Father of lies, or Beelzebub.
When he speaks or acts, he automatically lies, because he is the supreme personification of the liar. He is the Liar with
a capital “L’! In his cynical dialogue with both Eve and Jesus, his aim is to get each one to drink in his poison.
The main purpose of his tactics is to persuade both that free obedience to the truth of God is not as desirable as obedience
to his lies. He tries to paint God as the liar, to persuade that God’s demands are really a form of oppression, a way
of keeping his “victims” from self-fulfillment, from becoming gods themselves. Of course, Satan measures his temptations
according to the customer. To Eve he promises that disobedience will bring divinity; in the case of Jesus, he could not do
that, since Jesus was divine, so what he does is tempt Jesus to doubt his divinity (“if you are the Son of God”).
In all cases, Satan seeks to make the truth look like poison, and to make lies look tasty and delightful. To get his client
to pass from truth to lie, he has to work on their freedom, for freedom is the power which gives life to the truth or to the
lie. He must get freedom’s no to the lie to become freedom’s yes to the lie, and when freedom has said yes to
the lie, then freedom itself becomes untrue. The more the yes to the lie is repeated and confirmed, the less free freedom
becomes. But when freedom says no to the lie, and therefore yes to the truth, freedom itself becomes truer, it becomes freer.
In the words of Jesus, “the truth will set you free.”
Eve lets Satan mortally wound her freedom by seducing her into disobedience;
she becomes vulnerable to evil, symbolized in her sense of nakedness, and vulnerable to the judgment of God’s truth,
symbolized in her hiding. Jesus, however, on a much higher plane, yet still in a truly human way, defends the supremacy of
God’s truth, even when it costs his humanity dearly. The increasing intensity of the devil’s temptations (first,
the satisfaction of bodily needs; then the satisfaction of religious power; then the satisfaction of earthly power) elicits
also the increasing intensity of the human freedom of Jesus in saying no, no to the lie of a happiness centered egoistically
on himself and thus, eventually, on the worship of Satan, on devil worship. This no of Jesus contradicts and counteracts the
yes of Eve; this no to lies is just another way of speaking of renunciation. Jesus does not renounce bread because it is bread
or because he wants to stay hungry; he renounces it as a way of saying no to the diabolical lie that his divine power is to
be used for his own advantage. In saying this no, he is saying yes to the word that comes from the mouth of his heavenly Father.
Jesus fasts, not from bread, but from disobedience, and not just for forty days and nights, but throughout his earthly existence.
Because of this fast from sin, the devil has no handle with which to demand submission from Jesus, either in life or in death.
Death is powerless over Jesus because Jesus is sinless. You can therefore say that in affirming his obedience to the Father
and his rejection of Satan during the temptations, Jesus is already anticipating his death (no to Satan) and resurrection
(yes to the Father). Jesus unmasks all deception, all lying appearances, and he restores to the children of Eve the power
to know the truth that will set them free from Satan, sin and death.
Keeping all of this in mind, we need to ask ourselves, at all times, but
especially in Lent: where are the lies in my life? Where is the apparent freedom which is in fact disobedience to God? Where
am I still a banished child of Eve and where does Jesus, my victor and hero, call me to liberation from evil and to intimate
companionship with himself? When I take a look at my day, can I have the courage to look beyond the appearances, the vanity,
the self-concern in order to see the truth and to find liberation in obedience to it? How am I trying to make my own Jesus’
renunciation of lies and his embracing of God’s will? Is my fasting itself false, a pious excuse to lose weight, to
save money, to congratulate myself, to attract applause from others? Maybe I give up alcohol, drugs, candy, but what meaning
can that have if I still refuse to be reconciled with a relative or friend, if I bear grudges for months and years, if I remain
distant from my own spouse or children, if I refuse to love? Is fasting of any use when I still look at pornography online
or offline, when I cheat on my spouse, when I lie to all and sundry? What use is my prayer and almsgiving when I will not
listen to what Christ asks of me in my married life, in my duties of justice and fairness, of sexual chastity and responsibility?
Is the Lord pleased with my Lenten sacrifices when I will not confess my sins, or receive holy communion worthily, or teach
my children how to believe, hope, love and pray? In other words, are not many of our Lenten efforts merely appearances of
virtue when, in truth, we are mocking God with our superficiality and banality?
Don’t get me wrong. Renunciation is always good if it proceeds from
a sincere heart and desires to please God. It disciplines our wills and helps ready us for works of charity and of other virtues.
It is better to do a little than nothing. But Lent calls us to look much deeper. You cannot treat cancer with an aspirin.
Lent is not a time to play games with God or with our spiritual lives. It is a time to repent, deeply, wholly and truly from
the cancer of pride and self-deception which eats away at our souls and delights the Devil. Lent should cause an earthquake,
a spiritual tsunami, a revolution within us. For Lent places us naked and alone before the Crucified Christ, who judges us
from his throne of torture, his throne of glory. Lent is our moment of truth, when our lives are unveiled and unmasked for
what they really are before the face and light of the living God.
Do not let the devil distract you with decoys like not eating candy for
Lent, if you sense that there are much deeper questions which you must face in truth and in humility. Lent is a struggle,
not with calory-motivated instincts, but with the devil who seeks your soul, to destroy it in eternal damnation. The more
you turn a blind eye to the real issues of morality, truth and obedience within, the happier the devil will be. Indeed, he
will be the one suggesting that you give up butter as well as candy! To him you must utter no, and to God you must utter yes,
with every fiber of your soul. You must call Satan’s bluff and your own bluff, and recognize that Lent offers you the
opportunity, the grace, the light and the power to be free of all the sins and ambiguities which threaten the eternal salvation
of your soul.
Christ loves you. Prove that you believe it by fasting from the lies and
deception which hide the true and beautiful face of your soul from God, from others and from yourself.
Msgr. Peter
Magee
Sunday, February 13th,
2005: St. Andrew Apostle, Silver Spring: 10.00am
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