March 1, 2020: 1st Sunday Lent - Temptations and Humility
March 1, 2020: 1st Sunday Lent
“So long as we live in this world we cannot escape suffering and temptation,” writes Thomas a Kempis, an Augustinian monk who lived in the 14th century. Temptations began at the very beginning of human history, starting with Adam and Eve, when the serpent tempted Adam and Eve to doubt God’s goodness and disobey the command of God. There is a purpose for why God permits temptations. Thomas a Kempis wrote, “While temptations, though troublesome and severe, are often useful to [us], for in them we are humbled, purified, and instructed. The saints all passed through many temptations and trials to profit by them.” From our own experience, temptations can sometimes be irresistible. I saw a cute cartoon strip of a husband typing away in front of the computer and telling his wife what he gave up for lent. The caption read, “I’m giving up Google for Lent.” If you were to give up Google for lent, how many of you would struggle with an itch to look up something on the internet? If I challenged my 9-yr. old nephew to give up Youtube for Lent, I don’t think he would last even a day.
So it is the reality of our lives that we have come to depend on everyday comforts and pleasures, as well as esteem of our friends, material wealth, and influence. Do you ever feel empty or frustrated when you’re not the center of the attention? Since the beginning of time, the evil one has been tempting humanity to alienate itself from God’s love and providence. During the time of temptation, we forget that we are loved by God, "gracious and merciful is he, slow to anger, rich in kindness, and relenting in punishment." The evil one’s strategy has been to repackage sin as a good. For example, pride has been repackaged as self esteem, gluttony as healthy living, greed as success, and lust as normal. Only Satan can make a rock appear to be something pleasing to eat and enslavement under his submission as freedom. Jesus who was fully human and fully God, underwent the age-old temptations of Satan in the desert for 40 days to show us that we can defeat the enemy’s enticement through humility, reliance of God’s words, and trust in God’s goodness.
We cannot win this battle against Satan by running away alone; the key to victory is true humility and patience. A while ago, I came across a very challenging prayer called, “The Litany of Humility,” which prays against our natural inclination to be liked and to fear being set aside. It’s a prayer asking God’s grace to reject Satan’s temptations. The prayer says,
“O Jesus! meek and humble of heart, Hear me. From the desire of being admired, deliver me Jesus. From the desire of being loved, extolled, honored, praised, and preferred to others… deliver me Jesus.” This prayer aims to set aside our attempts to make ourselves feel special through the acceptance and admiration of others. The prayer also asks God for the grace to overcome our repugnance to feeling emotionally hurt by others.
Our Lord asks us in Matthew’s gospel to learn from Him “for I am meek and humble of heart” (Matt 11:29). We seek to imitate Our Lord's meek and humble heart and deny other "gods" that wish to steal part of our hearts, whether it is food, money, power, lust, or bitterness. Our purpose in life is not to collect the world's treasures, honors or pleasures. Instead, the short few years we live here on earth are to be spent imitating Christ by endeavoring to look on others with compassion and fill their needs by our charity. During this Lent let us choose a work of mercy…feed the hungry, visit the sick, pray for those who are lonely… so that we can become more like Christ.
